Chinese university sets up committee to "safeguard rights of lab animals"

[Elad]

The language here is riddled with doublespeak and contradictions. Things like this, while they may sound like a positive step on paper, I believe may be harmful to the overall cause.

a) How effective are such committees? Are the members of the committee researchers, animal activists, or school administrators? Who sets the standards they enforce? Who makes sure enforcement actually takes place?

b) If you believe that animals can suffer and there is a need to "safeguard their rights," how about safeguarding the most basic right of all, the right to bodily integrity and ban vivisection entirely? It is hard to grasp the contradictory logic needed to justify saying that animals feel pain, can suffer, and have rights, so we'll experiment on them "humanely." No one would suggest it's ok to experiment on a human's body without their consent, even if you do it "humanely," or that it's ok to kill another person, as long as you do it "painlessly."

c) The cynic in me just assumes that these kinds of measures are the animal rights version of "greenwashing," basically just a publicity stunt, akin to the oil companies spending millions on advertising touting their "environmental leadership."

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/2006/06/03/281839/Fudan__039_s_panel_to_safeguard_rights_of_laboratory_animals.htm

Fudan's panel to safeguard rights of laboratory animals
Yan Zhen
2006-06-03
FUDAN University has set up the city's first animal ethics committee to protect the welfare and rights of laboratory animals, university officials said yesterday.

Researchers and teachers must apply in advance to the animal ethics committee and receive written approval before conducting experiments and research at Fudan's pharmaceutical college.

The decision was effective June 1.

Concerned medical students and animal rights activists have urged the university to build a memorial to the many animals that have suffered and died for science in work on campus.

A similar committee has been set up for animal research in Beijing.

Those involved in experiments and animal care are expected to receive training in appropriate animal treatment that meets an international code of ethics.

Standards include giving animals enough living space, never starving or dehydrating them and killing them painlessly when necessary.

Those who violate the ethics code will be warned and could forfeit research rights, officials said.

-more at link-