Research on Animals Subject Of UCLA Protest
Pro And Anti -Animal Research Activists Protest At UCLA
© Jon Pike
Apr 25, 2009
Pro and anti-animal testing forces clashed in Los Angeles this last week. The action was held near the site of a major research university, UCLA. The demonstration in favor of animal testing was organized by a new group formed at UCLA called, Pro-test at UCLA. It is an offshoot of a British group called Pro-Test.
Eminent Researchers and Students are Behind New UCLA Group
The founding committee of the UCLA Pro-test group is composed of people who do research on animals, including:
- J. David Jentsch, UCLA Professor, Psychology
- Dario Ringach, UCLA Professor, Neurobiology and Psychology
- Tom Holder, Speaking of Research, Founder and Pro-Test (UK) Spokesman
- Lynn Fairbanks, , UCLA Professor, Psychiatry
- Kathy Wadsworth, UCLA Associate Director-Animal Subjects Research
- Megan Wyeth, UCLA Graduate Student, Neurobiology
- Donald Kalar, UCLA Graduate Student, Psychology
According to the web-site of the original English Pro-test group their group was started because:
"For well over a year, …[anti-animal research groups]had been protesting the University of Oxford's construction of a new Biomedical Research Facility on South Parks Road, Oxford. Their campaign of intimidation had forced the University's original contractors off the job in July 2004. Construction did not recommence until November 2005, after which anti-vivisectionists renewed their campaign, abetted by extremist groups such as the…[Animal Liberation Front].., which announced it would target students. Similar campaigns led to the cancellation of a very similar laboratory project in Cambridge in 2004."
Dr. J. David Jentsch started the UCLA group in 2006, after he was targeted by anti-animal research activists. These activists, Jentsch says, set his car on fire while it was parked in front of his house. Jentsch conducts schizophrenia and drug-addiction research on monkeys. He acknowledges that some of the monkeys are killed as part of his research, but do not suffer. The protest drew 400 people, largely from UCLA’s research community
Anti-Animal Research Activists Say Research is Wasteful
The 30 some anti-animal research activists who confronted the pro-research group contended that not only is animal research often cruel, it is unnecessary. The protesters who were present at this event were part of a force that turned out for World Week for Animals in Laboratories.
The group contends that animal researchers contend in such wasteful an unnecessary research as:
- Nipple preference in nursing infant monkeys.
- Effect of high-fat diets on mice sleep. (Made mice fat and sleepy.)
- Effect of stress and isolation on voles. (Prairie voles had less anxiety than meadow voles.)
- Effect of mouse social separation on wound healing. (Affected monogamous mice, not polygamous mice.)
- Effect of exercise on rat health. (Rats who exercised were healthier.)
This group wants the Obama administration to scrutinize spending on Animal Research.
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