Bob Barker Funds Space for HIV-Infected Chimps

As I've often said, Bob Barker is a good man. From The Washington Post...Retired game-show host and animal rights advocate Bob Barker is opening a new area for five HIV-infected chimpanzees at a sanctuary in northwestern Louisiana. The former host of “The Price Is Right” donated $380,000 to create space at the Chimp Haven near Shreveport.

SAEN Files Complaints Against University of Washington Again

From the normantranscript.com.... An animal-rights group that watchdogs research facilities across the country has filed a federal complaint against the University of Washington, citing multiple incidents in which animals were injured, escaped from their cages or were found dead. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which regulates the care of research animals, will look into the complaint, said agency spokesman David Sacks. It’s too early to say whether any of the incidents violate the Animal Welfare Act, the yardstick for triggering enforcement action, he added.

Coast Guard Defends Medical Practice on Animals

I knew the military in general used animals for combat medical practice....hadn't thought of the Coast Guard though. PETA leads the charge against the Coast Guard.

For the full story, go here to the Washington Post.

The Coast Guard is defending its practice of using live animals in its combat medical training after an activist group released a video on Wednesday of a goat’s legs being removed with tree trimmers during what it said was training for agency personnel.

Live anesthetized goats have been used in Coast Guard training to treat combat wounds, but the agency could not verify if the video involved its personnel. The courses do involve “live tissue training using live animals,” Lt. Cmdr. Jamie C. Frederick, spokesman for the Atlantic Area, wrote in an email.

Frederick was responding after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called on the Pentagon to stop the practice. A congressman also has introduced legislation that would phase out the use of animals by the military for such training.

Looking for Books about Animal Experimentation

I've finally decided to take the plunge and really learn about animal experimentation. It's a horrible topic and I post news articles about the abuses from time to time. But I want to be able to argue about it intelligently, citing science, not just morals. Apparently, there is a lot of argument out there than animal experimentation is even good for humans. Many times tests fail. A drug may work on an animal, but fail miserably on a human. Or vice versa. Drugs are not always predictable from human to human even. And how can one expect an animal with a human disease to react the way the human body does? It's essentially a crap shoot.

And, in this day and age, do we really need to be stuck with this archaic and barbaric method of research? Isn't there anything better?

Animal Welfare Concerns May Be Influencing UK Animal Research

This article in the Herald Tribune claims that animal rights is winning out over animal research. I would take the article with a grain of salt. I've read the same on the other side. It depends on who's writing the article of course...I think it's still a long, long fight. But perhaps these are positive signs. In a very depressing fight, every sign is worth something.

University of Florida Must Relinguish Primate Records

This is good news, at least in my opinion.

Full article in the Gainesville Sun....

An Alachua County Circuit Court judge has ordered the University of Florida to provide an animal rights activist with records on primates involved in research.

Camille Marino of Wildwood, who founded the group Negotiation is Over, received the records last week. She said she plans to use them to continue a campaign against animal research at UF, which recently included the online posting of the layout of UF laboratories and university spokeswoman Janine Sikes's cellphone number.

“They could not do what they do if they didn't do it behind a wall of secrecy,” Marino said. “This is about tearing down that wall.”

Sikes received more than a dozen calls, including a death threat that UF police are investigating. She said UF resisted releasing the records out of concern about the safety of researchers.

Almagordo Chimp Story Hits the New York Times

Here's hoping this poignant story will stir more public outrage and pressure on the NIH. These aging chimps deserve to retire permanently and NOT be subjected to more medical research.

Anti-Research Advocacy in Madison

Interesting article on anti-animal research advocacy in Madison, WI. Madison is a key battleground because it is one of only 8 cities with primate centers in the country.

Rumors Circulate over Cancellation of Anthrax Project

Research supporters are going crazy over Oklahoma State University stopping anthrax testing on baboons. In addition to the threat of animal "extremists," they are also blaming T. Boone Pickens' wife Madeleine, whose husband is a big donor.

PETA Leads Anti-Animal Research Protest at University of Utah

This protest comes after an undercover PETA investigator collected evidence of alleged animal abuse in the University laboratories.

Animal Researchers' Emotional Blackmail

Here's a succinct letter to the editor that summarizes the emotional blackmail propogated by animal researchers.

From the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, WA...

The million dollar ad campaign by the Foundation for Biomedical Research (“Critical research,” Nov. 10) is public relations at its worst.

It is designed to prey on our fears. It is all about convincing us that a cure for everything is just around the corner as long as we keep funding their animal research gravy train. They want us to keep on funneling billions and billions of taxpayer dollars to the drug companies, the research universities and the suppliers of the animals and the animal testing equipment. How stupid do they think we are?

Unfortunately, we may not be stupid, but most of us are willfully ignorant.

Europeans Continue to Search for Alternatives to Animal Research....Why Not Americans?

I just don't understand it. Is there a different culture regarding animals in Europe? They have drug companies that are just as powerful as those here. Is public outcry greater? Are animal rights organizations more effective? Are politicians more willing to act? What gives?

From Cordis News...

At a conference in Brussels, Belgium on 6 November, European Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen, and Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik restated the EU's commitment to the reduction of animal testing.

Industry representatives were also present at the conference, which was held as part of the European Partnership on Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA). The EPAA was created in 2005 and is an unprecedented collaboration between science and industry to reduce animal suffering in scientific tests.

The aims of the EPAA are based on the '3Rs' of replacement, reduction and refinement. To enable this new approach to be developed, the European Commission and companies that are members of the EPAA are working hard to initiate novel methods of research and technology transfer that will reduce the need for animal testing.

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.

Elizabeth Kucinich and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

Cool! She's the new Director of Public Affairs and she's already started lobbying for the Great Ape Protection Act, which would phase out invasive medical research on chimpanzees. (For you international readers, she's Dennis Kucinich's wife. He's a US Congressman who has run for President twice.)

Animal Researchers Use Billboards to Promote Themselves

The "brave" animal researchers are taking their argument to the public and bypassing animal right activists.

Here's an example...a billboard funded by the Foundation for Biomedical Research.

"Ever had leprosy. Thanks to animal research, you won't."

I for one welcome them coming out of the woodwork and forcing animal research into the public forum. Let's discuss the research. Let's talk about what they do, and why, and how. Let's talk about the redundancy, the waste, the pain. Let's see the pictures. If we can't outlaw the practice, perhaps researchers will become more transparent. Then we can finally stop the horrific abuses that they perpetrate within their windowless ivory towers.

Two Examples of Mice Experiments - Valid or Not?

I came across these stories about two different medical experiments using mice.

In this experiment, scientists tested whether lighting can cause depression. They used different lighting situations to see how they affect mice moods. One of the conclusions? That children who watch television late at night could be “more likely to develop depression."

I'm not convinced that I as a taxpayer would approve funding of this project. Aren't there better things to research? You would need to be watching television late at night regularly in order for the lighting to have an impact. Children shouldn't be regularly watching television late at night for many reasons other than depression. Like they should be sleeping! Are parents who are not paying attention to their kids suddenly going to send them to bed because they might get depressed? Plus, are mice comparable to kids (although I would prefer mice subjects to primates who are so much more sensitive)?

Whether intentionally or not, the title of the article catches the frivolity of the research...."Don't let your mouse watch TV."

Please.

Here's another experiment using mice to determine whether stress and chemicals in plastic is leading to messed up male genitals and, therefore, infertility. The mice are exposed to certain chemicals to see the impacts. But see the qualifications in the article....

....The animal research has offered one explanation for the rising number of babies born with these conditions. However, it involved exposing rats to chemicals at levels that humans are usually not exposed to. This means the conclusions should be treated with caution.

....As this study was mainly about the effect of high doses of a chemical called phthalates on the number of rats born with undescended testicles, it is premature to report that stress has a part to play in reducing fertility in men.

So, why put the animals through this if it's not even a reflective experiment. Sounds like they did it because they could and who cares if you destroy a few carcasses for the hell of it.

Animal Researchers Promote Sob Stories

I don't support animal research and I have no sympathy for animal researchers. I don't believe they are working for human welfare. I don't believe they want an honest dialogue about what they are doing to animals. I do believe they want prestige, tenure, royalties and patent rights. I believe they want to be gods in the laboratory. I don't believe they are "brave" for "standing up" to animal rights activists. I think they are clever cowards who use extremists to hide their work and to obfuscate the truth about what they do to animals and whether it is truly necessary.

I would never advocate violence against a researcher. It's not effective and it earns them undeserved sympathy. Plus it's hypocritical to take one life to save another. But as far as they are concerned, I am still an animal rights terrorist for the mere fact that I disagree with them.

I almost quit a book club a year ago because one of the members is a proponent of medical research. She is a data tech for a clinical testing company (for profit by the way.) I posted on this blog about quitting because of the New Iberia scandal in Louisiana in which the Humane Society found primates being abused. I got no support from my book club "friends" on this matter and I was going to leave in a huff.

Then I realized that if I left, then no one would ever challenge anything she said. The other women wouldn't. They're too busy eating their pot roasts, reading chick lit, and chasing after babies. I had to stay in that group because she must be challenged. All of this BS by medical researchers must be challenged. Otherwise, they portray themselves as the real victims and the rest of us as violent terrorists.

The title of this article is "Researchers to animal-rights activists: We are not afraid."

I'm sorry, but I am not moved.

Southwest Primate Center "Celebrates" 10 Years

This place is celebrating its 10th year with ground-breaking research into what makes us all fat. How? By destroying the health of baboons with fast food. (Fast food is bad for you? Really?)

After more than 50 years of studying the ways a fatty diet contributes to heart disease in San Antonio baboons, it might seem there wouldn't be much left to learn. Then Anthony Comuzzie started feeding them soda pop.

Comuzzie, a nationally prominent obesity researcher and geneticist at Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, recently induced metabolic syndrome — risk factors associated with the human epidemic of diabetes and heart disease — by making the baboons' high-fat diet tastier and adding a sweet drink flavored with high-fructose corn syrup. The baboons tended to guzzle several liters of the stuff with their meals.

“Without giving away the name so we don't get sued, we modeled the diet after a fast-food value meal,” Comuzzie said Thursday at a 10th birthday celebration for the Southwest National Primate Research Center, which maintains the foundation's massive colony of baboons, monkeys and chimps.

And let's not forget the required sanctimonious quote from an animal researcher

“Our primates are essential partners in medical progress, as are mice, rats, guinea pigs and opossums. Without them we would be stripped of the very tools we need to open new paths of discovery and to challenge old dogma.”

Oh brother.

European Money Goes to Alternative Testing Research

Why is it so damn difficult to get the same kind of interest from the US government? I have yet to read anything official in which there is even an interest of getting away from these barbaric practices. We're not even talking drugs or medical treatment here, we're talking stupid cosmetics.

It's disheartening.

From the University World News...

A substantial fund of EUR50 million (US$74 million) is being offered to European research teams to develop alternatives to animal testing for cosmetics and related industries.

The joint partnership between the European Commission and the European Cosmetics Association (Colipa) is calling on scientists to develop proposals for studies into new non-animal testing methods before a February 2010 deadline.

Animal Lab Tech Arrested in Yale Killing

I don't know if this guy working in an animal lab has anything to do with the crime he is accused of committing. But, if he's guilty of such a horrible and violent crime, it makes me wonder how he treated his animal subjects when no one was around.

I guess we'll see what happens next.