The National Institutes of Health wants you to believe that chimpanzee experimentation is necessary. It so badly wants you to believe this that the agency just two months ago began to use your tax dollars to fund a propaganda campaign for “educating the public” regarding the “importance of chimpanzees in biomedical research.”

Why is the NIH seemingly so desperate? Perhaps because the concept of ending this morally and scientifically bankrupt practice has become so mainstream, on so many fronts – scientific, political, ethical, financial – that on Sept. 28, Scientific American, the most prestigious general interest science magazine in the world, called for a ban, explaining, “Why it is time to end invasive biomedical research on chimpanzees.”

One of the major reasons for its call for the ban was the groundbreaking McClatchy Newspapers special report “Chimps: Life in the Lab,” published last April. This special report was based on McClatchy’s independent review of thousands of pages of chimpanzee medical records.

Scientific American noted that the special report’s review of these records and the details of experiments “painted a grim picture of life in the lab, noting disturbing psychological responses in the chimps.”

The NIH’s use of tax dollars to fund the abuse of chimpanzees, as documented in McClatchy’s special report, is especially timely. Congress has created a Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to produce a plan by November 23 to reduce our debt by at least $1.2 trillion over 10 years. The NIH spends more than $30 million annually on chimpanzee experimentation; ending it would save more than $300 million. It would also be completely consistent with the emerging scientific, political and ethical consensus elucidated by Scientific American: “The time has come to end biomedical experimentation on chimpanzees.”

But the NIH seems stuck in a different time – circa 1970s, when the current chief of hepatitis research at the NIH, Dr. Robert Purcell, began experimenting on chimpanzees, as did his counterpart at the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Stephen Feinstone. On Aug. 11, a public workshop was convened by the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine Chimpanzee Committee, which was commissioned by the NIH to determine if chimpanzees are “necessary” for biomedical research.

Dr. Purcell, who personifies the anachronistic mind-set of the NIH, the agency pushing the chimpanzee “model,” referred to chimpanzees as “it” – things, furry test tubes – in his presentation to the committee.

In stark contrast, at the same workshop, the director of HCV Biology for GlaxoSmithKline, the program officer for research and development at the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, and the director for drug safety assessment at Genentech testified that chimpanzees are not needed for development of cutting-edge therapies such as monoclonal antibodies and vaccines for diseases such as malaria. GSK stopped using chimpanzees in 2008. Genentech has also stopped, and told the committee that its informal poll of “six or eight” other biotech firms found that they, too, did not use chimpanzees.

Even the FDA – which produced a letter supporting the NIH’s propaganda campaign – does not require chimpanzee data to approve vaccines or therapies.

In September, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that a petition requesting that captive chimpanzees be classified as “endangered” – which would effectively end chimpanzee experimentation – presented “substantial” evidence that such a reclassification may be warranted, and initiated a review of the classification that includes a call for public comments by Jan. 31, 2012.

On the political front, the bipartisan Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act of 2011 currently has 106 co-sponsors in the House, while the European Union banned chimpanzee experiments last year. The United States is the only country in the world that currently allows large-scale chimpanzee experimentation.

Jane Goodall spoke before the committee last August, explaining, “From their point of view, it’s like torture. They are in prison and have done nothing wrong.”

After her powerfully moving words, a hepatitis researcher from University of Miami said, “I’ve never worked with chimps, but just listening to Jane Goodall, I got a guilt trip.”

The emerging scientific, ethical and political consensus is clear: the time has indeed come for chimpanzee experimentation to end. The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction can make that consensus a reality while saving U.S. taxpayers $300 million.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Eric Kleiman is research director of In Defense of Animals; he initiated the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the NIH that resulted in the release of thousands of pages of chimpanzee medical records.

This essay is available to McClatchy-Tribune News Service subscribers. McClatchy-Tribune did not subsidize the writing of this column; the opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of McClatchy-Tribune or its editors.

2011, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

In Defense of Animals applauds the three-part “Special Report” on chimpanzee experimentation by McClatchy Newspapers investigative reporter Chris Adams, which has been featured in papers nationwide including the Sacramento Bee, San Jose Mercury News, Kansas City Star, Miami Herald, Arizona Republic, and Charlotte Observer; high-profile blogs such as the Huffington Post and DailyKos; and linked to by international media such as the Toronto Star and India Times.

At over 5,700 words accompanied by video, pictures, and graphics, the McClatchy series is almost certainly the most in-depth reporting of the issue of chimpanzee experimentation ever published. It has exposed for the first time to a worldwide audience the profound mental and physical anguish that chimpanzees endure in labs. Such suffering, together with the scientific move away from using chimpanzees, makes this series a game-changer in the fight to end chimpanzee experimentation once and for all.

McClatchy – the third-largest newspaper chain in the U.S. – based its series on thousands of pages of chimpanzee medical records obtained by IDA in a groundbreaking Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health (NIH). IDA won that five-year lawsuit after a federal judge issued two resounding opinions against the NIH, and ordered the agency to provide IDA a public interest fee waiver for the ongoing release of tens of thousands of pages of medical records for all chimpanzees at the Alamogordo Primate Facility in New Mexico.

It is unmistakably clear why the NIH fought for years in federal court to prevent the release of these records. They provide the first ever detailed look behind the locked doors of chimpanzee experimentation laboratories, and reveal the shocking physical and psychological suffering needlessly inflicted on our closest genetic cousins, who for decades have been have been subjected to painful experiments that continue to this day.

IDA Research Director Eric Kleiman submitted the FOIA request to the NIH and initiated the winning lawsuit based on that request, with the generous pro bono legal assistance of Spriggs & Hollingsworth, co-founded by attorney William J. Spriggs. After receiving thousands of pages of records from the NIH pursuant to a settlement of the lawsuit, Kleiman approached McClatchy for an exclusive and provided the records unconditionally for McClatchy’s review regarding the chimpanzees’ lives, and deaths, as documented in their medical records.

The McClatchy expose is only the tip of the iceberg. IDA views these medical records, which the NIH must continue to provide to IDA for years, as the next phase in our longstanding fight to end chimpanzee experimentation. These records comprise the most compelling evidence yet of the scientific and moral bankruptcy of experimentation on chimpanzees, and why it must stop now.

Portland, Ore. (April 19, 2011) – Millions of Americans are filing their taxes this week, unaware that their tax dollars support “cash cow” scientists, some of whom receive millions of dollars in grants each year, as well as a large population of chimpanzees growing old in laboratories.

But some people are aware of this waste, and this week they are demanding change.

In Defense of Animals (IDA), a long-time opponent of the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC), will host a protest in Portland this week. On Wednesday April 20, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., activists will demonstrate at the main campus of Oregon Health and Science University, which runs ONPRC. They plan to highlight the career of Kevin Grove, an ONPRC scientist who is paid over $3 million a year to keep 150 monkeys obese, as a good example of poor public policy.

During World Week for Animals in Laboratories (WWAIL), spanning two weekends from April 16 to April 24, In Defense of Animals (IDA) and activists around the world are rallying their forces and speaking out for the untold numbers of animals tortured and killed each year in the name of science. Dozens of events, including massive protests and theater performances, are taking place in France, Canada, and over 20 American cities.

In recent years, this battle has intensified. A 2009 Pew Charitable Trust poll found Americans split almost 50/50 for and against animal experimentation. Earlier this month, in a desperate preemptive strike before World Week for Animals in Laboratories, Research Saves – a front group created by industry lobbyists Foundation for Biomedical Research and National Association for Biomedical Research – put up billboards around the country distorting the issue into a choice between a rat and a little girl.

“The real choice isn’t over the life of a rat or a girl,” said IDA spokesperson Tony Carr. “The real choice is whether to squander public money by giving it to opportunistic scientists who have built careers by fattening up monkeys or addicting mice to meth, or to use it effectively by supporting underfunded prevention and education programs that attack the root cause of our lifestyle diseases. The real choice is whether to test drugs and cosmetics in a way that doesn’t predict whether they will cause harm to humans or to develop personalized medicine, which will allow any substance to be tested on your own cells first. The real choice is between doing what we have always done, or progressing.”

Maryland Representative Roscoe Bartlett, who used chimps in his scientific research, introduced The Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act in Congress last week. The Act (S. 810 / H.R. 1513) would ban invasive experiments on all great apes and would retire all apes held by the federal government to suitable sanctuaries.

This week, IDA and activists nationwide are contacting Congress, urging them to co-sponsor this historic legislation. They are also sending letters to the chief administrators of the National Institutes of Health and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, demanding that these agencies take immediate, concrete action towards reducing the number of animals in experiments each year.

For more information on World Week for Animals in Laboratories, visit www.wwail.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Tony Carr, 503-249-9996, Tony@idausa.org

San Antonio, Texas (July 16, 2010) – In Defense of Animals (IDA), an international animal protection and rescue organization, is transporting 55 rescued long-tailed macaque monkeys from an insolvent toxicology laboratory in Oxford, New Jersey. Continuing a journey that began yesterday, IDA will deliver eight of the monkeys to their new home at Mindy’s Memory Sanctuary in Newcastle, Oklahoma today. The transport will continue with three more stops in Texas tonight and Saturday at Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, Primarily Primates, and Born Free USA primate sanctuaries. IDA coordinated their 1,700-mile journey, which is utilizing a specialized animal transport service.

Click here for video of the rescue. Click here for photos of the rescue. Click here for B-roll footage of monkeys in laboratories.

“These young monkeys would have been subjected to decades behind bars in cramped stainless steel cages, forced to endure painful toxicology tests,” said IDA president Scotlund Haisley. “Now they will have a life filled with fresh air, friends and freedom from harm.”

The lab the monkeys came from had been repeatedly cited by the USDA for Animal Welfare Act violations and had a license to sell animals. If not for this rescue, these monkeys could very well have ended up in other labs that routinely perform extremely invasive or terminal experiments on long-tailed macaques. Published articles from 2010 describe experimentation ranging from brain lesions, invasive brain studies of auditory, motor and visual cortex, Ebola virus, stroke, plague and drug-induced seizures. These intelligent, social primates suffer when imprisoned for decades in stark lab environments. Monkeys often display clinical signs of depression and abnormal behavior including hair pulling, stereotypic circling and pacing, and even self mutilation.

The rescue was initiated by New York-based activist Camille Hankins, following an anonymous tip from a former animal caregiver at the recently closed lab. After negotiations with the company hired to liquidate the “assets” of the lab, a proposal to release the animals was accepted, with the crucial assistance of IDA pro bono attorney Kathryn Flood of the law firm Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney.

“We are proud to have played this significant role in helping to rescue these monkeys from the horrors of the lab,” concluded Haisley. “These are the lucky ones. We are inspired to renew our commitment to end the institutionalized abuse that is animal experimentation.”

For more information, visit www.idausa.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Eric Kleiman, 717-939-3231, ericsk@idausa.org

Oxford, N.J. (July 15, 2010) – In Defense of Animals (IDA), an international animal protection and rescue organization, along with several other groups has rescued 118 beagles and 55 long-tailed macaque monkeys from an insolvent toxicology laboratory in Oxford, New Jersey. The beagles were transported from the lab to shelters two weeks ago. Today, IDA will take the monkeys to their new homes at four primate sanctuaries in Oklahoma and Texas. IDA assisted in facilitating the final agreements and coordinated their 1,700-mile journey, which will utilize a specialized animal transport service.

Video and photos of the rescue and B-roll footage of monkeys in laboratories available upon request.

“Rescuing these young macaques from a miserable lifetime locked in a lab furthers In Defense of Animals’ mission in protecting the rights, welfare and habitat of animals,” said IDA president Scotlund Haisley. “These young monkeys would have been subjected to decades behind bars in cramped stainless steel cages, forced to endure painful toxicology tests. Now they will have a life filled with fresh air, friends, and freedom from harm.”

This lab had been repeatedly cited by the USDA for Animal Welfare Act violations and had a license to sell animals. If not for today’s rescue, these monkeys could very well have ended up in other labs that routinely perform extremely invasive or terminal experiments on long-tailed macaques. Published articles from 2010 describe experimentation ranging from brain lesions, invasive brain studies of auditory, motor and visual cortex, Ebola virus, stroke, plague and drug-induced seizures. These intelligent, social nonhuman primates suffer when imprisoned for decades in stark lab environments. Monkeys often display clinical signs of depression and abnormal behavior including hair pulling, stereotypic circling and pacing, and even self mutilation.

The rescue was initiated by New York-based activist Camille Hankins, following an anonymous tip from a former animal caregiver at the recently closed lab.  After negotiations with the company hired to liquidate the “assets” of the lab, a proposal to release the animals was accepted, with the crucial assistance of IDA pro bono attorney Kathryn Flood of the law firm Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney. Several animal shelters and sanctuaries stepped up to save the monkeys and the beagles from the lab. IDA also helped coordinate the rescue of some of the beagles.

For years, IDA has exposed and halted invasive experiments on nonhuman primates. After an eight-year campaign, IDA forced the insolvency of the Coulston Foundation primate testing lab. As a result, over 300 nonhuman primates were permanently retired: 266 chimpanzees by Save the Chimps, and 61 long-tailed macaques by one of the sanctuaries involved in this current rescue, Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation. IDA stopped crack cocaine experiments on monkeys conducted at New York University and has obtained tens of thousands of pages of primate laboratory records after winning multiple open records lawsuits.

According to the USDA, between 2007 and 2009, primate experimentation increased significantly.

“We are proud to have played this significant role in helping to rescue these monkeys and beagles from the horrors of the lab,” concluded Haisley. “These are the lucky ones. We are inspired to renew our commitment to end the institutionalized abuse that is animal experimentation.”

The Texas sanctuaries Born Free USA, Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation, Primarily Primates, and the Oklahoma sanctuary Mindy’s Memory will receive the monkeys and begin introducing them to one another in their new homes.

For more information, visit www.idausa.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Matt Rossell, 530-890-5151, matt@idausa.org

Washington, DC (April 20, 2010) – World Week for Animals in Laboratories (WWAIL) is underway, with demonstrations across the globe highlighting the waste of taxpayer dollars on cruel and ridiculous animal research. Only days after taxpayers in the United States filed their annual tax returns, and as tax protests reach new heights, In Defense of Animals (IDA) released a “Top 10 Reasons Why Animal Research is a Cruel Joke” list to spotlight experiments that almost seem designed to waste precious taxpayer money.

Across the United States and in Canada, England, France, Ireland and New Zealand, demonstrators will target waste of public funds. Several demos will be at universities that conducted experiments on IDA’s “Top 10” list.

“With unemployment sky-high and the U.S. economy still suffering from the Great Recession, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) still spends billions of tax dollars every year to fund animal experiments,” said IDA Research Director Eric Kleiman. “This is little more than white-coated welfare for experimenters living on a grant gravy train funded by hard-hit taxpayers.”

IDA’s “Top 10” list features NIH-funded experiments selected from scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals over the past three years, approved by federally-mandated oversight committees. Below are some experiments that made IDA’s “Top 10” list. (Warning: list contains graphic content.)

* Female rats might enjoy vaginal stimulation (Dartmouth);
* Monkeys lose more weight exercising than eating less (Oregon Health & Science Univ.);
* Castrated hamsters can still ejaculate (UC-Berkeley, Univ. of Virginia, Columbia Univ.);
* Baby chimpanzees need nurturing (Emory University / Yerkes Primate Center);
* Lizards forced to fight get stressed and then decapitated (Harvard and Univ. of South Dakota).

“These experiments demonstrate why World Week for Animals in Laboratories is so necessary,” said Kleiman. Protests at UC-Berkeley (April 20), Dartmouth (April 24) and Oregon Health & Science University – OHSU (April 25) will expose the waste and the need for systemic reform.

Numerous NIH-funded researchers have admitted that the entire funding system is an “old boys’ network” in need of fundamental reform. The NIH funds significantly more researchers over the age of 70 than under 30, and 22 researchers received 222 grants worth $170 million. The former head of the National Cancer Institute stated this system is a “terrible wasted opportunity,” and a past NIH Director said the system provides “disincentives” to “truly transformative” research.

An NIH “breakthrough” grant was awarded to an experimenter at Dartmouth, where what NIH terms “novel,” “high-risk, high-reward” research on sexual dysfunction in women resulted in multiple sex experiments on rats. At OHSU, an experimenter found that adopted monkey children fare better than orphans and adolescents are more sensitive to social stress. This experimenter has been funded with 137 grants over the past 23 years. The UC-Berkeley ejaculating hamster experimenter has been funded by the NIH for decades, with publications dating back to the early 1960s.

“This is a wake-up call about where our tax dollars go,” concluded Kleiman. “These experiments are the tip of the iceberg of waste in biomedical animal research. This fundamentally broken, taxpayer-supported NIH system continues to fund white-coated welfare.”

IDA’s complete Top 10 list is available at http://idausa.org/ridiculousresearch. A list of international events marking WWAIL is available at http://wwail.org .

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:  Eric Kleiman, 717-939-3231, ericsk@idausa.org

Washington, DC (April 14, 2010) – Today, as April 15 fast approaches for American taxpayers, In Defense of Animals (IDA) is unveiling its “Top 10 Reasons Why Animal Research is a Cruel Joke” in recognition of ridiculous and wasteful experiments funded by your tax dollars.

“With unemployment sky-high and our economy still suffering from the Great Recession, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) still spends billions of your tax dollars every year to fund animal experiments,” said IDA Research Director Eric Kleiman. “Our own research indicates that this is little more than ‘white-coated welfare’ for experimenters living off of a grant gravy train funded by hard-hit American taxpayers.”

IDA’s “Top 10” list is comprised of NIH-funded experiments that were selected from scientific papers published in 2009 and 2010 (and one from 2008), approved by federally-mandated oversight committees, and published in peer-reviewed journals.

Below is a sampling of experiments that made IDA’s Top 10” List. (Warning:  Entire List Contains Graphic and/or Sexual Content):

* Female rats might enjoy vaginal stimulation (Dartmouth);
* Monkeys lose more weight exercising than eating less (Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health & Science Univ.);
* Lizards forced to fight get stressed and then decapitated (Harvard and Univ. of South Dakota);
* Castrated hamsters can still ejaculate (UC-Berkeley, Univ. of Virginia, Columbia Univ.);
* Baby chimpanzees need nurturing (Emory University / Yerkes National Primate Research Center).

Kleiman noted that thousands of NIH-funded researchers have said that the entire funding system is an “old boys network” in need of fundamental reform. The NIH funds significantly more researchers over the age of 70 than under 30, and 22 researchers received 222 grants worth $170 million. The former head of the National Cancer Institute has stated that this system is a “terrible wasted opportunity,” while a past NIH Director has said that the system provides “disincentives” to “truly transformative” research.

“The experiments at Dartmouth exemplify this tragic truth,” continued Kleiman. “After over 20 years on the grant gravy train, and over 10 years studying rat sexual behavior, this experimenter was awarded a ‘breakthrough’ grant by the NIH for ‘novel scientific ideas’ and ‘high risk, high reward’ research on sexual dysfunction in women. The result? More sexual experiments on rats.”

The published experiments supported by this “breakthrough” grant include:

* The “vaginal stimulation” study, which involved the experimenters holding the rats by their tails, inserting a 1 ml plunger into their vaginas until they contacted the cervix, and delivering 15 total stimulations lasting 2 seconds every 30 seconds;
* Removing rats’ ovaries, giving them hormones, applying lidocaine to numb their vaginas, to find that it made no major difference in their mating rhythms;
* Severing the nerves that connect rats’ genitalia to their brains, to find that they showed abnormal sexual behavior, even though they still desired sex.

“If this is NIH’s idea of ‘breakthrough’ and ‘high risk, high reward’ science, one can only imagine what its ‘normal’ science looks like,” said Kleiman.

“For April 15, we hope this is a wake-up call about where your tax dollars go,” concluded Kleiman. “These experiments are just the tip of the iceberg of waste in biomedical animal research. IDA plans to regularly expose yet more of these ridiculous experiments – to show the sad reality of animal research and the fundamentally broken, taxpayer-supported NIH system that continues to fund this ‘white-coated welfare.’”

IDA’s complete Top 10 list is available at http://idausa.org/ridiculousresearch

For Immediate Release

Contact:  Eric Kleiman, 717-939-3231

The petition was submitted to the FDA on November 14, 2007 by the Mandatory Alternatives Petition Coalition, a group of U.S. and U.K. based animal protection organizations. The effort would bring the U.S. in line with the European Union, which for over two decades has required that animal tests may not be used when available non-animal alternatives exist. The petition asks the FDA to promulgate regulations that would result in pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, and other entities regulated by the FDA to utilize non-animal testing methods, whenever such scientifically satisfactory methods are available, to comply with their obligations to demonstrate product safety and efficacy.

The Coalition wants to see the replacement of inaccurate, unvalidated, unreliable and cruel animal tests with scientifically sound and humane methods. It is also concerned about the number of hazardous drugs approved for human use, the harm  they  cause  to  millions  of  people  and  the  inability  of  animal  testing  to  detect  and  prevent  these  serious consequences.

Coalition Spokesperson, Geneticist, Dr. Jarrod Bailey notes: “Many reliable testing methods are available, with more in development, which can produce safer and more effective drugs than current animal methods. It is urgent that the FDA demonstrates the leadership required to adopt modern, humane testing methods. The U.S. lags behind Europe in ending cruel animal tests when better alternatives are available. The time for action is overdue.”

Members of the MAP Coalition include the American Fund for Alternatives to Animal Research; British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection; In Defense of Animals; and the New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS). The petition was supported by other animal protection groups, as well as physicians, scientists, veterinarians, professors, and individuals interested in reducing unnecessary animal testing. The Coalition is represented by Katherine Meyer of the public interest law firm Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 6, 2010

San Rafael, Calif. – Today, as Americans prepare to file their annual tax returns, In Defense of Animals (IDA) is unveiling its “Top 10 Reasons Why Animal Research is a Cruel Joke” in recognition of ridiculous and wasteful experiments funded by your tax dollars.

“If you think all animal research is used to treat and cure life-threatening conditions, think again,” said IDA Executive Director Anand Ramanathan.  “Every year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spends billions of your tax dollars to fund animal experiments. Our own research indicates that when it comes to these experiments, every day is April Fool’s Day for the American taxpayer.”

IDA’s “Top 10″ list is comprised of NIH-funded experiments that were selected from scientific papers published in 2009 and 2010 (and one from 2008), approved by federally-mandated oversight committees, and published in peer-reviewed journals.

Below is a sampling of experiments that made IDA’s “Top 10″ List. (Warning: Entire List Contains Graphic and/or Sexual Content):

• Female rats might enjoy vaginal stimulation (Dartmouth);
• Baby chimpanzees need nurturing (Emory University/Yerkes National Primate Center);
• Trapped rats freak out (San Diego State U., Colorado State U., U. of Arizona);
• Lizards forced to fight get stressed and then decapitated (Harvard and Univ. of South Dakota);
• Castrated monkeys are less dominant (NIH’s internal intramural labs in Bethesda, Maryland).

“These federally funded, published experiments could be considered the ‘cream of the crop,’ yet they frivolously waste tax dollars and animal lives,” Dr. Ramanathan said. “These ridiculous, cruel experiments add nothing to medical progress and tell us nothing we care to know-or didn’t know already.”

“One can only wonder what occurs in the experiments that don’t get published,” he added.

The “Top 10″ experiments include several funded by an NIH “breakthroug” grant. A researcher who “found” that exercise helps in weight loss, and has received 137 grants in 23 years, also made the list.

IDA contends that its “Top Ten” experiments are just the tip of the iceberg of waste in biomedical animal research. “IDA plans to regularly expose yet more of these ridiculous experiments – to show the sad reality of animal research and the fundamentally broken, taxpayer-supported NIH system that continues to fund these cruel and unnecessary animal experiments,” concluded Dr. Ramanathan.

IDA’s complete Top 10 list is available at http://idausa.org/ridiculousresearch

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 31, 2010

Contact: Eric Kleiman, 717-939-3231

San Rafael, Calif. – In Defense of Animals (IDA), an international animal protection organization with over 85,000 members, today released letters from celebrities opposed to NASA-funded experiments. The experiments, which NASA wants conducted at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), involve irradiating squirrel monkeys. IDA and the International Primate Protection League (IPPL), a South Carolina-based non-profit dedicated to protecting the world’s primates, filed a complaint about the experiments.

The celebrities signed on to the IDA-drafted letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr., and BNL Director Dr. Samuel Aronson. Those who have signed to date are: Woody Harrelson, Zachary Quinto, Alicia Silverstone, James Cromwell, Allison Janney, Kristen Bell, Emily Deschanel, and Elizabeth Perkins.

NASA’s proposed experiments would inundate these tiny monkeys – only a foot tall – with one massive burst of gamma radiation equal to a 3-year journey to Mars and back. Since the 1950′s, thousands of primates have been exposed to various dosages of radiation including radio frequency, microwave, X-ray, gamma, electron, proton, neutron and other particle radiation. Studies have already shown that gamma radiation can cause depressive behavior, immobility, hyperirritability, convulsions, vomiting, diarrhea, weight loss, hair loss, open sores, skin hemorrhages, and even death.

Previous research has also proven that animals of different species – even of different strains of the same species – react differently to radiation, which calls into question the experiments’ scientific value in advancing protection for human astronauts.

NASA has already committed $1.75 million in taxpayer money to the experiments. NASA wants BNL – a lab run by the Department of Energy – to conduct the radiation portion of the experiments. BNL has not yet decided to proceed. The experiments are being reviewed by BNL’s safety, science, and animal welfare committees.

Copies of the IDA/IPPL complaint and the celebrities’ letters are available upon request.

For more information, please visit www.idausa.org.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Rachel Weil, rachel@weilpr.com, 818-341-3646
Eric Kleiman, ericsk@idausa.org, 717-939-3231