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Newsletters The Dismal Record at UCONN – The Suffering of Cornelius The University of Connecticut (UCONN) has been breaking federal laws
for years. In a recent SAEN investigative report, Breaking the Law –
Animal Care in U.S. Labs
http://www.all-creatures.org/saen/articles-rep-btl.html , both
branches of UCONN are listed among the top violators (#3 and #10) of the
Animal Welfare Act (AWA). In 2003, the Storrs branch of UCONN was fined
$129,000 for multiple AWA violations. Additionally, the Farmington
branch uses primates in extremely abusive experiments. These highly invasive experiments are the work of Dr. David Waitzman
whose work has been funded since 1992. The fiscal 2005 funding amount is
$121,659, racking up $1.6 million so far with no end in sight. Procedures in this project confine rhesus monkeys to restraint
chairs, cut holes into their skulls, and place electrodes into their
brains. This is one of the most duplicated procedures in all of primate
experimentation. These practices have had very dire consequences for the unfortunate
monkeys who have fallen into the hands of Dr. Waitzman and his
colleagues. We are working closely with Justin Goodman of the UCONN Animal Rights
Collective to uncover the truth at UCONN. Currently, through examining
internal university documents, Justin has been uncovering horrific
information and recently contacted us with this excerpt: I've just returned from my first round of document viewing for the
document request I made to UCONN. Today, I made it my priority to
examine the care/cage logs of two monkeys, Cornelius and Aries, who are
no longer alive as a result of this research. Cornelius was a 7-year old
rhesus monkey that died recently at the hands of Dr. Waitzman, only
eight months after arriving from Covance in March of 2005. According to
the logs, he had no medical problems before the trepanation procedure
(cutting of openings into the skull) was performed. All of the daily
reports before his operation described him in good health. However, afterwards he experienced fairly frequent tremors, seizures,
and vomiting related to the experimental procedure (which includes a
restraint chair, jacket, and steel cylinders through which different
areas of the brain are prodded). I counted around a dozen instances
where seizures were reported in the log. At one point the drug Dilantin
was brought up as a possible cause, but it seems as though the
trephination procedure played a large role. Despite these problems and
other signs of stress (hanging his head, staring at the wall), the
researchers continued their invasive work on Cornelius. On November 21, 2005, while Cornelius was restrained in the chair, he
began vomiting and suffered from a grand mal seizure followed by
respiratory and cardiac arrest. A research assistant attempted CPR to no
avail. Dr. Waitzman showed up as this was going on and cited the cause
of death as "complication during recording." They proceeded to perfuse
and remove his brain as they do in all "normal" cases. Cornelius showed many signs of distress, discomfort, and illness
throughout his miserable life at UCHC (University of Connecticut Health
Center). It is inconceivable that the researchers carried on business as
usual and ultimately caused his death. Do not let Cornelius’ and Aries’ deaths go unchallenged. Other
monkeys are still awaiting their fate in Dr. Waitzman’s lab – but they
can be saved. Your action is desperately needed to change their future.
Please contact the President of the University of Connecticut to protest
the abusive experiments of Dr. Waitzman and to demand the release of the
primates used in this project. Philip E. Austin
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