Vivisection
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1992:
* George Bush signed the Animal Enterprise Protection
Act of 1992 into law on August 26, making vandalism of
farms and laboratories a federal offense. The law broadens the
jurisdiction of the FBI in such cases, but probably will not help
federal grand juries probing laboratory break-ins in Oregon,
Washington, Michigan, and Massachusetts to reach indict-
ments, since the alleged offenses took place long before the
law was passed.
* The Bush administration on August 23 proposed redi-
recting federally funded biomedical research into economically
productive areas, a move that might decrease the number of
animals used in so-called basic research, but increase the num-
ber used in product safety testing.
* Democratic vice presidential candidate Albert Gore Jr.
has come out in opposition to the LD-50 and Draize product
safety tests, which expose animals to chemicals to establish a
crude index of toxicity. “While I believe some animal testing
is essential to biomedical advances,” Gore said in a letter to
Don Elroy of the Tennessee Network for Animals, “I will
continue to support measures which reduce the unnecessary use
of animal testing, and will do all I can to increase awareness of
better techniques.”
* Anti-animal protection groups are flooding The Weekly
Reader with letters protesting a recent pro-and-con item on the
use of animals in biomedical research and testing. Some anti-
vivisection groups also didn’t like the item; ANIMAL PEO-
PLEfound it bland and quite down-the-middle. Request a copy
and draw your own conclusions c/o 245 Long Hill Road,
Middletown, CT 06457.
* An unidentified 35-year-old man who received the first-
ever transplant of a baboon’s liver into a human on June 28
died Sept. 6 at the University of Pittsburgh hospital. An autop-
sy revealed the man died of a stroke rather than rejection of the
baboon tissue. Transplant supervisor Dr. Thomas Starzl said
the experiment would be repeated soon, using a healthier
human subject. At least 33 humans have received organ trans-
plants from animals since 1905, but none have lived longer
than nine months afterward.
* The New York Times reported on August 10 that the
Centers for Disease Control still doesn’t know whether two
researchers who were exposed to the simian form of AIDS in
1989 and 1990 will actually get the disease. So far, simian
AIDS isn’t known to occur in humans.
* The New Orleans City Councl agreed Sept. 3 to spend
$300,000 to encourage local biomedical researchers—about
$100,000 more than it usually allocates to one of the most
underfunded animal control budgets of any American commu-
nity.
