Protesters gathered in front of Bricker Hall yesterday, as students and community members of Protect Our Earth’s Treasures, demonstrated against infecting cats with FIV (feline AIDS) and injecting them with methamphetamines.
Michael Podell, an associate professor of veterinary medicine has been approved by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to receive a $1,681,907 grant. The grant will provide Podell with funding he needs to infect cats with FIV and methamphetamines in hopes of understanding what happens to humans who are HIV positive and using methamphetamines for treatment.
Protesters believe that the testing is useless because Podell and his team will infect healthy cats with a cats-only virus, then dose them with methamphetamines, believing testing is useless, for it cannot be applied to humans.
Although the university is not funding the experimentation, the fact that Ohio State is allowing it to take place on campus has incensed the protesters. “They aren’t condemning it either, which I think qualifies an outward condoning of this project. It’s a blatant waste of resources. They may not be using university dollars per se, they are getting funding, but they are using our resources,” said Meagan Pandey, a junior in history.
“Podell, he could be doing any other kind of experiment, but for him to do something like this is just a waste of resources. It’s a waste of time. It’s useless. It doesn’t do anything except testing for testing’s sake. It’s testing on cats. Methamphetamine is an illegal drug itself, and for him to do something like this, where he’s testing the effects of methamphetamine, he’s correlating this to HIV which is completely different than FIV and cats.”
The protesters are advocating against the use of cats for arbitrary experiments. They believe that OSU students should support their protest because the testing is using students’ resources and inadvertently their tuition money.
“He doesn’t condemn this kind of experiment, and he’s allowing it to go forward at Ohio State,” Pandey said.
“The reason I’m here is that my little brother had a heart transplant, in which they had to experiment on pigs for. He wouldn’t be alive today if they didn’t have that technology. But I think they’re just being curious here, like trying methamphetamines and AIDS. There’s really no connection that it’s going to lead to a cure, and it’s just useless testing, and I think it’s cruel,” said Nickie Stoan, a senior in international studies. “They (the administrators) are condoning it by allowing it to happen.”
POET and other animal right groups have been trying to rally support, despite the unwanted graffiti on campus buildings. Graffiti was found on Bricker Hall and the garage of OSU President William “Brit” Kirwan’s home Monday morning. POET does not condone the graffiti, because it is disturbing and works against the protesters favor.
“We’ve been advertising really heavily, handing fliers out on campus as much as we can to get students out. We have to get the students’ backing. Once the students stand up and say this (experimentation on cats) is crazy, this is wrong and we (the university) shouldn’t be doing this, then maybe they’ll will listen,” said Amanda Jones, a junior in anthropology.
“It’s a sign of the times when the media ignore peaceful demonstrations, non-violent sit-ins, quiet hunger strikes, not to mention the damning statements of experts, in favor of spray paint on a wall,” said POET director Rob Russell.
