On Research…

A WWAIL of a Week . . .

Last week wasn’t that good for animal rights activists. And that’s ironic since it was designated nationally as WWAIL –World Week for Animals In Laboratories – a time annually when people opposed to the use of animals in research are most vocal.

Two California activists, Lindy Greene and Kevin Olliff, were arrested Monday on felony charges in Santa Monica, CA in connection with alleged actions they took against UCLA researchers, despite a court injunction issued against their interference. Greene’s arrest is significant since she served as a so-called “press officer” for the Animal Liberation Front, an organization labeled by the FBI as domestic terrorists.
The acting director of the National Institutes of Health, Raynard S. Kington, went on record last week with an official NIH statement“deploring” terrorism against scientists involved in research using animals. Such statements of research from the NIH have been infrequent in the past and this might signal a tougher stance on the part of the federal agency most supportive of this kind of science.
And the FBI also added to its famed “Most Wanted Terrorists” list the name of Daniel Andreas San Diego, a fugitive for the last six years who is suspected of at least two bombings of biotechnology firms in the San Francisco area. That list also includes Osamabin Laden.
A protest demonstration at UCLA by activists objecting animal research, attracted only 40 people but a counter-demonstration across the street backing the scientists being attacked drew more than 400 supporters. The 10-to-1 ratio of supporters to opponents was reported widely by the national news media.

Local animal rights demonstration in front of OSU's Wiseman Hall. On the campus of Ohio State University, which national animal rights groups have targeted for decades, a local group of activists staged their own rally in opposition to ongoing research projects. On a day when 95,000 people jammed into the university’s stadium for the spring football game, the 15 or so protesters were noted by barely 20 passers-by.

As an apparent lead-up to WWAIL, PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, launched a national campaign aimed at one of Ohio State’s researchers, accusing him of doing fruitless studies on questions already understood, and killing hundreds of dogs in the process. The simplistic representations of what PETA said the research entailed were designed to infuriate the public and produce a flood of messages objecting to the work.

Sadly, all too many naïve people swallowed PETA’s statements without question and fired off cascading complaints. They either refused, or failed, to grasp the significance of studies designed to discover why some people – and dogs – are susceptible to a serious heart condition and why exercise has a protective/preventive effect against this malady. [Information about the study can be found here.]

Anti-PETA More distressing, however, is the fact that PETA’s opposition to this research was a weakly veiled effort at fund-raising, an effort designed to raise the anger of animal lovers and pick their pockets. PETA had orchestrated a mechanism on their website where folks could simply insert their email addresses and PETA would forward their objections to the university.

But perhaps coincidentally, some of those who used the email machinery received a solicitation message within a couple of days, citing the campaign against university research and asking for money. Accompanying the message was a picture of a sad canine in a small cage.

The dog, however, was not ours.

Organizations such as PETA, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and the Humane Society of the United States are on record as opposing all forms of research that might use animals, no matter how humanely. PETA’s chief, Ingrid Newkirk, has argued that no human life is worth the loss of a single animal.

No right-minded individual or organization condones animal abuse. We have laws against it and strict regulations to prevent it.

But if scientific progress is to be made now in the biomedical fields, we still need to use live animals in the process.

One day perhaps, science and technology will have reached a point where we have alternatives every bit as informing and valuable as animal use is today. On that day, scientists and animal activists can rejoice together.

But that time isn’t now, no matter what PETA and others may say otherwise.__Earle Holland

Bookmark and Share

Close Bookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites / Bookmarks