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From: alternatespirit All information featured in this newsletter is verified with the original source. The Animal Spirit cannot assume responsibility for the accuracy of the information or for the consequences of its use. BACKGROUND: The animal research department at the University of California, Davis, is under fire after seven monkeys were killed over the weekend. The university said the deaths were caused by a problem with a heating and air conditioning system. (Full news article appears after contact information.) WHAT YOU CAN DO: Please ask the US Dept. of Agriculture to fully investigate this tragedy. Encourage UCDavis to proceed with a medical research expansion, minus the animal component. Points To Make: *Enormous physiological variations exist among human and nonhuman animals. In many cases, animal studies do not just hurt nonhuman animals and waste money; they harm and kill humans, too. *The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine reports that sophisticated non-animal research methods are more accurate, less expensive, and less time-consuming than traditional animal-based research methods. Patients waiting for helpful drugs and treatments could be spared years of suffering if companies and government agencies would implement the efficient alternatives to animal studies. Fewer accidental deaths caused by drugs and treatments would occur if the more accurate alternatives were used. *Great strides have been made to replace animal experiments with non-animal techniques. Many research/development facilities and at least 70% of medical schools now fulfill study criterion with non-animal tools, including in vitro analysis, cell imaging, epidemiology, computer simulators, videos and mathematical modeling, genetic and protein analysis, clinical research, human brain mapping technologies, autopsy/biopsy studies, and advanced MRI imaging. *Many noted physicians have spoken against vivisection. Dr. Albert Sabin, who developed the oral polio vaccine, testified at a congressional hearing: "[p]aralytic polio could be dealt with only by preventing the irreversible destruction of the large number of motor nerve cells, and the work on prevention was delayed by an erroneous conception of the nature of the human disease based on misleading experimental models of the disease in monkeys" (Stoller, Kenneth, M.D., "Animal Testing: Why a Doctor Opposes It," The Orlando Sentinel, June 25, 1990.). Dr. Charles Mayo, founder of the Mayo Clinic, stated, "I abhor vivisection. It should at least be curbed. Better, it should be abolished. I know of no achievement through vivisection, no scientific discovery, that could not have been obtained without such barbarism and cruelty. The whole thing is evil" (Quoted by William H. Hendrix, New York Daily News, Mar. 13, 1961). *Vivisection is immoral. Non-human animals are not research tools. They are individuals capable of experiencing not only crude emotions like fear, but far more subtle and complex emotions such as love, grief, pride, shame, joy, and loneliness. CONTACT INFORMATION: U.S. Department of Agriculture 1400 Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, DC 20250 Online Contact Form: http://www.usda.gov/ContactUs Secretary Ann M. Veneman US Department of Agriculture - Animal Care The University of California, Davis UC Davis Foundation:
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