Animal testing and experimentation

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1999:

Four months after PETA began
a campaign to reduce animal use in connection
with the High Production Volume chemical
safety testing project undertaken by the
Environmental Protection Agency,
Chemical Manufacturers Association, and
Environmental Defense Fund, at urging of
U.S. vice president Albert Gore, PETA
declared on May 4 that “The EPA has conceded
that some of the planned animal tests
were not necessary. At a recent meeting in
Fairfax, Virginia,” PETA said, “EPA officials
announced their intention to remove a
requirement for genetic toxicity tests on animals,
allowing non-animal tests instead. The
EPA also announced at the meeting that it has
agreed to pull requirements for terrestrial toxicity
tests that would have meant intentionally
poisoning birds. A giant rabbit has followed
Gore to 22 cities,” the PETA statement finished,
“with a sign that says ‘Gore: burn
bunnies, lose votes.’”

PETA and the Animalearn d i v ision
of the American Anti-Vivisection
Society both announced in early May that
they would donate state-of-the-art CD-ROM
dissection programs to selected high schools,
to replace the use of animals. PETA hit
media in Akron, Ohio, with a release claiming
that Revere High School, alma mater of
the late serial killer, cannibal, and amateur
vivisector Jeffrey Dahmer, had abolished
dissection in favor of the CD-ROM––but
Revere biology teacher Philip Mogus h a d
actually just asked to review the CD-ROM,
Mogus said, had not seen it yet when the
PETA release went out, and after he did see
it, decided only to offer it as an alternative
for students with scruples against dissection.
Jointly announced Sloboda
Zvierat leaders Laco Durkovic and Rasto
Kolesar on April 23, “Today, the day before
World Day for Laboratory Animals, Slovakia
banned cosmetic testing!” The ban was
achieved when the Slovakian health ministry
published a directive specifying the procedures
that companies are to use instead to
assure consumers of product safety. “Animal
testing for purposes of developing cosmetic
products was forbidden by the Slovakian animal
protection law from 1995 on,” Durkovic
and Kolesar explained, but because alternative
testing procedures had not yet been validated
and codified, an exemption was created,
requiring toxicology testing of final products.
The exemption was overidden,
Durkovic and Kolesar said, with the help of a
petition signed by 97,236 Slovakians.
Helena Houdova, recently elected
Miss Czech Republic, on April 24 led 300
demonstrators in protesting the use of
233,000 animals in Czech-based product testing
during 1998––up 22,000 from 1997.
The National Research Council of
Thailand is drafting a Thai code of ethics for
laboratory animal use, the Bangkok Post
reported on May 17. A recent seminar called
“Etiquette in Animal Testing” began the discussion
and consultation phase of the project.
Said former National Laboratory Animal
C e n t e r director Pradon Chatikavanij,
“Thai research has been rejected by foreign
institutes. Research proposals requesting
money from abroad have been denied.
Respected medical journals refuse to publish
Thai research, saying we do not have a moral
etiquette for animal testing. Therefore, it is
not just a moral issue any more.”