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Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!
S. A. E. N.
"Exposing the truth to wipe out animal experimentation"

Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, August 24, 2002
Contact: (248) 683-4176 or Cell (810) 438-5256

Attention: Assignment Desk

Sunday Protest Targets Michigan Researchers;
National Watchdog Group Cites ‘Wasted' Research

ANN ARBOR – A major demonstration – protesting the waste of millions of dollars at Michigan on research for drug addiction instead of experiments to save human lives – will be held SUNDAY, August 25, at 12:30 p.m. at the Medical Sciences Research Bldgs (1150 West Medical Center Drive).

The demonstration follows revelations late last week that U.S. primate research facilities – like those at the University of Michigan – are spending billions of tax dollars not on cancer and other life-threatening diseases, but on sex experiments, and drug and alcohol addiction.

Cincinnati-based SAEN, a government watchdog group, last week released an investigative White Paper – "The Primate Experimentation Scandal" – which outlines the spending of billions of tax dollars over four decades and the failure of the system to deliver any real discoveries for human health.

Protests will be held Aug. 24-Sept. 2 for "National Primate Liberation Week," in about 20 cities, including Houston, Portland, San Diego, Seattle, Madison, Chicago, Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, Boston, New Haven, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Nashville.

SAEN said government audits reveal nearly $700 million is spent annually on primate experiments – but that most of it does not involve research into diseases that kill most Americans, such as cancer and heart disease. Instead, the majority of research funds are used for experiments in cocaine and alcohol consumption, reproduction and esoteric areas like "neural information processing."

At Michigan, researcher James Woods has garnered millions of dollars over more than 30 years on primate research into drug addiction, much of duplicative and not really relevant to human health.

"The American public has been hoodwinked by a pseudo-scientific establishment whose primary objective is self-perpetuation. More than a half billion dollars is spent every year in the U.S. on experimentation of questionable value which is not designed to cure real diseases," said SAEN investigator Michael Budkie.

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