Contraceptive research firm SenesTech splits with “600 Million”

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2011:
PORTLAND, Oregon–The Arizona-based contraceptive research
firm SenesTech and the Florida-based nonprofit 600 Million Stray Dogs
Need You are no longer working together to develop the product that
600 Million has touted to prospective donors for more than a year as
“‘super’ birth control pellets for animals.”
Both organizations remain involved in seeking non-surgical
contraceptive products.

The announcement that SenesTech and 600 Million have parted
company came through the Alliance for Contraception of Cats & Dogs,
headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Reported ACC&D president Joyce
Briggs, “On April 4, 2011, SenesTech notified ACC&D that they have
severed ties with 600 Million Stray Dogs Need You and its founder,
Alex Pacheco, and that ‘neither 600 Million nor Mr. Pacheco have any
claim, right, title, license or interest in our ChemSpay product
or any other [SenesTech] product.'”
Recalled Briggs, “On December 22, 2010, ACC&D responded to
claims being made by 600 Million and its then partner, SenesTech,
about their non-surgical sterilant technology, ChemSpay. At that
time, we expressed our concerns about the unfounded statements being
made–especially by 600 Million–about the effectiveness and safety
of ChemSpay. The treatment was being presented as proven and ready
to be submitted for regulatory approval, but no data was presented
to support those claims. Even lead SenesTech researcher Dr. Loretta
Mayer conceded that the technology is still at an early stage for use
in dogs. Mayer remains hopeful about ChemSpay and plans to continue
work to advance this technology for dogs,” Briggs added.
Laurel Morales of Arizona Public Radio station KNAU in
Flagstaff earlier in 2011 reported that “Mayer and her team” recently
“traveled for 50 hours” to a remote village in Tibet where they hope
to test ChemSpay on dogs, “and met with his holiness the Dalai Lama
himself,” who has lived in exile from Tibet since 1959 and has no
authority recognized in Tibet by the Chinese government.
Pacheco acknowledged the split with SenesTech in an April 11,
2011 e-mail to “600 Million’s Team Members” headlined “Update on
Science and Marketing–Recruitment.”
Confirmed Pacheco, “We will no longer be working with
SenesTech. We have begun a new working relationship with what I’ve
nicknamed our ‘Canadian Crew’–new scientists whom we’re working
with, and the specifics of which will be shared when a few more of
the elements are finalized. Because we’re dealing with potentially
patentable scientific formulas,” Pacheco said, “some of which can
be classified as veterinary pharmaceutical ingredients, there’s a
considerable amount of legal work and paperwork required by various
parties. Furthermore, out of an abundance of caution, we have most
of our written communications pre-reviewed by legal counsel before we
send it out. In addition, for legal reasons we have to limit what’s
disclosed and when things are disclosed, and we must continue to
keep certain information confidential and disclose it only on a
need-to-know basis.”
Briggs said she “asked around a bit,” but her scientific
sources “have no idea who these Canadians might be.” No Canadian
scientists are known to be doing advanced research on animal
contraception.
Found Animals Foundation executive director Aimee Gilbreath,
who administers $75 million in non-surgical dog and cat contraceptive
research and incentive funding offered by surgical inventor Gary
Michelson, told ANIMAL PEOPLE that she had no idea who the “Canadian
Crew” are, either.
Research has been done on nonsurgical contraception of Canada
geese. Innolytics, LLC of Rancho Santa Fe, California, in 2007
introduced OvoControl-G, a Canada goose contraceptive, and also
markets OvoControl-P, for pigeons. Innolytics was honored in
January 2011 by the Humane Society of the U.S.–but because of the
great differences in bird and mammal reproductive systems, the
technology used to contracept Canada geese is not believed to have
potential for contracepting dogs and cats.