Laboratories
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:
Oklahoma superintendent of education
Sandy Garrett and Muskogee County district attorney
David Lutton are reportedly probing the October 3
attempted razorblade vivisection of a poorly anesthetized
cat by Braggs high school teacher Mickey Duncan,
described in this month’s ANIMAL PEOPLE editorial.
“I am outraged,” said Garrett in a prepared statement.
“While we view this as an isolated incident, we are forg
ing a partnership with the Oklahoma Veterinary Medical
Association to draft advisory guidelines for scientific projects.
We will provide this information to all local school
board members and high school principals. I have contacted
local school officials to express my grave concern,”
Garrett added. “As Oklahoma is a local control
state, authority for any action which might be taken
against the teacher lies with the Braggs Board of
Education.” Said Bill Dollinger of Friends of Animals,
“I informed her that we are not interested in codifying
animal experiments in high schools, and that her department
should look into allegations that students are being
intimidated into covering up for Duncan by other teachers.
She promised she would. I also learned that the
state board can get involved, if the D.A. wins a conviction
for cruelty to animals. The board can revoke
Duncan’s certification for a misdemeanor, and must
revoke certification for a felony.” Contact Lutton c/o
Muskogee County Courthouse, Muskogee, OK 74401;
fax 918-682-3374. Contact the Braggs Board of
Education and Braggs High School principal Dudley
Hume c/o Braggs High School, POB 59, Braggs, OK
74423; fax 918-487-5266.
Inspired by the 300-day survival of pig bone
marrow transplanted into a Cynomolgus monkey at
Massachusetts General Hospital, announced September
26, the medical information newsletter Taipan predicted
that, “by the year 2000, budding transgenic agro-businesses
will have developed the first viable biotech barnyard.
At the core of each operation will be a comparatively
small number of high-priced animals whose genetic
makeup will have to be custom-engineered to suit clearly
defined medical requirements…There will be herds of
dairy cattle producing human proteins in their milk. Prize
hogs bred for the specific purpose of supplying vital
organs…Monkeys with genetically engineered bone marrow…These
animals will need to be hidden in large numbers
of genetically unaltered cattle to confuse animal
rights activists and other neo-Luddites.”
Construction of loose housing for primates
belonging to Health Canada was to start in October at the
Frederick Banting Building in Tunney’s Pasture, an
Ottawa government office complex. The Canadian
Federation of Humane Societies called for closing the old
Health Canada primate breeding compound in Ottawa
earlier this year.
Retired National Institute of Mental Health
researcher Dr. John B. Calhoun died September 7
while vacationing in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Calhoun’s oft-cited experiments with raising rats in overcrowded
conditions discovered the emergence of nonbreeders,
including obsessive self-groomers, as crowding
stress intensified.