Is animal research merely a pseudo-science for financial profit?
September 29, 2024
Source: Sul Nowroz 2024
Sixteen minutes into the webinar a photograph is shared. It is of a lone macaque monkey, light brown eyes staring into the camera. The monkey, known as RH2519, was born in 2004 at a New England (USA) so-called research facility affiliated to Harvard University. RH2519 gave birth to four infants, each of whom was taken from her before they were a year old. In 2010, RH2519 was moved to a second so-called research facility 1,200 miles away in the state of Wisconsin. There she gave birth to four more infants, all of whom were also forcibly removed.
Princess
RH2519’s suffering, loss and misery came to light after an undercover investigation. In addition to being caged all her life and having her offspring stolen, she was subjected to numerous violent and depraved ultrasound experiments. These so-called procedures frequently required table-top restraints to be used, and on occasions she was chemically restrained. She endured a string of physical ailments for most of her life. The investigator dignified RH2519 by giving her a name, Princess, and there was a campaign to free her. It failed – Princess was killed in December 2021.
“Princess wears her psychological distress on her body,” said PETA’s Vice President of Laboratories Investigations, Alka Chandna.
“Primatologists tell us non-human primates who exist in labs realise they have no control over their lives. No control over being caged, or when they are fed, or what they are fed. If they give birth, they can’t even control if they can keep their infants. The one thing they can control is the hair on their bodies, and as a measure of control over their lives, some resort to ripping it out.”
I look at the photograph again – now as evidence of the vicious and psychotic nature of animal-based research. Princess was caught up in the Vivisection Industrial Complex (VIC), and we owe it to her to tell her story.
On the left a healthy macaque monkey, on the right Princess – Source: PETA
Camp Beagle and Eisenhower’s Warning
The webinar was hosted by Camp Beagle, Europe’s longest running animal protest camp. Since its establishment three years ago, the camp, often using drone footage, has exposed the cruel and inhumane practices of MBR Acres, a breeder of beagles for animal testing. To get a sense of the need for Camp Beagle’s exposé work you only have to watch some of its recent footage.
“We are small, but we are boots on the ground,” says camp guardian and veteran animal rights activist John Curtin. The boots on the ground have cost MBR a cool £4 million in court injunctions since the camp was set up, underscoring Curtin’s comment. Curtin and the other guardians are seasoned activists, they know the terrain well and repeatedly outsmart MBR.
MBR is part of a larger system primed on sadism and violence. More than 100 million animals are violated for so-called research worldwide each year, three million in the UK alone. And MBR? They breed 2,000 beagles annually. All are separated from their mothers in the first few weeks and kept in metal cages. Their only experience of daylight will be when they are transported, still only months old, to so-called testing laboratories. There, they will be brutalised before being killed.
Source: Sul Nowroz 2024
It doesn’t have to be this way. Data tells us testing on animals doesn’t work. Ninety-five percent of all new drugs that are shown to be safe and effective in animal tests fail in human trials, ninety-three percent of experimental cancer drugs failed in the first phase of human clinical trials after testing ‘successfully’ on animals, approximately 100 HIV vaccines have been successful in animal experiments—and 100% of them failed to protect humans sufficiently. And potential stroke treatments fair no better. A recent study showed that ‘over 1,000 potential stroke treatments have been successful in animal tests, but of the approximately 10% that progressed to human trials, none worked sufficiently well in humans.’
So, why do we continue to torture animals in the name of research?
“It’s a Kafkaesque set up” says Curtin. He’s right. Despite the data and science telling us animal testing has little, if any, application for humans, a disorienting, complex and menacing web of bureaucracies prevail to maintain the lie and commit the crime in a senseless loop. It’s a popular model – institutions, academia, government bodies, and businesses collude to manufacture a socio-economic framing. The framing doesn’t have to be true – it just has to be convincing and, critically, create industrial-sized wealth amongst the conspirers.
The model, commonly referred to as the industrial complex, first entered the political vernacular in the 1960s when US President Eisenhower introduced us to the Military Industrial Complex. Eisenhower, a five-star general, worried about the nested relationships and murky intersections, and the top-down propaganda needed to keep the defence sector alive. Eisenhower realised the profit motive endangered sense and reason and risked corrupting the very purpose of the group. In his 1961 address, Eisenhower urged Americans to guard against ‘perpetual war’ because that’s what the Military Industrial Complex will inherently and systemically pursue. Between WWII and 2002 there have been 248 reported conflicts; the US has been involved in 201 of them. According to iAffairs, a Canadian research and publishing outlet, the US has dropped an average of forty-six bombs a day for the last twenty years.
The Vivisection Industrial Complex (VIC)
Sixteen minutes into the webinar a photograph is shared. It is of a lone macaque monkey, light brown eyes staring into the camera. The monkey, known as RH2519, was born in 2004 at a New England (USA) so-called research facility affiliated to Harvard University. RH2519 gave birth to four infants, each of whom was taken from her before they were a year old. In 2010, RH2519 was moved to a second so-called research facility 1,200 miles away in the state of Wisconsin. There she gave birth to four more infants, all of whom were also forcibly removed.
Princess
RH2519’s suffering, loss and misery came to light after an undercover investigation. In addition to being caged all her life and having her offspring stolen, she was subjected to numerous violent and depraved ultrasound experiments. These so-called procedures frequently required table-top restraints to be used, and on occasions she was chemically restrained. She endured a string of physical ailments for most of her life. The investigator dignified RH2519 by giving her a name, Princess, and there was a campaign to free her. It failed – Princess was killed in December 2021.
“Princess wears her psychological distress on her body,” said PETA’s Vice President of Laboratories Investigations, Alka Chandna.
“Primatologists tell us non-human primates who exist in labs realise they have no control over their lives. No control over being caged, or when they are fed, or what they are fed. If they give birth, they can’t even control if they can keep their infants. The one thing they can control is the hair on their bodies, and as a measure of control over their lives, some resort to ripping it out.”
I look at the photograph again – now as evidence of the vicious and psychotic nature of animal-based research. Princess was caught up in the Vivisection Industrial Complex (VIC), and we owe it to her to tell her story.
On the left a healthy macaque monkey, on the right Princess – Source: PETACamp Beagle and Eisenhower’s Warning
The webinar was hosted by Camp Beagle, Europe’s longest running animal protest camp. Since its establishment three years ago, the camp, often using drone footage, has exposed the cruel and inhumane practices of MBR Acres, a breeder of beagles for animal testing. To get a sense of the need for Camp Beagle’s exposé work you only have to watch some of its recent footage.
“We are small, but we are boots on the ground,” says camp guardian and veteran animal rights activist John Curtin. The boots on the ground have cost MBR a cool £4 million in court injunctions since the camp was set up, underscoring Curtin’s comment. Curtin and the other guardians are seasoned activists, they know the terrain well and repeatedly outsmart MBR.
MBR is part of a larger system primed on sadism and violence. More than 100 million animals are violated for so-called research worldwide each year, three million in the UK alone. And MBR? They breed 2,000 beagles annually. All are separated from their mothers in the first few weeks and kept in metal cages. Their only experience of daylight will be when they are transported, still only months old, to so-called testing laboratories. There, they will be brutalised before being killed.
Source: Sul Nowroz 2024It doesn’t have to be this way. Data tells us testing on animals doesn’t work. Ninety-five percent of all new drugs that are shown to be safe and effective in animal tests fail in human trials, ninety-three percent of experimental cancer drugs failed in the first phase of human clinical trials after testing ‘successfully’ on animals, approximately 100 HIV vaccines have been successful in animal experiments—and 100% of them failed to protect humans sufficiently. And potential stroke treatments fair no better. A recent study showed that ‘over 1,000 potential stroke treatments have been successful in animal tests, but of the approximately 10% that progressed to human trials, none worked sufficiently well in humans.’
So, why do we continue to torture animals in the name of research?
“It’s a Kafkaesque set up” says Curtin. He’s right. Despite the data and science telling us animal testing has little, if any, application for humans, a disorienting, complex and menacing web of bureaucracies prevail to maintain the lie and commit the crime in a senseless loop. It’s a popular model – institutions, academia, government bodies, and businesses collude to manufacture a socio-economic framing. The framing doesn’t have to be true – it just has to be convincing and, critically, create industrial-sized wealth amongst the conspirers.
The model, commonly referred to as the industrial complex, first entered the political vernacular in the 1960s when US President Eisenhower introduced us to the Military Industrial Complex. Eisenhower, a five-star general, worried about the nested relationships and murky intersections, and the top-down propaganda needed to keep the defence sector alive. Eisenhower realised the profit motive endangered sense and reason and risked corrupting the very purpose of the group. In his 1961 address, Eisenhower urged Americans to guard against ‘perpetual war’ because that’s what the Military Industrial Complex will inherently and systemically pursue. Between WWII and 2002 there have been 248 reported conflicts; the US has been involved in 201 of them. According to iAffairs, a Canadian research and publishing outlet, the US has dropped an average of forty-six bombs a day for the last twenty years.
The Vivisection Industrial Complex (VIC)
Source: World Animal Foundation
The vivisection sector shuns public attention and operates behind a series of opaque disclosures. From data that is available we can assume the vivisection industry is worth some £10 billion, although it is also assumed this is probably understated. To function, the industry requires a range of participants, including the supplier of the animals, shipping and logistics firms, the supplier of specialist equipment such as cages, restraints and surgical devices, real estate brokers and landlords, the “testing” laboratories, including universities and other academic institutions, the commissioning entities, often household brand names, and government departments and lobbying firms.
This syndicate operates in a topsy-turvy world few of us would recognise. Firstly, the correlation between human and animal research is non-existent: ‘Animal experiments don’t accurately mimic how the human body and human diseases respond to drugs, chemicals or treatments’ concludes the Humane Society. Even pro-business publication The Economist acknowledged in June of this year that only five percent of ‘therapies tested on animals are approved for human use,’ and yet the “research” continues.
Secondly, the overtly cruel nature of the so-called testing borders on the psychotic, and there is no motivation to minimise the suffering. On the contrary, most of the research undertaken at universities is often no more than curiosity led barbarism (Trigger warning: The link describes explicit animal cruelty).
Thirdly, the UK Animals Scientific Procedures Act (ASPA) exempts the Home Office, the regulatory oversight body, from releasing any material it holds in response to Freedom of Information requests. In fact, Section 24 of the Act, often referred to as the ‘Secrecy Clause’ prevents the Home Office from releasing any ‘information received in confidence, such as licensing assessments, application content, and inspector visit reports.’ A breach of section 24 can result in imprisonment.
An industry with no legitimacy, a business model incentivised on ‘throughput’ and whose inner dealings are cloaked in secrecy – Eisenhower’s warning is ringing loud.
“We need something seismic,” concludes Curtin. “Action is needed. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Rest, Fluids, Paracetamol … and the Unnecessary Death of a Princess
We owe it to Princess to tell her story, of how she became a victim of the Vivisection Industrial Complex, and how it killed her.
The vivisection sector shuns public attention and operates behind a series of opaque disclosures. From data that is available we can assume the vivisection industry is worth some £10 billion, although it is also assumed this is probably understated. To function, the industry requires a range of participants, including the supplier of the animals, shipping and logistics firms, the supplier of specialist equipment such as cages, restraints and surgical devices, real estate brokers and landlords, the “testing” laboratories, including universities and other academic institutions, the commissioning entities, often household brand names, and government departments and lobbying firms.
This syndicate operates in a topsy-turvy world few of us would recognise. Firstly, the correlation between human and animal research is non-existent: ‘Animal experiments don’t accurately mimic how the human body and human diseases respond to drugs, chemicals or treatments’ concludes the Humane Society. Even pro-business publication The Economist acknowledged in June of this year that only five percent of ‘therapies tested on animals are approved for human use,’ and yet the “research” continues.
Secondly, the overtly cruel nature of the so-called testing borders on the psychotic, and there is no motivation to minimise the suffering. On the contrary, most of the research undertaken at universities is often no more than curiosity led barbarism (Trigger warning: The link describes explicit animal cruelty).
Thirdly, the UK Animals Scientific Procedures Act (ASPA) exempts the Home Office, the regulatory oversight body, from releasing any material it holds in response to Freedom of Information requests. In fact, Section 24 of the Act, often referred to as the ‘Secrecy Clause’ prevents the Home Office from releasing any ‘information received in confidence, such as licensing assessments, application content, and inspector visit reports.’ A breach of section 24 can result in imprisonment.
An industry with no legitimacy, a business model incentivised on ‘throughput’ and whose inner dealings are cloaked in secrecy – Eisenhower’s warning is ringing loud.
“We need something seismic,” concludes Curtin. “Action is needed. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Rest, Fluids, Paracetamol … and the Unnecessary Death of a Princess
We owe it to Princess to tell her story, of how she became a victim of the Vivisection Industrial Complex, and how it killed her.
Source: PETA
The investigator who found Princess also sourced testimony that she was attacked by an incompatible macaque monkey months before her death. Confined to a small cage, she was ‘left bloodied and bruised, and sustained multiple, persistent injuries, including a bloody wound on her thigh, multiple scratches on her head and face, large lacerations at the base and tip of her tail, cuts on her hand, and bruises on her neck.’
In November 2021, Princess was forcibly impregnated by the Wisconsin National Primate Research Centre. She was effectively raped in the name of so-called science. Later that month she was infected with the Zika virus, commonly found in subtropical areas of Africa and South and Latin America. Zika virus can, on occasion, be harmful during pregnancy. A month later Princess was killed, and her foetus removed for examination. (Princess: 2004 – 2021. Born in captivity, died in captivity).
In 2023, there were 27,000 cases of Zika worldwide. Only one in five infected people exhibit any signs of illness. Hospitalisation is rare. The NHS’s recommended treatment for Zika virus is to get plenty of rest, drink lots of fluids, and take pain relief, such as paracetamol.
On January 17th 1961, Eisenhower gave his farewell address. He cautioned about the dangers of misplaced power and unwarranted influence before continuing: “holding scientific discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”
Welcome to the Vivisection Industrial Complex.
©2024 – Sul Nowroz, Real Media staff writer
The investigator who found Princess also sourced testimony that she was attacked by an incompatible macaque monkey months before her death. Confined to a small cage, she was ‘left bloodied and bruised, and sustained multiple, persistent injuries, including a bloody wound on her thigh, multiple scratches on her head and face, large lacerations at the base and tip of her tail, cuts on her hand, and bruises on her neck.’
In November 2021, Princess was forcibly impregnated by the Wisconsin National Primate Research Centre. She was effectively raped in the name of so-called science. Later that month she was infected with the Zika virus, commonly found in subtropical areas of Africa and South and Latin America. Zika virus can, on occasion, be harmful during pregnancy. A month later Princess was killed, and her foetus removed for examination. (Princess: 2004 – 2021. Born in captivity, died in captivity).
In 2023, there were 27,000 cases of Zika worldwide. Only one in five infected people exhibit any signs of illness. Hospitalisation is rare. The NHS’s recommended treatment for Zika virus is to get plenty of rest, drink lots of fluids, and take pain relief, such as paracetamol.
On January 17th 1961, Eisenhower gave his farewell address. He cautioned about the dangers of misplaced power and unwarranted influence before continuing: “holding scientific discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”
Welcome to the Vivisection Industrial Complex.
©2024 – Sul Nowroz, Real Media staff writer
No comments:
Post a Comment