Animal rights groups face off with scientists over fate of chimps

[cory777]

Source: LA Times

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.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-alamogordo-chimps-20100903,0,5905193.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews%2Fnationworld%2Fnation+%28L.A.+Times+-+National+News%29

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[flvegan]

1. First Rec!

Thanks for posting.

[shireen]

2. this is ridiculous

there must be ways to run experiments without using these animals. Sickening ....

[TheMadMonk]

5. Yup, children, the elderly, prisoners, anyone institutionalised, the poor.

We've tried them all.

Sickening is very much a relative thing.

As far as we may yet have to go, we have still come a very long way.

[Phlem]

3. you could almost

compare it to a nasty alien abduction from the chimps perspective. Wait aren't all those alien abduction guys "wacko"?,....well aren't they!!!????

-p

[defendandprotect]

4. They'll be no end to man's inhumanity to man until we end man's violence/torture of animals...!!

This is also what makes so much of our "science" sick --

[Kali]

6. we should just stop testing things like vaccines

and medical treatments because why the fuck should humans benefit from advancing that kind of knowledge anyway? We just suck. Especially if we are sitting comfortably among our techno-toys bitching on the internet about our clueless emotional response to various forms of propaganda. Humans have never done a fucking thing that is good or worthwhile.



oh and since this isn't the lounge: :sarcasm:

[jmondine]

8. Right. Because...

... anyone who says that highly intelligent animals such as chimps should be exempted from research must therefore be also saying that all testing of any kind is bad, and humans are inherently evil. There is no middle ground. It's one absurd extreme or another. :sarcasm:

Tell me, when you were writing the words, "clueless emotional response", were you looking in the mirror?

[Kali]

10. so tell me what you consider "middle" ground

[jmondine]

12. Animal testing only...

... for absolutely necessary, potentially life saving developments, such as new medicines to treat fatal diseases (a new line of cosmetics would not qualify). Animal testing only when all other potential methods for obtaining the same data have been exhausted. The test subjects should be as primitive as possible. Before and after experiments, they should be housed and treated humanely. If the tests result in an animal in pain, that pain should be treated. If it is beyond treatment, the animal should be humanely euthanized as soon as possible.

Finally, animals whose cerebellums have a complexity approaching ours, such as great apes, elephants and cetaceans, should be exempt from testing. There are more primitive primates, large grazers and marine mammals.

[wordpix]

13. +1 If we MUST do animal testing, it shouldn't be on chimps, our closest cousins

rats or mice will do, or how about drosophila?

[Kali]

17. I pretty much agree completely with your first paragraph,

however I would have no problem with testing of chimps or any other ape or animal if it was to save my life or that of most anybody, really.

As for elephants or cetaceans, I doubt that would be needed in terms of human "benefit" since the genetic relationship is so distant and they really don't make very good lab animals, but the possibility of experimenting with/on them in terms of advancing the veterinary treatments for their kind would probably be alright.

[The2ndWheel]

9. The problem is that the testing is being done on the chimps

They didn't volunteer for the tests, they didn't ask to be brought into the game of human progress, and they don't benefit from the knowledge. Human testing for human advancement. That sounds fair. As opposed to chimp testing, which is the privatization of profits, and the socialization of costs. Just like all those horrible corporations and wealthy elite we bitch about sitting comfortably among our techno-toys.

[Kali]

11. "volunteering" is a human construct

animals are not capable of volunteering for anything

some are willing to behave in ways that please people, and some show aversion or fear to certain stimuli, but that isn't the same thing as "refusing to volunteer"

[Doremus]

14. Says you.

It peeves me greatly when people profess to know beyond doubt that which is unknowable.

Besides which, your egocentric arrogance is annoying.

[The2ndWheel]

16. All the more reason not to test on them for our advancement

Progress is a human construct as well. I'm just saying human testing for human progress is the most fair thing we could do. All that testing is for our benefit. The rest of life gets shit out of the deal. We should be willing to pay the price for our additional ascension, but we aren't willing to pay that price, which is why we have such a large impact within the environment.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. Enough of this shit!

Enough with the torture of animals in laboratories. I am disgusted by this story. :puke: Read "Next of Kin" by Roger Fouts and then tell me experimentation on these animals is in any way acceptable.

And to TEXAS of all places -- a hell hole for animals, especially those in reseach. :mad:

[Uncle Joe]

15. For those people; not having seen

the movie "Project X" starring Matthew Broderick and Helen Hunt, I would recommend it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_X_(film)

Thanks for the thread, cory.