Stolen lab dogs back at university

A bitch and her five puppies stolen from a Massey University farm early last week are back at the university.

A website message said to be from the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for taking the huntaways from the university's Jennersmead Research Farm, near Feilding.

Some of the puppies are expected to have the fatal genetic disease mucopolysaccharidosis, which targets the brain and is also found in humans. Fifteen people in this country are affected.

Massey is working with the Adelaide Women's and Children's Hospital to test possible treatments for the disease on the affected animals.

Massey Veterinary School head Professor Grant Guilford said the stolen dogs had been taken to an animal refuge in Upper Hutt by people who said they found them "dumped by the river".

The bitch, Beau, and her puppies were all looking good. One pup was dehydrated but responded well to getting back to a warm environment and suckling with her mother.

The pups had been specially bred to have the genetic disease but were only two to three weeks old so it was not known yet which of them would be affected, Professor Guilford said.

In four to five weeks it would probably be possible to tell which of them had both copies of the gene involved.

Those animals would go through a series of treatment plans, developed in collaboration with the Adelaide hospital and agreed to by the community-based animal ethics committee at Massey.

First the affected puppies would be treated with an enzyme replacement and if that was unsuccessful an attempt would be made to repair the damaged gene, Professor Guilford said.

- NZPA