Mehmet Oz, better known as Dr. Oz, has spent his career making dangerous and baseless medical claims, often for products promising consumers miraculous results. Now, in a review of the 75 studies published by Dr. Oz at Columbia University, researchers found that between the years of 1989 and 2010, his research tortured dogs, rabbits, baby cows, and more in horrendous experiments.

Source: Secular Talk/YouTube

This week, Jezebel reported the allegation that Dr. Oz oversaw medical research that “killed over 300 dogs and inflicted significant suffering on them and the other animals used in experiments.”

They found that the Republican Senate candidate’s research team conducted experiments on at least 1,027 live animals, including dogs, pigs, calves, rabbits, and small rodents. The experiments killed at least 329 dogs, 31 pigs, and 661 rabbits and rodents.

PEOPLE spoke with veterinarian Catherine Dell’Orto, who was within weeks of the start of her post-doctoral fellowship in the research labs at Columbia’s Institute of Comparative Medicine in July 2001. Dell’Orto told PEOPLE that she witnessed the inhumane treatment of dogs in lab experiments in which Oz was the “principal investigator”. She said that the experiment included leaving dogs in pain and paralyzed for weeks, where there was no discernible research benefit before they were euthanized or died days later.

“When someone makes the choice to use an animal in a research experiment they should be 100 percent committed to reducing any suffering that animal will experience,” says Dell’Orto. “And I did not see that happening with Oz. I saw the opposite.”

Oz’s Senate campaign spokesperson Brittany Yannick told PEOPLE, “Dr. Oz was not personally involved in these incidents and to say otherwise is a lie. His name was on some forms due to his role within the Department of Surgery.”

However, according to Columbia’s website when a person is named says that when one is named principal investigator of a research study, he or she “has overall responsibility for safety and compliance in his or her laboratory,” PEOPLE reported.

In another study led by Dr. Oz, the team took a litter of puppies and injected expired drugs directly into their hearts without any sedation. “Upon being killed, the puppies were allegedly left in a garbage bag with living puppies who were their littermates.”

Now, Dr. Oz is running as a Republican for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat. It’s clear that due to his long history of spewing medical misinformation and torturing animals, he should not be in the Senate.

Sign this petition to demand that Dr. Oz end his campaign for Pennsylvania state Senate!

Related Content:

• A New Solution That Could End Animal Testing
• Cutting Animal Testing Placed as Top Agenda Item by FDA
• New AI Technology Eliminates Need For Aquatic Animal Testing!
• 21,000 Fish Died at a UC Davis Animal Testing Lab
• 5 Ways Animal Testing Hurts Humans

Easy Ways to Help the Planet:

• Eat Less Meat: Download Food Monster, the largest plant-based Recipe app on the App Store to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy. You can also buy a hard or soft copy of our favorite vegan cookbooks.
• Reduce Your Fast Fashion Footprint: Take the initiative by standing up against fast fashion Pollution and supporting sustainable and circular brands like Tiny Rescue that are raising awareness around important issues through recycled zero-waste clothing designed to be returned and remade over and over again.
• Support Independent Media: Being publicly funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!
• Sign a Petition: Your voice matters! Help turn petitions into victories by signing the latest list of must-sign petitions to help people, animals, and the planet.
• Stay Informed: Keep up with the latest news and important stories involving animals, the environment, sustainable living, food, health, and human interest topics by subscribing to our newsletter!
• Do What You Can: Reduce waste, plant trees, eat local, travel responsibly, reuse stuff, say no to single-use plastics, recycle, vote smart, switch to cold water laundry, divest from fossil fuels, save water, shop wisely, Donate if you can, grow your own food, volunteer, conserve energy, compost, and don’t forget about the microplastics and microbeads lurking in common household and personal care products!