What Goes on in the Lab?
To truly analyze both sides of this issue, one needs to know what truly
does go on in the animal testing labs. In the testing lab such animals
as chimpanzees, monkeys, cats, dogs, and other animals are left for days
or weeks in restraint devices or for years in isolation chambers.
Animals can’t move their arms or legs and are hooked up to electrodes that
record brain or muscle activity or deliver “shocks” for “misbehaving.”
Baby animals can be snatched from their mothers shortly after birth and
slated to be used in experiments. Decades of repetitive experiments
on “maternal deprivation” continue despite obvious findings. When
removed from mothers, for example monkeys, are exposed to deliberately
frightening situations.
In the lab, animals usually don’t get fed that well either. They
are usually fed only hard pelleted food that is unnatural for them but
convenient for the scientists. Fresh fruit, vegetables, and other
natural foods are rare which leads to such things as tooth decay and gum
disease. Most of the food in these laboratories have also been found
to be infested with insects because of improper storage.
Should our closest relatives, chimpanzees, be deliberately given HIV strains
that can kill them? This is a very controversial question that bears
an even more controversial answer. According to Protestors up in
Arms Over Experiments That Give Chimps HIV, doing this to chimps is definitely
wrong. In fact, several chimps have already been infected with HIV
strains that can kill them and the researcher who discovered that chimps
can develop AIDS plans to expose up to four more animals to this lethal
virus. Now doesn’t that sound bad? Well, to opponents of animal
testing it is a tragedy.
In this article, Afred
Prince who is a employee of the New York Blood Center, compares chimps
to retarded children. “You can compare a chimp to a mildly retarded
child. Just because it’s mildly retarded doesn’t mean you abuse it.”
Along with 11 other scientists, Prince has sent a letter raising ethical
and scientific objections to the use of lethal HIV strains in chimps to
the journal Science. Prince hopes this letter will create public
outcry and eventually stop AIDS experiments that involve chimps.
(Key, DeNoon 1999)
This page
was made by Stacy Kohle, a student at Wayne
State College, on April 20, 1999. If you have any questions or
comments e-mail me at stkohl02@willy.wsc.edu.