Some people love conspiracy theories, no matter how outlandish. State News readers have been subjected to such people claiming that animals are abused in “secretive” research at MSU, but the claims evaporate when the facts surface.
In its fundraising efforts, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals chose one researcher from each of 16 basketball powerhouses for a mock NCAA playoff of “worst researcher.” MSU’s strong basketball program meant PETA had to find a researcher here to pick on, so they chose Professor Arthur Weber because he works with cats, testing treatments that might save eyesight in people with glaucoma. PETA described this as “removing their eyes while they’re still alive,” to trick readers into picturing the animals squirming in pain. In reality, the cats are always deeply anesthetized during the procedure and after the eye is removed (to measure the effectiveness of therapies), the cat is euthanized. These procedures were reviewed by veterinary ophthalmologists, who sometimes remove an eye from animals to prevent further damage because of disease, so the animal is never subjected to any pain or suffering. For those animals in survival surgeries, the cats are again fully anesthetized, given drugs to prevent pain, and afterward play like the rest of their cat roommates. I know because these experiments, like all experiments with animals at MSU, are published in journals open to any library user. Plus, I chair the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) that must review and approve any animal research before it can begin. Furthermore, the USDA has made 21 surprise inspections at MSU since Professor Weber has been here and found no problems in his cat subjects: no postsurgical complications, no disease, no signs of anything but happy, healthy cats.
PETA left out the anesthesia, analgesia, IACUC and USDA oversight to mislead people about what’s really going on. PETA also failed to mention it is opposed to all research with animals, even if it’s humanely done, and even if the research saves millions of human lives. PETA doesn’t emphasize their true position because most Americans see it as fanatical, the type of thinking that might incite terrorists to firebomb Anthony Hall (as was done in 1992). PETA continues to mislead members and donors by saying it opposes only inhumane research, and then describe any animal research as inhumane by leaving out details such as anesthesia, painkillers, inspections, etc.
Students Promoting Animal Rights, or SPAR, President Drew Winter’s conspiracy theory is computer models can replace animal research. If Winter has a computer model that will produce a cure for glaucoma, he should crank it up and make himself exceedingly rich. But the odds are not good, since the number of therapies or cures that have been discovered by computer modeling without animal research is precisely zero. Indeed, how could you model anything as complicated as the eye until you know something about how it works to set your parameters? Maybe that is why biomedical scientists, who know a lot more about glaucoma than Winter does, and presumably have at least as deep a desire to find cures, pursue research with animals. If Winter had consulted our IACUC Web site, he would have learned that we require every investigator to justify why animals must be used, and to demonstrate that they have searched for alternatives. Some months ago, I contacted SPAR and offered to meet with them to explain how we make sure animal research at MSU is done humanely, but the group declined. Some conspiracy theories are just too precious to expose to facts.
Marc Breedlove
Barnett Rosenberg Professor of Neuroscience and chair of MSU’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
Support student media!
Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
Discussion
Share and discuss “Animal testing information available, thorough” on social media.
