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Media Coverage Animal rights activists fight drug testing on primates Ron Cassie, The Examiner BALTIMORE - Several animal rights activists from Stop Animal
Exploitation Now and the Baltimore Animal Rights Coalition protested the
treatment of primates, specifically squirrel monkeys, at the National
Institute for Drug Abuse research lab on The Johns Hopkins University’s
Bayview campus off Eastern Avenue. Michael Budkie, a coordinator with S.A.E.N., a nonprofit Ohio-based
research organization, said his group opposed the drug addiction
research done on the primates for several reasons, the first being, “the
negligent treatment of the animals.” He also said that the National
Institutes of Health spends $500 million a year on drug addiction
research on animals — money he said could be better spent on treatment
for human beings suffering from addiction. Budkie presented post-mortem records from the federally funded NIH
program of squirrel monkeys that either died or were killed at that lab
in 2003 and 2004 as evidence. Ten of 19 deaths were either anesthetic
overdoses or related to anesthesia procedure in connection with cases of
pneumonia, apparently fairly prevalent among the animals. One monkey was
judged to be in poor nutritional condition. Others spent up to a decade
in the testing program. Budkie added that any research garnered from
such neglected animals is tainted. Erin Marcus, with the Baltimore Animal Rights Coalition, said she
wants “the U.S. Department of Agriculture to take a more meaningful role
in thoroughly investigating” the conditions at the NIDA lab at Bayview
and other universities doing testing. She said that with typical fines against universities and
institutions “the size of Johns Hopkins it amounts to a slap on the
wrist.” Dr. Catherine Sasek, a health science administrator at the National
Institute for Drug Research, defended both the Bayview lab’s treatment
of animals and the efficacy of its work. “The animals are very well-cared for and we take into the
consideration the animals’ psychological well-being, especially the
primates,” said Sasek, who confirmed the $500 million figure. “We learn
a tremendous amount from rodents and primates about how the brain
responds to drugs and the addiction process.” But Sasek also said, “We’re not ever going to be able give people a
pill to cure their addiction. Any pharmacological treatment has be in
conjunction with behavior therapy and changes.”
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