Animals c°ntinuedfr°™pagc 1
the National Institute of Health.
"We’re not confronted with
many arbitrary decisions on
how we deal with the animals.”
he says. "Regulations guide us
all the way along.”
Golick says most of her
group's information on treat
ment of animals in University
labs comes from people within
the University who have been
horrified at things they’ve seen
there and have called PETA to
initiate investigation or change.
One man had been in a
research lab and called PETA
very upset "after he had seen a
little kitten in a holding device
with the top of it's head remov
ed, the brain exposed and
wired,... and it was con
scious,” Golick says.
\ '
Photo by Steven Wall
University laboratories use
■ rats' anil Other. animals' for
medical; research.. - '
SJickrod says the University,
does, basic, research in fun
'.damental. questions about
biological life. “This basic
research is used by applied
science researchers . elsewhere
to develop new drugs for cancer
or mental illness, to fabricate
bone's and stuff like that.”
Much of the University's
research has led to medical ad
vancements over the last 30
years. Stickrod says.
Stickrod adds. “I can’t'
understand how some people
. think that animals don't play an
important role in medical ad
vances.... They're just not
looking at the facts.”
• . However Gofick concedes
that people have been misled as
to the degfee of benefits the
research has brought.
“It's become an industry sur
rounded by incredible pro
paganda." she says. “People
think if animals hadn’t been us
ed, we wouldn’t have found any
of the vaccines. Our studies
show that many diseases had
already declined prior to the in
troduction of vaccines, thanks
to improvements in sanitation,
nutrition and living standards.
“The vaccine myth has been
perpetuated by profiting phar
ma c e u t i c a 1 companies.
Wherever there's large profits,
you'll find misinformation.”
she says.
But Stickrod says university
research led to breakthroughs
that helped diabetics.
“Someone found that when
you remove a pancreas from a
dog you get a syndrome that
looks just like diabetes. From
this research they found a
substance we now call insulin.
It couldn’t have been done
without animals.... You can't
remove the pancreas of a human
to see what happens.
“Sure it’s a moral judgment.”
he says. At id his choice is to use
the dogs.
Polio vaccine was also
rlui/iilfuiofl frnm studies.
Stickrod adds. “One time polio
was a fearsome disease, now it’s
hardly heard of. The animal
rights groups are trying to
discredit all the good that’s
been done by denying the
benefits coming from animal
research. ... That’s really
naive.”
Golick says believing there
would have been no discoveries
or cures without animal
research is like saying transpor
tation wouldn't exist without
the invention of the gas engine.
“What happens is we get locked
into a certain mode of
technology and we don't evolve
or change. Now we’re in
credibly dependent on
petroleum-based products and
haven’t developed solar and
other technologies."
Thielle adds that many tests
involving animals are not even
a p p I i c ah le'to humans.
“Animals react differently than •
people, they., have a different
' physical make-up.”' '
She points to su.ch data that
' show, penicillin is poisonous to
guinea, pigs, morphine is actual
ly a stimulant for cats, and birds,
thrive on some berries deadly to
people. ... • . . .
After three years of testing
'thalidomide on animals the
Food' and Drug Administration
deter.mijned the tranquillizer was.
safe. However, the drug ' Was.
nlarketed and used by pregnant
. women, and the outcome was
. horribly, deformed babies,
Thielle says. “People have been
, duped by the science industry,
that says ‘it’s been tested on
animals.. . .Trust us." ”
But Stickrod says incidents
such as the thalidomide' case •
have • created a great need - for
animal research. “The initial
animal studies done on the drug
in Europe were too brief and not
on the correct a-nimal
species... .That won't happen
again.”
PETA supporters teel that
much of the laboratory research
is unnecessary and is often done
simply because grants exist in a
particular area, Colick says.
“How many times can you
take an animal’s eyeball apart,
compare it with another
animal's eyeball, then do it all
over again?” she asks.
Stickrod says criticism of ex
perimental redundancy
amounts to criticism of the basic
scientific process.
“When you do research and
finish one project, you don't
make a quantum leap and do
something entirely different.
Parts of a new project may seem
similar to original research, but
some critical variables have
been changed. You can't look at
too many new variables at one
time, or you don’t know what
you’re looking at,” he says.
FETA supporters feel that
many experiments on animals
could be eliminated with alter
native forms of research, such
as use of computer models, cell
cultures, egg embryos, genetic
engineering, . mass spec
trometry, and better' use of
volunteer human subjects in
clinical or epidemiological <
•studies. •
Colick adds that simulation •
movies.would be just as effec-’
live ,as giving every student
animals to kill and dissect. .
Stickrod says, “Aniitial rights
groups propose alternatives like
they’re the Ones that thought of
them. It was scientists that
thought of using computers in
research. We use computers to
the greatest extent possible in
almost every lab on campus.
This augments animal research
and reduces the number of
animals needed.”
Tissue cultures are used more
often than animals in research,
Stickrod says, “but .you j.ust
can’t ask the complicated ques
tions using cultures that you
can with the whole organism.”
He also notes that "most of
the animals used in dissection
are used over and over again.
The same with human
cadavers.. . . The students use
them so often they’ve even nam
ed them. Some live dissection is
just necessary, and using films
instead is like trying to learn to
ski watching a ski movie.”
The University receives about
$3 million a year for animal
research, but Stickrod says only
a fraction ($50,000) is used to
purchase animals. The rest is
spent on salaries, computers,
software and tissue cultures.
The total census of animals
on campus available for
research last year was 99 cats,
six guinea pigs, 38 hamsters, 46
rabbits, 47 primates, 18 bats,
2,400 rats and 6,000 mice.
“Just like animals share some
of our physical characteristics,
they also share some of our
emotional make-up,” Thielle
remarks. “Animals have feel
ings, too. They can fear; they
can love.. . .Everyone who has
a pet knows this is true/ When
used in experiments, they can
feel the horror of what’s being
dope to them, and the
helplessness to do anything
about it,” , -
Golick adds that students’
first gut reaction says it’s wrong
to experiment on .animals, but
professors desensitize them to
it. These students learn it's silly
to care about what animals
feel.”
Stickrod agrees that to "some
degree you become unfeeling,
but only to the extent that you
protect your emotions. If you
worked in a pediatrics ward and
often saw babies die. . if you
didn't control your emotions, it
would kill you.
‘‘It’s real easy for a group to
make a lot of emotional charges
and affect a whole community.
Those of us in research need to
do a better public relations job,
making it clear that the wonders
in a modern hospital have a lot
of animal research behind
them,” Stickrod says.
‘‘I strongly feel that those
people who are opposed to
animal experiments but use the
medical results of the research
are hypocrites,N” he adds.
Summing up PETA’s position
oh animal research, Thielle
points to the motto, “You can
not do evil Hhat good may
result.”
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