The Animal Welfare Act requires that laboratories file annual
reports with the United States Department of Agriculture which list
how many animals are used in experimentation and also the level of
pain that these animals experience. One of the most controversial
areas is the reporting of projects that involve unrelieved pain
and/or distress in experimentation. The reporting of this kind of
experimentation is inconsistent and clearly questionable.
Earlier in this report neurological experimentation was discussed
in some depth, including listing the procedures which are generally
part of this area of experimentation including the surgical
attachment of devices including restraining bars and recording
cylinders to the heads of primates, confinement in restraint chairs,
and severely limiting access to water. One of the most puzzling
aspects of this area of experimentation is that it is typically not
considered to cause unrelieved pain and/or distress for the animals
used in this experimentation. Despite the widespread nature of this
experimentation, it is virtually never reported as causing
unrelieved pain and/or distress. If any additional reporting is
done, some of the procedures are listed in areas for exceptions to
standard care. Statements regarding this variety of research and the
potential for causing pain and or distress in primates, made by
veterinarians, primatologists, etc. are posted at:
http://www.all-creatures.org/saen/grants-gov.html .
Another example of the inconsistencies in this area of reporting
are relevant to the use of primates in drug addiction
experimentation. In some varieties of this experimentation primates
are forced to experience spontaneous withdrawal from addiction to
powerful drugs, such as morphine. One laboratory that performs this
variety of experimentation is the Medical College of Virginia, and
in 2007 (see Appendix
B) this lab reported 21 primates as experiencing unrelieved pain
due to precipitated drug withdrawal. However, not all laboratories
report drug withdrawal as causing pain/distress. Johns Hopkins
University, according to information contained in research
publications (excerpts of which are attached to this report in
Appendix C) subject
primates to virtually identical withdrawal syndromes, and yet do not
report this as causing pain/distress.
These areas hint at what is likely a much larger problem. Many
other areas of experimentation have the potential to cause serious
pain and distress in primates, but this is not acknowledged. For
example, many primates are used in projects involving infectious
diseases, such as simian immuno-deficiency virus. Since this disease
parallels aids in humans, it has the potential to cause very serious
consequences for the animals. However, labs which conduct this kind
of research such as the University of Wisconsin, often do not report
these projects as causing pain. The research protocol itself states:
“Infection with SIV or related viruses results in the development
of immuno-deficiency disease. Thus, over a period o time the animals
are expected to have fever, weight loss, periods of diarrhea, rash,
decreased physical activity and possibly pain.”
And yet, this is not reported as causing unrelieved pain/distress
even though the primates receive no pain relievers.
Taken together, this information can only lead us to believe that
pain in primate experimentation is drastically under-reported. The
information promulgated by the USDA on this topic is extremely
flawed.
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