Dog Arthritis Adult Stem Cell Success Conundrum for Animal Rights Activists

Animal liberationists would probably boo this story:

Jago is a lucky dog. Thanks to a new stem cell therapy, the highly trained German Shepherd was given a second chance to return to Beaverton’s police force.

For the past 2 1/2 years, Jago has worked alongside Officer Ken Magnus as his K-9 partner and backup. Together the team has captured more than three dozen suspects.

To animal rights activists, that is like saying that Jago is one lucky slave. Even though the dog clearly provided a substantial benefit to humans, they would insist that being trained to do the dangerous work of a police dog was abuse.

While chasing a suspect, Jago fell down after jumping a wall:

Magnus realized something was wrong with his partner after Jago took a hard fall Jan. 10 while tracking a home burglary suspect. Jago leapt over a wall, went down hard and twisted his body. He got back up and continued the pursuit. “I noticed he had trouble getting up from a laying down position,” Magnus recalled. “At first I thought he may just be sore, but within a week’s time it seemed to be getting worse.”

The diagnosis was arthritis. Adult stem cells to the rescue.

The treatment involved harvesting regenerative adult stem cells from the fat in Jago’s groin area, sending them to a lab to be processed and then injecting them back into his problematic joints. “The therapy is very new for dogs, but it’s been very successful in treating horses that have been injured,” Zikes said. “This was Jago’s last chance,” Magnus said... Jago underwent treatment in July and the results impressed everyone. “He improved dramatically,” Zikes said. “He’s a gorgeous dog. Looking at him now, you’d never know that he had to have this treatment. The potential of this stem cell therapy is really exciting.” Within 12 days, Jago was back on patrol and showing signs of huge improvement.

This is a good news, good news story: Adult stem cells continue to demonstrate tremendous potential for regenerative medicine and a police dog is back on the beat. But I suspect liberationists will only see red and grind their teeth at the injustice of returning Jago to slavery and his use in medical experimentation without consent; typical abuse of an innocent animal at the hands of exploitive human “supremicists.”