London, Ont. — Surrounded by security staff, an unmarked white van pulls up to a receiving door behind St. Joseph’s Hospital. Scrub-clad staff quickly remove large boxes covered with blankets from the van and slide them into the building. Article content

Hidden beneath those blankets are puppies in cages headed for the hospital’s sixth-floor research lab, according to two staffers. Article content Article content

WARNING: This story has some disturbing details and images that may be distressing to some readers

Their way out will most likely be in garbage bags.

Researchers inside the hospital’s Lawson Research Institute , studying heart attack recovery in humans, use the dogs as stand ins. They induce up to three-hour-long heart attacks in the animals before killing them and remov

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