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From inception of the Zombies Are Coming site, there has been some debate and discussion regarding zombie animals.  Are animals effected?  Will they too become part of the undead horde that will some day ravage the Earth?  Word from Australia reports that scientists have created zombie dogs, proving that animals are not completely beyond the realm of the undead.
Here is a recent article on the subject:

Scientists have created eerie zombie dogs, reanimating the canines after several hours of clinical death in attempts to develop suspended animation for humans.

US scientists have succeeded in reviving the dogs after three hours of clinical death, paving the way for trials on humans within years.Pittsburgh’s Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research has developed a technique in which subject’s veins are drained of blood and filled with an ice-cold salt solution.

The animals are considered scientifically dead, as they stop breathing and have no heartbeat or brain activity. But three hours later, their blood is replaced and the zombie dogs are brought back to life with an electric shock.

Plans to test the technique on humans should be realised within a year, according to the Safar Centre.

However rather than sending people to sleep for years, then bringing them back to life to benefit from medical advances, the boffins would be happy to keep people in this state for just a few hours, but even this should be enough to save lives such as battlefield casualties and victims of stabbings or gunshot wounds, who have suffered huge blood loss.

During the procedure blood is replaced with saline solution at a few degrees above zero. The dogs’ body temperature drops to only 7C, compared with the usual 37C, inducing a state of hypothermia before death.

Although the animals are clinically dead, their tissues and organs are perfectly preserved.

Damaged blood vessels and tissues can then be repaired via surgery. The dogs are brought back to life by returning the blood to their bodies, giving them 100 percent oxygen and applying electric shocks to restart their hearts.

Tests show they are perfectly normal, with no brain damage.

“The results are stunning. I think in 10 years we will be able to prevent death in a certain segment of those using this technology,” said one US battlefield doctor.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15739502-13762,00.html

While this article addresses the obvious medical concerns of treating certain victims, it ignores the studies that should be done and other questions that could be answered.

  1. The long term and short term effects of such a procedure on animals and humans.
  2. This procedure has been tried only on subjects that were recently deceased.  Would such a test have similar results on subjects that have been dead longer?  Note that the article states the tissues and organs have been perfectly preserved.  This would not be the case for all zombies, obviously.
  3. Does this lean toward the argument of slow moving zombies?  If the testing holds for animals and humans where organs and tissues have been preserved, what happens with decayed tissues and missing organs?  Will the zombies still have very basic motor functions but be slowed due to their decayed state?
  4. If in fact scientists are able to replicate a zombie human, many studies should be done to see how that knowledge can help better prepare when dealing with volumes of the zombies.

What are your thoughts about zombie animals?

Stay safe.  Stay informed.  Stay alive.