Chimps’ Days in Labs May Be Dwindling

[joeybee12]

NEW IBERIA, La. — In a dome-shaped outdoor cage, a dozen chimpanzees are hooting. The hair on their shoulders sticks straight up. “That’s piloerection,” a sign of emotional arousal, says Dr. Dana Hasselschwert, head of veterinary sciences at the New Iberia Research Center. She tells a visitor to keep his distance. The chimps tend to throw pebbles — or worse — when they get excited.

Chimps’ similarity to humans makes them valuable for research, and at the same time inspires intense sympathy. To research scientists, they may look like the best chance to cure terrible diseases. But to many other people, they look like relatives behind bars.

Biomedical research on chimps helped produce a vaccine for hepatitis B, and is aimed at one for hepatitis C, which infects 170 million people worldwide, but there has long been an outcry against the research as cruel and unnecessary. Now, because of a major push by advocacy organizations, a decision to stop such research in the United States could come within a year. As it is, the United States is one of only two countries that conduct invasive research on chimpanzees. The other is the central African nation of Gabon.

“This is a very different moment than ever before,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States. “Now is the time to get these chimps out of invasive research and out of the labs.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/science/chimps-days-in-research-may-be-near-an-end.html?_r=1&hp

[Ship of Fools]

1. a little bit of good news, for once

[HopeHoops]

2. It's pretty sick that they do such research on them in the first place.

The cosmetic industry STILL uses rabbits for toxicity testing by dropping shit in their eyes and measuring how loud they scream. Some things are just wrong on every level.

[RKP5637]

3. I get pretty angry over this damn torturing of animals for profit. Some of the

ones doing it IMO are pretty sick individuals to start with.

[HopeHoops]

5. It's worse than that - they do it with humans too. Sadly it is often under the guise of ....

"humanitarian assistance" or "public health" or something equally appealing-sounding to most people. All in the name of money.

[alp227]

9. what's your alternative then? HUMAN testing (FAR less ethical)?

I understand how animal testing may sound controversial to the more super-sensitive emotional thinkers among us, but how else can medicines be tested? I don't know too many humans willing to sacrifice themselves for such experiments.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[RKP5637]

4. K&R !!! n/t

[Hell Hath No Fury]

6. A step in the right direction!

I look forward to the day when all animal testing is a thing of the past.

[Fumesucker]

7. And George W Bush breathes a huge sigh of relief...

[RKP5637]

8. +1000 +++ n/t

[Quantess]

10. I sure hope so!

The "need" for animal research is redundant and highly exaggerated.