Mar 06 2009
Animal research under scrutiny
ABC’s Nightline last night ran a report on the primate hellhole that is the New Iberia Research Center (NIRC), which is part of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and has received millions of dollars in public funding. The Humane Society of the United States has accused the research center of at least 338 possible violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act, which sets minimum care and treatment standards for animals.
“Our investigation found an abject failure on NIRC’s part to attend to the psychological well-being of primates as dictated by law, a lax USDA attitude about enforcing that law, and a knowing and gross violation of the federal government’s pledge to stop breeding more chimpanzees for research,” said Wayne Pacelle, HSUS’s president.
I think every effort made to reveal the diabolical deeds of the secretive animal-testing industry is welcome, but there’s no reason to be surprised at the ill-treatment of the animals featured in the undercover video. Testing on animals is in itself ill treatment so the only way to stop this abomination is banning animal testing, not just on primates, but on all animals. It’s cruel and it’s bad science.
Now, I’d like to direct you to this moving post by Simon Chaitowitz published by the Huffington Post. Chaitowitz suffers from leukemia and despite having dedicated her life to banning animal testing by promoting alternatives, she’s now having to take drugs that most likely were tested on animals. Hypocrisy? No, lack of choice in a world dominated by the pharmaceuticals and governments that insist on this archaic, flawed method.
“As someone who recently signed up for hospice, I have another major problem with animal research. I wonder if science would have found a cure for my leukemia by now if they weren’t sidetracked by misleading animal tests. I wonder if the chemo that I took for breast cancer would have been safer it hadn’t been tested in species that are so unlike our own.
“The truth is that using animals to develop and test drugs is a system that doesn’t work very well. It’s an old paradigm, one that is fortunately beginning to change, however slowly. A growing number of scientists are developing some exciting (and more effective) non-animal alternatives. These changes have been inspired partly by concern over animal cruelty but also because animal research and testing have so often failed us. Some government agencies are even starting to call for more alternatives.”
It’s a brave statement from someone for whom the odds of survival are against her and I highly recommend reading the full post. It sheds a very clear light on the disgrace that animal testing is.
