Animal research has come under fire because of the high profile deaths of two chimpanzees. Animal rights groups have used the visibility to attack the university policy of using animals in research.
Rob Russell, director of Protect Our Earth’s Treasures, said animal research on campus is ridiculous. Formed in 1984, POET is an animal rights group that is seeking to have the use of animals in research eliminated from OSU.
“I would like to see empty cages,” Russell said.
According to the group’s Web site, researchers at OSU experiment on animals by testing drugs on them, analyzing the effects of stress – even forcing dogs to smoke cigarettes.
The chimpanzees, from the now-closed primate center, were used to research primate cognition, not for chemical or medical testing.
Russell said OSU is failing when it comes to animal research.
He cited a report by the Association of Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, which points out numerous failures in the OSU research program.
Earle Holland, spokesman for OSU, was quick to point out that the problems highlighted in the AAALAC report have been addressed by OSU, and that a hearing is scheduled for the end of the month to review these changes.
Russell also said OSU is not fully using possible alternative methods of research to animal experiments, such as the use of cell cultures and computer simulations.
Despite these alternatives, OSU is still using animals. According to Holland, animal testing is necessary.
“With a cancer test, you must use animals to see their effectiveness,” Holland said.
When it comes to researching diseases such as cancer and HIV, it is not only infeasible and unethical to use humans, but a simulation does not tell enough about the effectiveness of treatments because of the complexity of the human immune system, Holland said.
If researchers were able to do their work with the same results without animals, they would, Holland said.
Aysha Akhtar, senior medical and research advisor for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington D.C., would disagree with the necessity of animal research.
“We know that the rocket that originally got Armstrong to the moon works, but we know that there are better ways to get there,” Akhtar said.
In opposition to that belief, Akhtar said using animals such as rats does not tell researchers exactly what will happen in a human because the species are so different.
“One thing I would like to say is that animal studies with human disease is fraught with problems,” Akhtar said.
Akhtar is not suggesting OSU start using humans for research, but she doesn’t want animals used either.
In OSU’s defense, Holland said animal testing is sometimes required by the Food and Drug Administration.
Akhtar said in 2004 the FDA said only drugs that passed animal testing could be put on the market.
Simulations approximate the effects of certain procedures, while actual animal testing gives definite results of tests, Holland said.
“It’s easy for people to oppose animal research and to want it abolished,” Holland said. He said that those same people aren’t lining up to volunteer for research.
