How reliable are animal studies?

When new animal studies come out reporting that they have found  the cure for a disability or disease, many rush to excitement because they believe it to be true. Its a published research article so it must be true right? Most people would be inclined to say yes because many do not look closely to the details or simply do not research into it farther. I'm guilty of that every time. From an article that I found, it turns out that many times a lot of information is left out of research articles simply because it didn't correspond to the researchers objectives. 

In the article When Mice Mislead, described an experiment that was done that resulted in a new drug that helped protect a rodent's brain after a stroke. At the beginning of the study 10 mice were accounted for. At the end only 7 were reported in the results. What happened to the other 3 mice? The editor of the paper said that they died after experiencing a massive stroke so the authors just left them out. Are they allowed to do that? 

Well according to Couzin-Frankel this is what the editor told her,"This isn't fraud...Dropping animals from a research study for any number of reasons is an entrenched, accepted part of the culture...You look at your data, there are no rules...People exclude animals at their whim, they just do it and they don't report it."

This definitely makes it hard for me to believe in any animal research study now which alters my hope in studies that are being done now for new cures. 

Reference:

Couzin-Frankel J. 2013. When mice mislead. Science. 342: 922-925