Animals treated well, official says But animal activists protest lab experimentation as cruel
University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, June 29, 1988
Barbara Meador, coordinator of animal resources, demonstrates the proper handling of a laboratory rabbit.
By Monica Hayde
Kansan staff writer
Despite animal rights groups' accusations that laboratory animals are often abused and neglected, animals at the University of Kansas are treated well and watched over even more than the students, an animal care unit official said.
People can get emotional about the use of animals for laboratory research, said Barbara Meador, University coordinator of animal research. But the animals she said, no progress would be made in biology and medicine.
"I would be thrilled and delighted if animals weren't needed in research, but if we are even to maintain our level of knowledge of human beings, leading humans, there needs to be continued experimentation," she said.
About 10,000 animals at the Lawrence campus and at the University of Kansas Medical Center are used by faculty and students in about 12 departments for research and experimentation, Meador said. In Lawrence, the animals are kept in Malott and Haworth halls and in Smissman Research Lab on West Campus.
Mice, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, gerbils, frogs, snakes, dogs, cats, goats and Rhesus monkeys are used for on-campus research, she said. Ninety-three percent of lab animals on campus are rodents. About 10 monkeys are kept at the Med Center.
The University is accredited by the American Association for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care. Meador said that in 1987 the AALAC conducted 2,601 site visits and that it only held 321 of the labs accreditation
The association is a non-profit, independent agency that was formed by lab animal medicine professionals. The agency develops guidelines and programs for such procedures as administration of anesthetics and the health care of the animals, she said.
Meador said that although laboratory animals were protected by laws and guidelines of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Institute of Health, instances of sloppy animal care did occur, but not at KU.
"Anytime something like that comes to light, people are outraged, both in the scientific community and outside it," she said. "It is as outrageous to any good scientist as it is to any animal lover because animals that are stressed do not produce valid research results."
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which is located in Washington, D.C., is an organization that is outraged, not only over sloppy or inhumane experiments or treatment but all experimentation on animals.
Experimentation on animals is bad science. PETA spokesman Carol Roberts
Live dogs are dissected at the Med Center, but Kevin Outhot, Overland Park medical student, said the dog
"What you gain in research of animals can't usually be applied to humans," she said. "For example, aspirin kills cats. Also, strychinein in a small amount on a pencil eraser will kill a person, but a rat can eat 10 times that amount. I could go on for two days with examples."
The winter 1987 issue of PETA's newsletter contained an article about the live dissections of dogs at universities. The article focused on a dissection of a dog that was not fully anesthetized. According to the article, the dog was cut open from throat to tail and left to lie in pain for a day while different classes of medical students practiced surgical techniques on it.
lab was optional for the Medical Physiology class. He did not go.
"Every med student I've talked to is uncomfortable with the lab," he said.
Oothout, who does research with rats, said animals could be used for research in a humane manner.
Burnett said PETA also had campaigned against cosmetic and other product testing on animals, mass breeding of animals for laboratory use, the fur trade and factory farming. Factory farming is the assembly line-like production of animals for meat, according to PETA.
Gilbert Greenwald, chairman of the physiology department, said that about 90 percent of the students in Medical Physiology went to the dog lab. He said the lab was important to the learning process and that although the Med Center had cut back from around 40 a year to around 10, dogs would continue to be used for demonstration.
The dogs are always heavily anesthesized. Greenwald said.
"The truth is not being told," she said.
about what gives them the right to exploit animals.
KU's Meador said PETA had a right to its point of view, but that animal rights activists were not always informed about all aspects of laboratory testing.
Burnett said people should think
"No researcher is going to torture animals for fun, that's absurd," she said. "I have understood that their face is a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy."
John Brown, associate professor of microbiology, does antibody research with rabbits and mice. He said he did not believe what most animal rights groups said about animal research, but that some people in the science field could be more informed on the subject.
"I would encourage the diaglogue that has been generated by people concerned with the well-being of animals," he said. "The more knowledge people have, the less reactionary they're going to be."
Brown added that both sides could be reactionary.
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