Animal rights activists marched at UCLA on Monday to protest research experimentation on non-human primates and other animals.
About 40 people – none of whom were affiliated with UCLA – marched from the intersection of Le Conte Avenue and Westwood Boulevard to Kerckhoff Hall, holding signs and reciting chants such as “How many animals have to die” and “They make money while we get sick.”
The protesters called for UCLA researchers to release the primates they use for research.
“We believe (the animals) should live their lives in a sanctuary setting where their care and lives are the first priority,” said Michael Budkie, co-founder and executive director of Stop Animal Exploitation Now, which organized the protest in commemoration of Primate Liberation Week. “We believe animal exploitation is a waste of federal funding and it is cruel to the animals.”
Bob Ingersoll, member of Stop Animal Exploitation Now and the American Society of Primatologists, said he thinks scientists should use techniques other than animal testing, such as computer mapping, to conduct their research.
“It is time for this end,” he said. “I don’t think this is productive. I don’t think the data is applicable to humans.”
In response to the protest, the university released a statement which said that animals are critical for providing models of human systems for medical research. The release stated that animal research affiliated with the university is strictly regulated, and that requests for using animals in research are reviewed by an independent committee of experts.
“Extensive steps are taken to minimize the use of animals and to prevent discomfort,” the statement read. “UCLA is committed to the highest standards of animal care.”
There are fewer than 20 non-human primates on campus for research, according to the statement.
Razmik Ghukasyan, a second-year medical student at UCLA, said he saw the protesters march by the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. As a student researcher who does not use animals for his studies, he said he wishes the protesters would acknowledge the results that researchers produce in their work.
“No one mentions the scientific progress we have made, which is very important to me,” Ghukasyan said. “I can say that the scientific community can do a little more to demonstrate the advances we are making to contrast the (protesters’) message.”
Contributing reports from Dylan Nguyen, Bruin contributor.
Well said Razmik Ghukasyan, though I would point out to you that there are members of the scientific community who are doing all they can to “demonstrate the advances we are making to contrast the (protesters’) message”, including several scientists at UCLA.
A great example is the Speaking of Research website at http://speakingofresearch.com/news/ whose community of bloggers include UCLA neuroscientists David Jentsch and Dario Ringach.
I would agree with Mr. Ghukasyan’s statement that said that more has to be done to convey the ethical and scientific justification for using animals to further medical knowledge and human health. In that spirit, I offer to publicly debate any of my UC faculty colleagues that wants to make a case for the abolition of animal research. A Daily Bruin panel could moderate and organize the event.
To all of the hard-working animal care technicians and veterinarians at UCLA, regarding the non-human primates, “their care and lives are the first priority”.
Before taking any of the claims made during this protest seriously, it’s useful to know who the people are that are engaged in events like this.Who are these people marching across our campus and speaking about the work going on in UCLA labs? Surely they have been in them? Maybe they are veterinarians or inspectors from the US Department of Agriculture? Or maybe they are scientists with expertise on finding cures for serious illnesses? They are none of these.
They are Michael Budkie, a long-time activist with a penchant for lying about the work in laboratories. Mr. Budkie has been denied access to animal research records at UCLA by California judges who recognized a “causal nexus between (UCLA’s) disclosure of animal research records and subsequent attacks on the researchers identified in such records after they are disseminated to the public via the Internet,” http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/judge-affirms-campus-position-207666.aspx
They are Bob Ingersoll, who claims as evidence of his experitise membership in the American Society of Primatologists. What Mr. Ingersoll didn’t note is that this organization has twice condemned the activities of some Los Angeles area animal rights activists who used threats, harassment and violence to achieve the goals of their movement. https://www.asp.org/society/resolutions/terrorist_response_justice_dept.cfm and https://www.asp.org/society/resolutions/ALF_response.cfm
They include people like Tyler Lang and Kevin Olliff – Los Angeles activists that typically marched in UCLA protests but who weren’t present yesterday because they are in jail in Illinois after being stopped on a rural highway with “bolt cutters, wire cutters, muriatic acid, ski masks, and cammo (sic) clothing”… likely on their way to engage in animal rights-related criminal activities. http://unlikelyactivist.com/2013/09/04/blurring-the-lines/
They are a whole host of liars. http://unlikelyactivist.com/2012/11/08/there-are-lies-and-then-there-are-damned-lies/
Who aren’t they?
They aren’t people who know anything about alternatives to animal research. I know this because virtually every alternative to the use of animals in research was created by a scientist who wanted to do his or her work better. http://speakingofresearch.com/2011/10/12/all-in-a-days-work-scientists-promote-alternatives-to-live-animal-research/
They aren’t people that actually make the lives of animals in research better. I know this because that is accomplished by the animal care technicians and veterinarians in labs who help scientists to conduct their research in a humane and responsible fashion. http://speakingofresearch.com/2009/08/19/animal-care-technicians/ and http://speakingofresearch.com/2013/01/21/why-i-am-a-laboratory-animal-veterinarian/
I urge the people marching on our campus to stop telling lies, stop aiding in violent and threatening actions and stop trying to claim that they know what is right when it comes to animal research at UCLA.
Animal research at UCLA is humane, it’s responsible, it’s state of the art, it leads to cures and it’s the right thing to do. Whenever a UCLA student walks into a lab and contributes to scientific progress, s/he is a hero who deserves better than the mistruths and rage exuded by the so-called activists.
You forgot to add that they are people who bring their Ewok clone of a dog to a protest against animal confinement and testing with their dog strapped into a stroller.
The dog is missing both its eyes. I didn’t ask the guardian why, but it could very well be from animal experimentation. A dog being protected is a hell of a difference from humans closest relatives existing in a stainless steel box and in constant fear of any person who comes near until you are ‘sacrificed’. Think about it!
YES. This dog is a RESCUED dog who had both eyes removed due to guardian negligence. A stroller is used so that he doesnt crack his head open walking into poles, etc. Please check your facts first before posting information meant to do nothing less than pass judgement.
But of course, the Speaking of Research vivisectors are again spending time desperately looking up any media concerning people who are against animal research. Anyone who disagrees with animal research of course
has to be either lying or a terrorist. What they failed to note is that UCLA
has been cited for violations of the Animal Welfare Act even going so far as having one of those “hard working” technicians physically stop the USDA inspector from entering the lab. Does that sound like someone who puts the lives of the animals as their “first priority?” What the SOR lackey’s also fail to mention is that UCLA threatens faculty and students who even dare to show any opposition to their sacred money making machine of vivisection. And as for Ringach offering to “debate” colleagues on the subject I would like to ask if they will need to jump through as many hoops as you put in front of the last panel that was organized there when you refused to call it a debate for fear of actually having to justify your ridiculous experiments. I believe Dr. Ray Greek has offered to debate you many times but you have refused based on the fact that again, he doesn’t agree with you, so is dismissed as unworthy. What is missing from these comments is exactly how the recreational drug addiction experiments at the cost of millions of tax dollars helps cure AID’s, Cancer and the like for which UCLA loves to make emotionally charged statements about, but
the likes of Ringach are not actually engaged in. Speaking of Research.. a
great example of a group funded by big pharma to continue to make money at the cost of real advances in human medicine.
Try reading about the ex-Director of the NIH Dr. Elias Zerhouni’s thoughts on animal experiments and how they have FAILED. Keep on drinking the Kool-Aid UCLA whilst the population at large is showing signs of disagreement with you.
http://nihrecord.od.nih.gov/newsletters/2013/06_21_2013/story1.htm
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When the former head of the National Institute of Health, Dr. Elias Zerhouni, says this about animal experimentation- “We have moved away from studying human disease in humans,” he lamented. “We all drank the Kool-Aid on that one, me included”, it’s time to pay attention, evolve & stop wasting our precious resources on this antediluvian tradition. This is NOT about cures but GRANTS! Deal with it!
The protest was peaceful. It is wrong to claim that the protestors were there to incite violence when there was no evidence to anything of that nature.
The very nature of these animals being kept isolated in cages is cruel before the experiments even begin. They are social animals who deserve to live with their peers in the wild. These conditions can literally drive the animals insane. I’m not comforted at all by the fact that there is supposedly an animal care technician or vet involved. When the experiments conclude, the animals are killed. There is nothing humane about it.
Also, the experiments being done at UCLA have nothing to do with curing cancer or heart disease. People mention these diseases to pull at our heart strings (no pun intended). They are studying withdrawal from street drugs, which requires the animals to first become addicted to these awful substances. There is nothing humane involved in these UCLA experiments. These animals suffer and feel pain just like humans. Where is our compassion?
“Since there is no way to defend the use of animal model systems in plain English or with scientific facts, they resort to double-talk in technical jargon…The virtue of animal model systems to those in hot pursuit of the federal dollar is that they can be used to prove anything–no matter how foolish, or false, or
dangerous this might be. There is such a wide variation in the results of animal model systems that there is always some system which will “prove” a point….The moral is that animal model systems not only kill animals, they also kill humans. There is no good factual evidence to show that the use of animals in cancer research has led to the prevention or cure of a single human cancer.” – Dr. D.J. Bross, Ph.D., former director of the Sloan-Kettering Institute, then Director of Biostatics, Roswell Memorial Institute
“Practically all animal experiments are untenable on a statistical scientific basis, for they possess no scientific validity or reliability. They merely perform an alibi for pharmaceutical companies, who hope to protect themselves thereby.” – Herbert Stiller, M.D. & Margot Stiller M.D.
“I have studied the question of vivisection for thirty-five years and am convinced that experiments on living
animals are leading medicine further and further from the real cure of the patient… I know of no instance of animal experiment that has been necessary for the advance of medical science, still less do I know of any animal experiment that could conceivably be necessary to save human life.” – H. Fergie Woods, M.D.
“What good does it do you to test something [a vaccine] in a monkey? You find five or six years from now that it works in the monkey, and then you test it in humans and you realize that humans behave totally differently from monkeys, so you’ve wasted five years.” – Dr. Mark Feinberg
“Giving cancer to laboratory animals has not and will not help us to understand the disease or to treat those persons suffering from it.” – Albert Sabin, M.D., developer of the live-virus polio vaccine
“The reason why I am against animal research is because it doesn’t work, it has no scientific value and every good scientist knows that.” – Dr. Robert Mendelsohn, M.D.
“Animal model systems differ from their human counterparts. Conclusions drawn from animal research, when applied to human beings, are likely to delay progress, mislead, and do harm to the patient. Vivisection, or animal experimentation, should be abolished.” – Dr. Moneim Fadali, M.D.
“Why am I against vivisection? The most important reason is because it’s bad science, producing a
lot of misleading and confusing data which pose hazards to human health. It’s also a waste of taxpayer’s
dollars to take healthy animals and artificially and violently induce diseases in them that they normally wouldn’t get, or which occur in different form, when we already have the sick people who can be studied while they’re being treated.” – Dr. Roy Kupsinel, M.D.
“Vivisection has done little for the art of the doctor at the bedside, but it has done immeasurable harm to the character and mind of the rising generation of doctors.” – Dr. Rudolph Hammer, LLD