Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz’s campaign Wednesday rejected charges leveled in a new animal welfare group’s ad that said he was involved in animal tests over a decade ago.
“Dr. Mehmet Oz never abused any animals, and suggesting otherwise is a pathetic, ridiculous, and false attack,” said Brittany Yanick, the communications director for the Oz campaign.
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The group Animal Wellness Action, which fostered the recent Senate passage of legislation eliminating a federal animal testing requirement, this week began airing TV ads claiming that a research team Oz was part of was involved in animal tests.
The $250,000 ad campaign highlighted tests conducted between 1989 and 2010 at Columbia University.
The group cited news reports, its own review, and a Department of Agriculture review in charging that the research team endangered or killed animals, including beagles, in heart-related tests.
Animal Wellness Action has been lining up support for its anti-testing legislation, which faces a House vote. If he is elected, the group is eager for Oz to join them.
Wayne Pacelle, the president of Animal Wellness Action, said: “Since news of these animal tests resurfaced during the campaign, Dr. Oz has provided no assurances that he’d be an active proponent of animal welfare in the Senate or that he now recognizes that these past uses of animals were morally and scientifically problematic.” He said Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, Oz’s opponent in the Pennsylvania Senate race, has backed the legislation.
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Oz’s campaign was quick to push back on his involvement in the tests, the footage shown in the ad, and the dangers to animals inside the university labs claimed by a whistleblower.
It provided information, for example, that a Columbia University review found “no significant protocol violation.” The campaign also noted that some of the footage shown in the ad was stamped “generic” and not from Columbia and said that Oz was never personally involved in the tests cited.
