ANIMALS IN LABORATORIES
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 1995:
Chimpanzee expert Dr. Jane Goodall, Henry Spira of
Animal Rights International, Holly Hazard of the Doris Day Animal
League, and Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society of the U.S. are to
speak at the 1995 National Association for Biomedical Research con-
ference on May 1, in a forum moderated by Franklin Loew, dean of
the Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine. The forum was organized,
NABR said, when “Prompted by her open letter calling for public
forums on the use of animals in research and education, NABR asked
Dr. Goodall to address some of the complex ethical questions and other
issues she raised.” Wrote Goodall, at the urging of ANIMAL PEO-
PLE subscriber Walter Miale, “Animal experiments are conducted for
reasons such as advancing knowledge and curing disease. But treating
our fellow creatures as we do, on the scale we do, raises critical ques-
tions. Failure to examine them honestly is a failure of our own humani-
ty. Many areas of discussion do not resolve neatly into black and
white,” she added. “Learning from and reasoning with those who do
not share our views is one way we grow.” Miale, an independent envi-
ronmental researcher who lives in Philipsburg, Quebec, has worked to
start dialogue among activists and scientists since 1989.
“Do you need a workshop leader? A guest speaker?
Humane educator training? Environmental and humane programs?
The American Anti-Vivisection Society has the solution,” says com-
munications coordinator Rae Sikora. “Call 1-800-SAY-AAVS. All
programs are offered free of charge. American AV will cover trans-
portation costs. Your group is only responsible for food and lodging.”
American AV also has a new executive director, Tina Nelson, former
owner of the Kind Earth cruelty-free store in Doylestown,
Pennsylvania. Before that, she was chief cruelty investigator for the
Bucks County SPCA.
The European biotechnology industry is regrouping, after
proposed European Union rules for patenting life forms were vetoed on
March 1 by the European Parliament. The U.S. and Japan are believed
to have a big lead in developing biotech––or at least in publishing find-
ings––because the lack of patent protection for genetically modified life
forms in Europe has inhibited investment by European companies.
The Northwest Regional Primate Center at the University
of Washington and the Southern Regional Primate Center in New
Orleans are embroiled in financial controversy. A UW internal audit
recently found that fiscal specialist Linda Pfeiffer had embezzled
$38,352 in petty cash since 1990, of which $18,750 was recovered;
found that payroll records were falsified to pay $51,479 in tuition for
three students and a stipend for a fourth; and also found improper use
of grant money and a travel budget. The New Orleans Times-Picayune
meanwhile revealed that John Patrick Jordan, 60, was assigned to head
the SRPC as “an unusual form of punishment” after the USDA inspec-
tor general “reported that Jordan, as administrator of the agency’s
Cooperative State Research Service in Washington, improperly award-
ed contracts worth $1.8 million to acquaintances and for lobbying.”
New York State Supreme Court justice Edward
G r e e n f i e l d ruled on March 3 that mental patients cannot be given
experimental drugs without first giving their consent––even if they lack
the mental capacity to do so. The consent of relatives or friends,
Greenfield wrote, is inadequate to protect the rights of patients.
Of the “three Rs” of ending laboratory use of animals, i.e.
reduction, refinement, and replacement, Drexel University professor
Stephen Dubin editorialized recently in the Johns Hopkins Center for
Alternatives to Animal Testing bulletin, “refinement is perhaps the
most fertile and positive area,” and the most neglected. “When asked
why they will support replacement projects but not refinement,” Dubin
continued, “animal advocacy organizations frequently respond that
refinement might actually promote the use of nonhuman animals by
making their use less repugnant. This view, while expedient for public
relations and fundraising, is hardly practical. It presupposes that total
abolition of nonhuman animal use is likely in the near future.”
Instead of teasing rats through mazes, associate psycholo-
gy professor John Stewart of Northland College in Ashland,
Wisconsin, has his advanced students teach “pet skills” to dogs with
behavioral problems at the Chequamegon Animal Shelter.
Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Labs in early April sued
the State University of New York Health Science Center in Brooklyn
for allegedly violating the New York Freedom of Information Law by
refusing to provide records identifying the sources of dogs and cats
used in laboratory procedures.
Mexican officials are seeking Ciro Jesus Camacho Zuniga,
alleged owner of a chicken farm where 1,300 dead cats were found in
two recent raids, awaiting transport to U.S. dissection lab suppliers.
Workers said blocks of wood were shoved into the cats’ mouths to keep
them still, their throats were cut, and they were then preserved with
injected formaldehyde. The site was closed on April 5 due to unsani-
tary conditions and for mishandling chemicals. It existed in violation of
a 1994 Mexican Department of Agriculture directive stating that trans-
port of preserved cats is illegal because there are no facilities authorized
to preserve them. That edict came after the World Society for Animal
Protection exposed a similar operation in Mexicali, in February 1994.
