News
Group bases university’s primate research practices
Looking for a print version?
Simply use your browser’s ‘Print’ command and a printer-friendly document will be generated automatically.
Also by Andriy Pazuniak:
- SSFC wittles Wunk Sheek budget (October 21, 2005)
- Cieslewicz, Judge come out on top in spring election (April 9, 2007)
- Music industry serves campus (March 22, 2007)
- UW to RIAA: No way (March 21, 2007)
Sharing tools:
E-mail this article:
The Alliance for Animals' Primate Freedom Project held a presentation to protest the University of Wisconsin's use of primates for medical research Tuesday night.
UW students and Madison community members gathered in Memorial Union to hear arguments that the university and other scientific researchers in the Harlow Center of Biological Psychology and Wisconsin Primate Research Center abuse primates in their research, many times leading to their death.
As part of an ongoing series that looks at how individual researchers mistreat the centers' primates, the alliance criticized Harlow Center Director Dr. Christopher Coe.
AAPFP representative Dawn Kubly presented information about an ongoing experiment of Dr. Coe's — for which he has supposedly received $4 million in grant money since 1992 — on stress and immune levels of pregnant primates.
In the study, pregnant monkeys are isolated in a dark cage for six weeks and exposed to loud acoustic "startles," resembling the sound of a car horn, three times a day.
Among other claims, Kubly called the experiment "elementary," unnecessary and part of researchers' ongoing "atrocities in [UW] animal labs."
Kubly's most vocal argument at the presentation was the irrelevancy of the experiment.
"What are you going to do? Tell pregnant moms not to drive, to work, to sit in an undisturbed room?" Kubly exclaimed during her presentation. "I don't see the human connection."
Other members of the alliance presented similar "atrocities" they claimed "exposed the darker side happening at UW [and] at Harlow Lab."
Rick Bogle and Rick Marolt presented the case of Ei Terasawa, a UW researcher serving a two-year suspension after it was discovered three monkeys died during one of her experiments.
According to Bogle and Marolt, tubes pumping various chemicals were inserted into monkeys' brains to test neuron response to light patterns flashing in front of them.
When monkeys began dying, Bogle and Marolt claimed UW and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee — responsible for overseeing university animal research — did not act until a United States Department of Agriculture inspection discovered the abuse.
Bogle and Marolt claim Terasawa had engaged in such research for 17 years, and UW and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees did nothing to reprimand Terasawa, despite knowing about the primate abuse.
"It took 17 years for them to decide the research was too risky," Bogle said during his presentation. "It's just a mess."
Bogle hopes the ongoing presentation series will lead to activism among UW students and the Madison community.
"We want to close the primate center and ban primate experimentation in Madison," Bogle said after the presentation. "Because they're getting educated, we hope people will talk about what's going on."
Mingwei Huang, a UW sophomore, attended the presentation and said she left "moved," but was unsure whether she would get involved in the alliance's cause.
"It's nothing too shocking," Huang said while leaving the presentation. "People should be more exposed to [this information], and I was moved by some of the things they said, but I'm not ready to commit myself."
The alliance plans to continue its series on Oct. 11.
Top Classified Ads (view all)
Place your classified ad online and have it show up here. Your ad will hit thousands of viewers a day!
DON'T READ ME! Too late. If you're reading this, guess how many other people are reading it. See... advertising in The Badger Herald does work!
Leave a comment