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30 August 2002 - From the Wisconsin Radio Network, which provides news stories to over 50 radio stations across Wisconsin. Group blasts primate experiments at
UW-Madison as useless and abusive A national group called Stop Animal Exploitation Now releases a report on primate research at UW-Madison and elsewhere that indicts these programs as cruel to animals and a useless waste of money. Michael Budkie leads the group and wrote the report. "These facilities have obviously utilized tens of thousands of primates each," Budkie said, "They've wasted hundreds of millions of dollars if not actually billions of dollars and they have not provided any cures for diseases or even any useful scientific information that's used today in human medicine." Budkie says nearly a third of the primates used in these research facilities die from ailments not related to the research. The group says primates are highly intelligent and social animals and are abused by researchers. Roughly $245 million in federal money is used to pay for these animal experiments each year, according to Budkie. Millions of dollars are used to addict primates to drugs and study them. "We think it's criminal that that money is being wasted in useless animal experiments that do nothing more than make drug addicts out of primates when there are human beings that can't get into substance abuse treatment programs for lack of federal funding." Budkie says the public has a right to know exactly what goes on in these primate research centers like the one operated by UW-Madison. The report, "Forty Years of Fraud : The Regional Primate Research System", was released Wednesday, August 28th. Return to Media Coverage |
