tagged w/ Animal Research
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PCRM | PHYSICIANS COMMITTEE FOR RESPONSIBLE MEDICINE...
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Government Announces Plan to Replace Animals in Toxicity Testing
December 20, 2011
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The Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration just announced a joint effort to use high-throughput robotics—instead of animals—to test 10,000 chemicals and drugs for potential toxicity. I’ve asked PCRM’s Chad Sandusky, Ph.D., to provide details:
Current testing is largely based on experiments on animals—rodents, rabbits, dogs—and uses methods that are cruel, time-consuming, expensive, and in some cases use thousands of animals in a single test. For example, a reproductive toxicity study uses 2,600 animals and requires a minimum of two years at a cost of $380,000. PCRM toxicologists and government affairs staff have pushed government and industry scientists to implement nonanimal methods.
The new method was developed after the National Research Council issued a mandate (often referred to as Tox21) several years ago to replace antiquated animal-based (in vivo) toxicity testing with testing using mostly human cells and tissues. At PCRM’s toxicology department, we are convinced this will offer not only a dramatic reduction in animal use, but also a faster and cheaper approach to safety testing.
While Congress has been drafting revisions to the law that regulates chemicals (known as the Toxic Substances Control Act or TSCA), we’ve met with congressional offices to make sure that new nonanimal methods are required as they become more widely available. We’ve successfully gained support for these important changes, so animal testing will be greatly reduced—and eventually eliminated—when the bill is passed.
To learn more about how replacing animals in toxicity testing with this technology will make the world a safer place for people—and for the millions of animals now used in these cruel tests—visit www.ReformToxicityTesting.org
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PCRM | PHYSICIANS COMMITTEE FOR RESPONSIBLE MEDICINE...
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Government... more
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Gavels and courtrooms are replacing placards and bullhorns, says the biomedical research community, as determined legal eagles work to increase animals’ rights and possibly even grant them “personhood.”Gavels and courtrooms are replacing placards and bullhorns, says the biomedical... more
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MSN...
Scientists create animals that are part-human
Stem cell experiments leading to genetic mixing of species
Rich Pedroncelli / AP
PHOTO: Sheep that have partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs are shown here at the University of Nevada, in Sparks, Nev., on April 27.
updated 4/29/2005 5:43:59 PM ET
RENO, Nev. — On a farm about six miles outside this gambling town, Jason Chamberlain looks over a flock of about 50 smelly sheep, many of them possessing partially human livers, hearts, brains and other organs.
The University of Nevada-Reno researcher talks matter-of-factly about his plans to euthanize one of the pregnant sheep in a nearby lab. He can’t wait to examine the effects of the human cells he had injected into the fetus’ brain about two months ago.
“It’s mice on a large scale,” Chamberlain says with a shrug.
As strange as his work may sound, it falls firmly within the new ethics guidelines the influential National Academies issued this past week for stem cell research.
In fact, the Academies’ report endorses research that co-mingles human and animal tissue as vital to ensuring that experimental drugs and new tissue replacement therapies are safe for people.
Doctors have transplanted pig valves into human hearts for years, and scientists have injected human cells into lab animals for even longer.
Biological mixing of species
But the biological co-mingling of animal and human is now evolving into even more exotic and unsettling mixes of species, evoking the Greek myth of the monstrous chimera, which was part lion, part goat and part serpent.
In the past two years, scientists have created pigs with human blood, fused rabbit eggs with human DNA and injected human stem cells to make paralyzed mice walk.
Particularly worrisome to some scientists are the nightmare scenarios that could arise from the mixing of brain cells: What if a human mind somehow got trapped inside a sheep’s head?
The “idea that human neuronal cells might participate in 'higher order' brain functions in a nonhuman animal, however unlikely that may be, raises concerns that need to be considered,” the academies report warned.
Mice with human brains
In January, an informal ethics committee at Stanford University endorsed a proposal to create mice with brains nearly completely made of human brain cells. Stem cell scientist Irving Weissman said his experiment could provide unparalleled insight into how the human brain develops and how degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson’s progress.
Stanford law professor Hank Greely, who chaired the ethics committee, said the board was satisfied that the size and shape of the mouse brain would prevent the human cells from creating any traits of humanity. Just in case, Greely said, the committee recommended closely monitoring the mice’s behavior and immediately killing any that display human-like behavior.
The Academies’ report recommends that each institution involved in stem cell research create a formal, standing committee to specifically oversee the work, including experiments that mix human and animal cells.
Weissman, who has already created mice with 1 percent human brain cells, said he has no immediate plans to make mostly human mouse brains, but wanted to get ethical clearance in any case. A formal Stanford committee that oversees research at the university would also need to authorize the experiment.
Harvesting human organs from sheep
Few human-animal hybrids are as advanced as the sheep created by another stem cell scientist, Esmail Zanjani, and his team at the University of Nevada-Reno. They want to one day turn sheep into living factories for human organs and tissues and along the way create cutting-edge lab animals to more effectively test experimental drugs.
Zanjani is most optimistic about the sheep that grow partially human livers after human stem cells are injected into them while they are still in the womb. Most of the adult sheep in his experiment contain about 10 percent human liver cells, though a few have as much as 40 percent, Zanjani said.
Because the human liver regenerates, the research raises the possibility of transplanting partial organs into people whose livers are failing.
Zanjani must first ensure no animal diseases would be passed on to patients. He also must find an efficient way to completely separate the human and sheep cells, a tough task because the human cells aren’t clumped together but are rather spread throughout the sheep’s liver.
Zanjani and other stem cell scientists defend their research and insist they aren’t creating monsters — or anything remotely human.
“We haven’t seen them act as anything but sheep,” Zanjani said.
Zanjani’s goals are many years from being realized.
He’s also had trouble raising funds, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating the university over allegations made by another researcher that the school mishandled its research sheep. Zanjani declined to comment on that matter, and university officials have stood by their practices.
Allegations about the proper treatment of lab animals may take on strange new meanings as scientists work their way up the evolutionary chart. First, human stem cells were injected into bacteria, then mice and now sheep. Such research blurs biological divisions between species that couldn’t until now be breached.
Combining monkeys and people
Drawing ethical boundaries that no research appears to have crossed yet, the Academies recommend a prohibition on mixing human stem cells with embryos from monkeys and other primates. But even that policy recommendation isn’t tough enough for some researchers.
“The boundary is going to push further into larger animals,” New York Medical College professor Stuart Newman said. “That’s just asking for trouble.”
Newman and anti-biotechnology activist Jeremy Rifkin have been tracking this issue for the last decade and were behind a rather creative assault on both interspecies mixing and the government’s policy of patenting individual human genes and other living matter.
Years ago, the two applied for a patent for what they called a “humanzee,” a hypothetical — but very possible — creation that was half human and chimp.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office finally denied their application this year, ruling that the proposed invention was too human: Constitutional prohibitions against slavery prevents the patenting of people.
Newman and Rifkin were delighted, since they never intended to create the creature and instead wanted to use their application to protest what they see as science and commerce turning people into commodities.
And that’s a point, Newman warns, that stem scientists are edging closer to every day: “Once you are on the slope, you tend to move down it.”MSN...
Scientists create animals that are part-human
Stem cell experiments... more
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Los Angeles Times...
Poll: Scientists say animal research ethically complicated, but necessary
Scientists polled by the journal Nature reported mixed feelings about animal research. In April 2009, animal rights activist Graciela Iparraguirre, center, talked with UCLA student Martin Ducker,23, left, as pro-animal research supporters walked behind her on UCLA campus. (Spencer Weiner/Los Angeles Times)
By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times
February 23, 2011, 10:30 a.m.
Animal research has helped scientists understand human disease, and in some cases, develop cures. But it has also exposed them to an onslaught of attacks -- some violent -- from animal rights activists who question the ethics and necessity of animal experiments.
This week, the journal Nature takes a look at the complicated case of animal activism and its effects on scientific research, publishing the results of a poll of 980 biomedical scientists from around the world.
The vast majority -- 91.7% -- said they agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that "Animal research is essential to the advancement of biomedical science." About 70% of those polled said they conduct experiments on animals.
At the same time, almost 16% said they had experienced misgivings about the role of animals in their research -- and half of those said that the misgivings had led them to change the direction of their research. Thirty-three percent said they had ethical concerns about the role of animals in their current work.
Many said that discussing the issue of animal testing with the public was very difficult, but there were signs that communication efforts might be improving. More than half said that the institutions they work for encourage them to speak with the public about their work (less than a third reported this to be the case in a 2006 Nature poll.)Los Angeles Times...
Poll: Scientists say animal research ethically complicated,... more
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Study: Insects Can Get Drunk, Too
By: Allie Townsend
Reuters
Bees with a buzz? A recent Oklahoma State University study looks at the effects of alcohol on insects.
To study the effect of alcohol on the behavior of one of the world's most social insects, Oklahoma State University researchers dosed a hive of honeybees with a 2.5% ethanol (pure alcohol) content solution – a lower amount than found in your average beer. And it worked. The low does of ethanol disrupted the normal social (and even non-social) behaviors of the hive. According to the findings, “No differences in the relative frequency or proportion of time spent performing the target behaviors were observed. However, ethanol consumption significantly decreased bouts of walking, resting, and the duration of trophallactic (i.e., food-exchange) encounters.”
Hopefully for our sake, bees don't make angry drunks.
(via Discover Magazine via io9)
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/09/23/study-insects-can-get-drunk-too/?hpt=T2#ixzz10POcRYOdStudy: Insects Can Get Drunk, Too
By: Allie Townsend
Reuters
Bees with a... more
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Almost 200 have had a long break from testing that dates to NASA's early days, but that could end.
By Michael Haederle, Los Angeles Times
September 3 2010
Ever since the first of their number arrived in New Mexico half a century ago as test subjects in the fledgling U.S. space program, nearly 200 government-owned chimpanzees were routinely injected with viruses and used to test everything from experimental vaccines to insecticides.
They have enjoyed a decade-long respite from research at an indoor-outdoor habitat on Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, but now the government wants to move the chimpanzees to a Texas laboratory, where they might face renewed testing.
The plan has animal welfare groups and elected officials squaring off against federal scientists at a time when Congress is considering legislation that could shut down federal chimpanzee testing altogether.
Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, sharing between 94% and 98% of our DNA, which is why some scientists see them as ideal research subjects. The similarity extends to their cognitive abilities. Chimps are intelligent and self-aware, even able to plan future actions.
"These animals have been put through the wringer and they deserve to be retired," says Kathleen Conlee, a program manager with the Humane Society of the United States, who has worked in a primate breeding facility and a great ape sanctuary. "The Humane Society doesn't think a laboratory environment can ever meet the psychological needs of a chimpanzee."
Moving the chimpanzees to the Southwest National Primate Research Center in San Antonio is expected to save $2 million a year in upkeep, while making more of a dwindling number of research animals available for crucial medical testing, said Harold Watson, a program director in the National Center for Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health.
John L. VandeBerg, director of the San Antonio primate center, says the chimpanzees are needed to test potential vaccines for diseases, such as hepatitis C and hepatitis B, because they are the only species other than humans that can become infected with those viruses.
"We only use chimpanzees when it's not possible to do critical experiments with any other species," VandeBerg said. The primates are well cared for, he said, and only about 100 are used in research at any time.
"They are not people, they are animals," he said. "I believe it's our ethical responsibility to do the research to alleviate the pain, suffering and deaths of millions of human beings."
VandeBerg concedes past abuses in chimpanzee experiments, but he says research now "involves procedures that are no different than those that are used every day in human clinical medicine. It generally involves drawing blood samples from a vein, just as we do with people; we've all had that done."
There are fewer than 1,000 research chimpanzees in the U.S., about half of them under NIH management. Their numbers are slowly declining because of a federal moratorium on breeding and deaths due to old age. The oldest, a female named Flo, turns 53 on Sept. 29.
Although the U.S. is virtually the last country in the world to permit invasive testing of chimpanzees, VandeBerg and others have argued for the resumption of a breeding program to permit further biomedical research.
Meanwhile, the Great Ape Protection Act, which would phase out invasive research on federally owned chimps and retire them to sanctuaries, has been introduced in Congress with bipartisan support.
Announcement of the plan to relocate the chimpanzees when the current third-party management contract at the Holloman facility expires in May 2011 prompted New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Tom Udall, the state's junior U.S. senator, to urge the NIH to reconsider. Richardson paid a visit to NIH headquarters in Bethesda, Md., in August to press the point but made little headway.
The Holloman chimpanzee colony traces its origins to the 1950s, when NASA acquired chimps for research during the early days of Project Mercury. By the 1970s they had become part of a breeding program, and the Holloman facility was leased to the late Dr. Frederick Coulston, a controversial toxicology researcher who used them to test insecticides and cosmetics.
Later, the chimps were managed by New Mexico State University, but during the early 1990s ownership was transferred to Coulston, who by then had started the nonprofit Coulston Foundation and built a nearby private facility in which the chimpanzees were housed in cramped steel-and-concrete cages with little room for exercise.
There were persistent accusations of severe abuse and neglect on Coulston's watch, with nearly 50 chimpanzees and monkeys dying from disease, poor veterinary care and experimentation amid documented violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
By the time the Coulston lab went bankrupt in 2002, nearly 300 chimpanzees had been transferred to Save the Chimps, a nonprofit organization that operates a sanctuary in Florida. The remaining 186 chimpanzees have been housed as a reserve population at the Holloman facility, which is now managed by Charles River Laboratories under a 10-year contract that expires next year. About 60 others that were at Holloman have been transferred to other facilities over the past decade.
The plan to transfer the Holloman chimpanzees to Texas has riled national animal welfare organizations, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the New England Anti-Vivisection Society and Animal Protection of New Mexico. An alert from the Humane Society in late July resulted in 25,000 protest letters addressed to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees NIH, the society's Conlee said.
"They're certainly not going to move these chimpanzees without hearing about it from the public," Conlee said. "We're not against human disease research. We want them to use the money in a better fashion than they do."
Some experts question the scientific premise behind continued use of chimpanzees as an animal model for HIV and hepatitis research. Although it is true that chimpanzees can be infected with viruses like HIV and hepatitis C, they do not develop symptoms.
"They're an abject failure," said Dr. John Pippin, a retired cardiologist who works for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. "They have contributed nothing to the development of a vaccine for either disease."
He chalks up the continued reliance on animal models to scientific inertia. "It's an enormous industry," he said. Animal research accounts for between $12 billion and $13 billion annually in federal grant money, and 42% of NIH protocols are for animal research, he said.
Pippin contends it is more appropriate to experiment on cell cultures grown from human tissue for vaccine development. In the quest to develop an HIV vaccine, some of the most promising research is in studying the immune response of so-called elite controllers — the small number of HIV-infected people who have never gone on to develop full-blown AIDS, he said.
Watson of the National Center for Research Resources acknowledges the strides that have been made in developing new ways to develop and test vaccines, but he insists that the chimpanzees are still needed because their infection process closely mimics that in humans.
"The alternatives are something that we're very sensitive to, and our scientists are constantly looking for and finding alternatives for certain things," Watson said. "But as it stands right now, there's not really an alternative to chimpanzees for evaluating the vaccine."Almost 200 have had a long break from testing that dates to NASA's early days,... more
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http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-IS434_sheep_CV_20100603121352.jpg
* June 3, 2010, 12:26 PM ET
By Dionne Searcey
Back in April we wrote about sheep at the University of Wisconsin who died of the bends.
Seriously, we did.
Animal rights groups, in their increasingly clever uses of state and federal laws to pursue their agenda, had filed a private petition to compel a Wisconsin district attorney to investigate a case of sheep that had died of decompression sickness after research experiments using a hyperbaric chamber.
Well, on Wednesday, the sheep got a win. Dane County Circuit Court Judge Amy Smith ruled that a special prosecutor should be appointed to examine whether university lab officials broke the law.
The judge found that “probable cause exists that those who decompressed the sheep acted either intentionally or negligently.” The ruling goes on to say, “Evidence strongly suggest the authors knew some sheep would die from decompression, or that there was a substantial and unreasonable risk of such a death.”
Judge Smith also said:
“To do nothing in response to this petition would unduly depreciate the significance of the alleged misconduct. The allegations area made more serious by the claim that these transgressions have gone on for years, and apparently have become accepted practice in university animal research. To do nothing would, in essence, tacitly allow the university to continue the alleged unlawful practices without sanction.”
Judge Smith was acting at the request of two animal-rights groups, Alliance for Animals and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The duo had seized upon a little-invoked state law to aid their case.
The law allows citizens to petition a judge to order prosecutions when there’s probable cause to believe a law has been violated and when a district attorney has refused to issue a complaint.
PETA points out that if the researchers are prosecuted, it will be only the second time in the U.S. that animal experimenters have been prosecuted for cruelty to animals in a laboratory. The first time was the 1981 investigation that brought PETA to prominence – the Silver Spring monkeys case.
http://itech.dickinson.edu/chemistry/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/flock_of_sheep.jpg
http://www.awennis.ie/Images/Products/sheep.jpghttp://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-IS434_sheep_CV_20100603121352.jpg
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The University of Konstanz and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have jointly established the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing—Europe (CAAT-EU) in an effort to promote better coordination in toxicity testing. The new Center, modeled after the Bloomberg School‘s Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT), will conduct scientific research to find new methods to replace the use of laboratory animals in studies, reduce the number of animals needed for research, and to refine necessary tests to eliminate the pain and distress of animals in research. CAAT-EU will hold an inauguration ceremony in Konstanz, Germany, on March 30.
Marcel Leist, professor at the University or Konstanz, will lead CAAT-EU, along with Thomas Hartung, the Doerenkamp-Zbinden Professor and Chair for Evidence-based Toxicology, and director of CAAT at the Bloomberg School. Hartung also holds an appointment as professor at the University of Konstanz.
“As a transatlantic cooperation center, CAAT-EU will unite its activities in the field of alternatives and toxicology at the University of Konstanz and combine them strategically with the activities of the Bloomberg School’s CAAT in the U.S.,” said Leist.
“Sound science is the bridge, not only across the Atlantic, but also for a future with safer products using fewer animals,” added Hartung.
The CAAT-EU board of directors includes EuroGroup for Animals, an umbrella organization of more than 30 animal protection organizations, and ECOPA—the European consensus platform for alternative methods made up of representatives of universities, industry, animal protection organizations and governments.
CAAT was founded at the Bloomberg School of Public Health in 1981 as an academic, science-based center to provide a better, safer, more humane future for people and animals. The University of Konstanz has more than 20 years of experience in studying alternatives to animal research. CAAT-EU will collaborate with CAAT to develop a worldwide standard for chemical testing.
“Konstanz is the ideal location for this enterprise,” said Ulrich Ruediger, rector of the University of Konstanz. “Here we have a tradition of intensive support for alternative methods.”
“The mission of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is to protect health and save lives through research and education,” said Michael J. Klag, dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health. “We work with partners around the world and look forward to our collaboration with the University of Konstanz.”
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Press contacts:
Dr. Mardas Daneshian
University Konstanz
Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing-Europe
Universitaetsstraße 10, 78464 Konstanz
Tel.: +49 (0)7531-884685
Email
Tim Parsons
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
615 N. Wolfe Street/E2132
Baltimore, MD 21205-2179
Tel.: +1 410-955-7619
EmailThe University of Konstanz and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health... more
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All animals, whether companion, commercial, or captive, under the care of humans, deserve a decent life and a painless death.
The latest scientific research as well as her own personal observations are used by Temple Grandin, an animal science professor, in a journey into the animal world. She believes that animals and humans have much more in common that previously believed, including emotions.All animals, whether companion, commercial, or captive, under the care of humans,... more
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No Federal Violations for Boiled Monkey Death - Everett Judge Refuses to Allow Prosecution in Scalded Monkey Case
She was a cynomolgus monkey, also known as a crab-eating macaque or a long-tailed macaque. Whatever name you prefer, her horrifying, gruesome death followed a brief life that itself was surely lonely, frightening, and painful.
There were no trees, no gusts of wind, no natural smells, sounds, and sights, no family or companionship, no joy or wonder in her daily existence. Instead there was a tiny, barren space, with walls, ceiling, and floor made of cold metal wires. Instead there was terror.
Instead there were likely injections and restraints and intentionally inflicted pain and isolation. And there was to be far more of that, as humans tested drugs on her--and in a lab with a history of abuse and cruelty at that.
But then even before they were done with her, she was killed, and in the worst way. She died horrifically in the same cage in which she lived so sadly. She gripped the cage bars as 180 degree water and caustic, burning chemicals rained down forcefully all over her trapped body, boiling her ALIVE, melding the skin of her tortured body to the cage, permanently fusing her fingers to the metal bars that she gripped in terror and excruciating pain like we will never know.
There is no doubt that she screamed. God, how she must have screamed.
They had to peel her dead body from the cage.
To those of you out there who don't understand why animal rights activists are sometimes so angry, who think we have nothing to be angry about, who don't understand how we can cry over animals we've never met, who prefer to remain blissfully ignorant and insist that the way we use animals is fine and that animals don't suffer at our hands because, after all, we have laws to prevent and punish animal abuse, or who condemn the open or covert rescue of animals from labs, to all of you--please pay attention.
Incidents such as this, in which animals are not just abused but tortured--these 'incidents' are not rare -- WE, the general public, are informed only by mistake or by undercover work --when informed, OUR society chooses not to listen to such uncomfortable and disgraceful acts of inhumanity -- these are among our reasons for being angry.
Go read the article that first appeared early this year, http://www.kirotv.com/news/15189249/detail.html ...when a Washington news station first broke this story. Among everything else you read will be the following, which tells a not-unusual story about what happens when employees who witness cruelty, whether in a lab or a slaughterhouse, dare to speak up: they get fired, and the abuse continues.
Details of this story will shock and sadden you. Please follow links at:
http://www.kirotv.com/investigations/16341994/detail.html
http://animalrights.change.org/blog/view/no_justice_for_the_monkey_boiled_alive
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008326494_webmonkey29m.html
http://animallawonline.blogspot.com/2008/10/washington-state-judge-refuses-to-allow.html
'Protect Captive Primates Act' http://animalrights.change.org/actions/view/urge_senate_to_pass_captive_primate_safety_actNo Federal Violations for Boiled Monkey Death - Everett Judge Refuses to Allow... more
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From the article...LOS ANGELES -- Two animal rights activists were charged Monday with conspiracy, stalking and other crimes against researchers at University of California, Los Angeles and executives of a juice company.
Linda Faith Greene, 61, and Kevin Richard Olliff, 22, pleaded not guilty to the charges during their arraignment in Superior Court.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office issued a statement calling the pair "alleged domestic terrorists" and describing them as associates of the Animal Liberation Front, an extremist animal rights group.
A county grand jury indictment was handed up March 27 and charged each with three counts of conspiracy to commit stalking, three counts of stalking, two counts of conspiracy to threaten a public officer or school employee and two counts of threatening a public officer or school employee. They were arrested Thursday.
The indictment alleges that an unnamed co-conspirator tried to place an incendiary device on the doorstep of UCLA professor Lynn Fairbanks' home in July 2006 but it was actually left at an elderly neighbor's house and failed to explode.
One of the overt acts in the conspiracy was Greene, acting as press officer for an animal rights Web site, posting a "communique" by the ALF which took responsibility for what it called a "moletov cocktail," according to the indictment.
Greene, Olliff and others conducted demonstrations at the professor's home and on the UCLA campus, during which they chanted threats through a bullhorn and disputed law enforcement claims that the wrong house was targeted, according to the indictment.
Greene is also accused of identifying Fairbanks as a "target" on a Web site, publishing her addresses and other personal information online.
The indictment alleges a similar campaign against a neurobiology professor, Dario Ringach, who later gave up primate research, citing harassment from animal rights activists and concerns for his young children.
A telephone message seeking comment was left Monday evening at the office of attorney David B. Rutan, who represented Greene and Olliff when UCLA got a temporary restraining order against animal rights activists.
Dr. Jerry Vlasak, an animal rights activist with North American Animal Liberation Press Office, said Monday that Greene and Olliff violated no laws.
"They're using their constitutional right to free speech. They're not breaking any laws or breaking in to sabotage or destroying vehicles or equipment," Vlasak said. "Everyone knows who they are. They're high-profile activists who never tried to hide their identities. Linda did TV interviews."
The indictment further alleges that Greene and Olliff stalked executives of Los Angeles-based POM Wonderful Juice Co., picketed at a corporate family picnic and conducted demonstrations at their homes.
Vlasak said the activists targeted POM because they believe the company was using animal experiments to support claims that pomegranate juice could improve erectile function in men with mild impotence problems.
A telephone message seeking comment from POM after hours was not immediately returned.
Greene was held on $450,000 bail and is due back in court Friday for a bail review hearing. Olliff was held on $460,000 bail.
Both defendants are scheduled for a pretrial hearing on May 20.
Over the past couple of years, animal rights activists have aggressively protested animal research at the homes of scientists.
Earlier this year, four people pleaded not guilty in connection with an attempted break-in at the home of a UC Santa Cruz breast cancer researcher in 2008. Last December, a man pleaded no contest to making harassing phone calls to UC San Francisco researchers at their homes and telling them that they would die the same way they made animals suffer.From the article...LOS ANGELES -- Two animal rights activists were charged Monday with... more
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Humane Society of United States
Primate Investigation | Undercover Investigation at Research Lab
February 2009: An undercover investigation by The Humane Society of the United States reveals psychological suffering of primates in research laboratories.Humane Society of United States
Primate Investigation | Undercover Investigation at... more
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Watch the video, and take action for chimps»
https://community.hsus.org/campaign/FED_2009_apeprotectionact
The investigation of New Iberia Research Center is the most comprehensive ever at any major primate research facility and has resulted in a 108-page complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), alleging a minimum of 338 possible violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act at the center. The law sets minimal standards for the treatment of animals in labs.
Shocking Footage
The HSUS' videotape evidence shows severe distress of primates in isolation: they engage in self-mutilation by tearing gaping wounds into their arms and legs, a behavior that could be the result of NIRC's failure to provide adequate environmental enhancement.
Routine procedures, such as the use of powerful and painful dart guns and frightening squeeze cages for sedation, are shown causing acute psychological distress to chimpanzees and monkeys.
Infant monkeys scream as they are forcibly removed from their mothers so that tubes can be forced down their throats.
Altogether, the investigation reveals animals forced to endure anxiety and misery behind the razor wire of the research facility.
.....Watch the video, and take action for chimps»... more
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Molecular biologists reported Wednesday that they had grown prostates in mice from single cells, marking an important step forward in the quest to grow transplant tissue in the lab.
Stem cells have unleashed enormous interest in recent years because of their theoretical potential to grow specific cells that can be used to replace tissue damaged by disease or accident.
Is this the future? Will we be growing organs and cells for other people? Is research on animals still justified?Molecular biologists reported Wednesday that they had grown prostates in mice from... more
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Animals were used in a little more than 3.2 million medical experiments in Britain in 2007, a six percent rise from the previous year, the government said on Monday. The increase was the sixth consecutive annual rise, according to figures released by Britain's Home Office.
Most of the animals used in the experiments were mice, rats and other rodents. Less than one percent included dogs, cats, horses or non-human primates, the government said.
The rise was due mainly to breeding genetically modified animals -- mostly mice and fish. By turning off or inserting genes in animals scientists hope to improve understanding of human diseases and to develop new treatments. Drug companies say animals are a vital part of the research and development of new medicines and vaccines.
Animal rights groups who have fought a campaign against the experiments say the figures mark a 16-year high.
(Reuters)Animals were used in a little more than 3.2 million medical experiments in Britain in... more
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Inuit hunters in Nunavut, an autonomous region in northern Canada, are unhappy with the Government of Nunavut's plan to tranquilize 300 polar bears in the Foxe Basin and clip them with radio-frequency ear tags fitted with an RFID. The plan is part of a study to track polar bear movements. Hunters oppose the plan because of a Health Canada guideline that bans the consumption of meat within a year from an animal that has tranquilized.
Further, the drug itself is subject to controversy. GN wildlife workers will tranquilize the bears with Zoletil, a powerful drug cocktail composed of teletamine -- a PCP-like anaesthetic -- and a tranquilizer similar to valium. The article mentions that although Zoletil is used widely by veterinarians and wildlife researchers working with animals, occasionally the drug finds its way into the hands of substance abusers. One former GN polar bear researcher was caught injecting Zoletil in 2000. The plan has provoked opposition from Kivalliq Wildlife Board, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., and hunters in affected communities.
The Foxe Basin is a vast area that extends to Hudson Bay, Rankin Inlet, and Nunavik to the east.Inuit hunters in Nunavut, an autonomous region in northern Canada, are unhappy with... more
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By just thinking about walking, a monkey made a robot walk. The monkey was in North Carolina, and the robot was in Japan. Researchers hope it will lead to better artificial limbs among other cyborg related projects.
My question, though, is this taking us one step closer to monkey and robot world domination?By just thinking about walking, a monkey made a robot walk. The monkey was in North... more
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This Chimpanzee would recognize a toothbrush when she walked into a bathroom. She was a smart little monkey with over 250 words in her vocabulary. They say she did more than just imitate, she was educated. When she was older she even taught sign language to three younger chimpanzees. Wow.
Of course there are many controversies to studies with animals, but Washoe did live a long life, and she died of natural causes.
What are your thoughts on these special projects?This Chimpanzee would recognize a toothbrush when she walked into a bathroom. She was... more
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