Unbelievable, but this stupid exemption is gaining support. Supposedly people either 1) believe the State has no place overseeing labs (USDA does that) and 2) bioscience is already very well-regulated.
Hah! This is all about making the stupid state friendly to the biotech industry. What next? They get a huge tax break?
Showing posts with label biotech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label biotech. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Thursday, November 5, 2009
A Trip to an Animal Lab
Well, kind of. It wasn't a full-fledged tour, but disturbing nonetheless.
I can't really talk about what I do except that I work in government. In a brief tour of a particular biotech research company, I was taken to the animal lab. They did not experiment on primates (I asked!), but did experiment on mice and guinea pigs. Interesting that many of the grants this place gets specifically say they can't experiment on any domesticated animals (cats and dogs I guess.).
Anyway, I couldn't enter the actual rooms where the animals were kept because I would have had to wear a bio-hazard suit. But I did get to walk around the floor. It was a rather grim place. There was a poster in the lunch room with four cute animals (a dog, cat, rabbit and something else.) It reminded me of an adoption poster at the animal shelter. But when I got closer, I read, "Animal research opens minds." It was a jarring moment. This adorable poster that draws you in to the sweet faces of these animals basically proclaims that it is a good thing to use their bodies for medical research, which almost always leads to pain and death. It was an incongruous message.
Then, heading out, I noticed three little knitted mice. My tour guide was a little uncomfortable and said, "Yeah, that's a little morbid. One of the employees' moms knitted those."
One knitted mouse had a little sign that said, "I want my mommy."
The other had a sign that said, "RIP."
Now I'm way more morbid than most people in my tastes and sense of humor, but even I found this to be very disturbing. It certainly doesn't fill me with confidence in these people's skills in compassion and humane care.
Weird, weird, weird. Just thinking about it makes me crave a shower.
I can't really talk about what I do except that I work in government. In a brief tour of a particular biotech research company, I was taken to the animal lab. They did not experiment on primates (I asked!), but did experiment on mice and guinea pigs. Interesting that many of the grants this place gets specifically say they can't experiment on any domesticated animals (cats and dogs I guess.).
Anyway, I couldn't enter the actual rooms where the animals were kept because I would have had to wear a bio-hazard suit. But I did get to walk around the floor. It was a rather grim place. There was a poster in the lunch room with four cute animals (a dog, cat, rabbit and something else.) It reminded me of an adoption poster at the animal shelter. But when I got closer, I read, "Animal research opens minds." It was a jarring moment. This adorable poster that draws you in to the sweet faces of these animals basically proclaims that it is a good thing to use their bodies for medical research, which almost always leads to pain and death. It was an incongruous message.
Then, heading out, I noticed three little knitted mice. My tour guide was a little uncomfortable and said, "Yeah, that's a little morbid. One of the employees' moms knitted those."
One knitted mouse had a little sign that said, "I want my mommy."
The other had a sign that said, "RIP."
Now I'm way more morbid than most people in my tastes and sense of humor, but even I found this to be very disturbing. It certainly doesn't fill me with confidence in these people's skills in compassion and humane care.
Weird, weird, weird. Just thinking about it makes me crave a shower.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Biomedical Foundation Launches Campaign to Show Animal Research is Grrrrrrreat!
From their press release....such BS. Once again, they're just using their most effective weapon....guilt.
The Foundation for Biomedical Research (FBR) announced today it has launched a one-year national animal research education campaign. Since 2004, public support for humane animal research to advance human and animal health has fallen 10 points. The ResearchSaves campaign is designed to counter this drop in public support for biomedical research.
"As we went out and talked with the public, we realized many people truly don't understand why animals are such a critical part of the scientific process. There is so much misinformation, people don't appreciate that whether they're waiting for the H1N1 vaccine to avoid becoming victims of the flu pandemic or taking a high blood pressure medication, they are beneficiaries of animal research. ResearchSaves is designed to correct any misconceptions people might have about biomedical research and to simply explain that animal research is sound, humane, and necessary to save lives," said Frankie Trull, president of FBR.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
UK Records Increase in Animal Testing
Bad news from the Guardian....
Nearly 3.7m experiments were performed on animals last year, a rise of 454,000 or 14% on the previous year, the Home Office said. The increase marks the greatest leap in animal use in medical research since 1986, when the government introduced new auditing procedures.
The growth in animal experiments reflects an expansion in biomedical research in Britain and is driven by advances in genetics and the development of new drugs that must be tested rigorously in monkeys before they are allowed to be given to humans. The experiments range from small procedures such as taking blood and tissue samples to invasive brain surgery and inducing incurable diseases such as Parkinson's and cancer. Substantial numbers of animals are used to test the safety of new drugs before they are allowed to be used in human trials.
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