"Endangered Cures" highlights threats of animal rights activism
to human health
Report shows negative impact of animal rights activism
on human health
By Norma Bennett Woolf
Introduction
"The unpleasant truth we must confront is that animal rights activists
are succeeding at slowing research. Criticism of animal research has intensified,
and the membership and budgets of animal rights groups have continued to soar
even though the number of animals used in medical research is estimated to have
fallen by nearly 50 percent since 1968." Michael DeBakey MD; Chairman,
Foundation for Biomedical Research
Dr. DeBakey's comment appears in the forward to Endangered Cures: Animal Rights
and the Crippling of Biomedical Research, a new FBR report that emphasizes the
negative impact of activism on human health. Activists indulge in direct harassment
of researchers and their families; pressure airlines to stop transporting animals
used for research; lobby for laws that burden research institutions with regulations
and paperwork without improving conditions for animals; directly challenge particular
grants based solely on the grounds that the protocol uses animals; and make
outlandish false claims about the use of animals in research - and these tactics
bear fruit in part because researchers and patients have been silent on the
issues.
Like their campaigns against hunting, circuses, rodeos, livestock farming,
and pet breeding, activists' diatribes against medical research are based on
aberrant incidents, half-truths, and complete distortions. Claims that animals
are mistreated in laboratories is virtually never true; assertions that alternatives
to animal use are available are partly true; and accusations that no good has
ever come from animal-based research is false.
There is no constituency for inhumane treatment, Endangered Cures broadcasts
to the world. "Researchers recognize their special obligation to safeguard the
welfare of laboratory animals. They take this position for ethical and scientific
reasons. Responsible research is guided by four principles:
- Use animal models only when non-animal models are inadequate or inappropriate;
- Use as few animals as possible;
- Design experiments so that animal studies yield scientifically reliable
results; and
- Ensure that all research animals receive good care, humane treatment, and
a level of pain no greater than is absolutely necessary."
In spite of such care and in spite of a dramatic increase in human life expectancy
because of the use of animals in medical research, celebrities and animal rights
activists trumpet their opposition to animal use as cruel and unnecessary. Mary
Tyler Moore, a diabetic whose life depends on animal research, aids the animal
rights cause by condemning the manufacture of Premarin, a hormone used to help
ease the symptoms of menopause for millions of women. Singers K.D. Lang and
Chrissie Hyde; actors Earl Holliman, Linda Blair, Tippi Hedron, and Rue McClanahan;
and model Naomi Campbell are among the dozens of performers who support the
animal rights cause with personal appearances and money while the animal rights
activists block AIDS research that involves animals.
Endangered Cures is divided into short summaries of seven medical conditions
in which animal-based research holds the best promise for cure. Each section
explains the value of animals to the research, synopsizes current work being
done, supports the work with statements from scientists, and sums up the activists'
attempts to cripple the work.
AIDS
Much of the work in HIV and AIDS research is done with primates, but rats,
rabbits, mice, sheep, horses, and cats are also used. Some of these species
have diseases similar to AIDS that scientists study to understand how retroviruses
work and how the diseases progress.
"In an animal model, you can observe the disease from the first minute of infection
and follow its progress, something you can't do in humans because the disease
is diagnosed very late," said Anthony Fauci, director of the national Institute
for Allergies and Infectious Diseases.
So far, activists have successfully fought a grant application that would have
involved macaque monkeys; stepped up a campaign to force airlines to stop transporting
primates used in research; and disrupted a study of cryptosporidium, a potentially
lethal disease for AIDS sufferers, by releasing more than 1000 animals from
a lab at the University of Arizona.
Four million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, a debilitating neurological
disorder that causes emotional problems, memory loss, and impaired reasoning,
and 19 million have a family member who has the disease. Yet animal rights activists
firmly oppose the use of primates in Alzheimer's research, have delayed funding
of the Buck Center for Research on Aging in California, and picketed the home
of a Maryland scientist using cats to study brain trauma.
"This is further evidence that there is a loss of momentum now in Alzheimer's
research," said Edward Truschke, president of the Alzheimer's Disease and Related
Disorders Association. "This is a time when increased funding of biomedical
research can reap major benefits. If we can find a way to slow the advance of
the disease or delay its onset for just five years, we can reduce by half the
millions of people destined to be afflicted."
Breast cancer
Every year, about 45,000 American women die from breast cancer, but the development
of genetically-engineered strains of mice holds great promise for a variety
of avenues to prevention and cure. The discovery of two genes that affect breast
cancer has led to experiments in mice that are designed to stop the growth of
malignancies or to actually disarm genes that cause cancer. Dietary studies
and hormonal research in mice and rats are also underway in hopes of discovering
a cancer preventative for high-risk women.
Animal rights activists oppose the use of genetically engineered animals and
have joined environmental activists in filing petitions to block patents on
these animals.
Drug addiction
Scientists have made considerable progress in understanding the effects of
drug addiction on the brain, and this understanding has led to potential treatment
to overcome addiction in some patients. Researchers have developed a chemical
that makes rats largely immune to the effects of cocaine; developed a strain
of mice that appears completely immune to the effects of cocaine and amphetamines;
and used squirrel monkeys to study the link between cocaine addiction and serotonin,
which may result in a medication to blunt the cravings an emotional swings of
cocaine withdrawal.
Animal rights activists label addiction research as cruel and wasteful. In
Defense of Animals has targeted individual scientists working on addiction research.
Trans-Species Unlimited harassed a scientist studying barbiturate addiction
with cats by picketing his laboratory, distributing literature at Grand Central
Station, and generating more than 10,000 form letters condemning the study to
the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The scientist returned her grant and gave
up.
Head and spinal cord injury
More than 200,000 Americans suffer partial or complete paralysis from head
and spinal cord injuries. Advances in emergency medicine and neurological treatment
have improved survival rates, but those survivors need intense care, often for
the rest of their lives.
Researchers are working on regrowth of spinal cord nerves by using certain
protein-blockers in rats and have learned that prompt surgical intervention
can improve neurological function in work done on dogs.
One scientists studying the effects of head trauma in cats and primates - both
popular animals with the activists - switched to working on ferrets after animal
rights activists picketed her home for months.
Heart disease
Heart disease is still the top killer in the country, but its grip on the population
is declining because of animal-based research. From the use of specially-bred
mice to study atherosclerosis to development of a heart pump that has been tested
successfully in calves, scientists are working diligently to reduce the incidence
of this disease complex even further.
Rabbits, rats, dogs, chimpanzees and pigs are also used when appropriate to
achieve better understanding of the components of heart disease, develop devices
to protect patients from erratic heartbeats, discover better drugs for treatment
of high blood pressure and stroke, and prevent regrowth of artery plaque after
angioplasty.
Animal rights activists slow the use of dogs in this research by campaigning
to eliminate pound seizure laws which allow universities and laboratories to
purchase condemned dogs from public animal shelters. This campaign was bolstered
by the publication of a book that claimed two million pets are stolen annually
for sale to research laboratories. The book blamed the USDA Class B dealer system
for the thefts and supported the activists battle to force USDA to eliminate
these dealers who sell dogs to research facilities. Without either pound seizure
laws or Class B dealers, dogs will become more expensive to use.
Xenotransplants
Scientists have been so successful in fighting organ rejection in transplant
patients that such transplants have increased considerably. The number of people
on waiting lists is rising, but the number of organ available is decreasing.
Thus scientists hope to use animal parts, some from genetically engineered animals,
to prolong human lives.
Activists oppose the use of transplanted animal organs to prolong human life.
When such transplants are scheduled, activists often picket the hospitals and
the homes of the surgeons involved. Most recently, activists harassed an AIDS
patient who received baboon bone marrow in an effort to boost his immune system.
The patient joined AIDS patients in Washington in June to counter the animal
rights agenda with a letter condemning their opposition to animal-based AIDS
research.
(More information available: Foundation
for Biomedical Research Home Page)
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