Did Splenda Tests Kill Beagles?

A friend posted today that she had read that the toxicity tests on Splenda involved locking 42 beagles in metal cages, feeding the Splenda, then slitting their throats.  I did a fair amount of research last week on Sucralose for a page I did on its side effects and I did not encounter any mention of this study...just LOTS of rat tests...so I decided to go back and hunt for the source.    I found lots of blog posts repeating the story as truth, but couldn't find any authoritative source.

The author of the article that the blog posts all seem to generate from mentions a study in ''Food and Chemical Toxicology'' which said this had happened to 42 beagles in New Jersey.   I searched through the archives of  ''Food and Chemical Toxicology'' and I couldn't find that article. The only one I did find had some of the same words ( locked in "metal cages") but used 4 (not 42) beagles, in the UK- not New Jersey.   Blood samples were taken from a vein in dogs' necks - but no beagles had their throats slashed. Here's the original article: http://www.shac.net/HLS/research_papers/Paper%201%20-%20HLS%20Sucralose%20dog.pdf  

So, while you may not agree with animal testing, it doesn't appear that dogs were killed to test the safety of sucralose. I would suspect that all artificial sweeteners- indeed any food additives- go through similar tests before being certified as safe for human consumption.