Monkeys, Nerve Gas, and the U. S. Army: Would You Do This To Your Dog?
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Marc Bekoff, Psychology Today - Animal Emotions
September 2011

Furthermore, Department of Defense policies explicitly prohibit harming primates for training purposes and require that alternatives to the use of animals be used when available. The nerve gas experiments violate these policies.

Why is their intense suffering ignored in this unnecessary research?

Published on September 21, 2011 by Marc Bekoff in Animal Emotions At Maryland's Aberdeen Proving Ground U. S. Army researchers continue to use vervet monkeys in their attempt to create the effects of a nerve agent attack. Moneys can be used every 60 days for as long three years. You can be sure they don't like being treated this way. Neither would dogs, cats, or other animals.

Monkeys are highly emotional and sentient beings who are able to suffer and experience deep and enduring pain. The procedure used in the nerve gas experiment causes them to profusely salivate, vomit, twitch violently, and experience uncontrollable seizures. Some stop breathing. The violent reaction of the monkeys to the gas has been described by one of the trainees as similar to "a chiwawa [sic] shitting razor blades." Would you allow your dog to be subjected to such heinous treatment? The monkeys are no less sentient or disposable and their emotional lives must be factored into the ways in which they're used and abused in research.

Besides the fact that these sorts of studies can readily be conducted using non-animal alternatives and the data collected on the monkeys are not relevant to a human's response to nerve gas, the situation in which the captive monkeys are poisoned doesn't come close to representing what happens out in the real world where humans might experience nerve gas warfare. Furthermore, Department of Defense policies explicitly prohibit harming primates for training purposes and require that alternatives to the use of animals be used when available. The nerve gas experiments violate these policies.


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