Deep within the hallways of the University of
Pennsylvania, behind locked doors and security clearances, hidden from
public eyes, primates are being tortured and killed like expendable
products.
For approximately the last ten years, the University of
Pennsylvania in coordination with Allegheny University has been funding
experimentation on primates. In 1994, Professor Gary Aston-Jones, a
Professor of Psychology and the Director of Laboratory Neuromodulation
and Behavior at the University of Pennsylvania, recorded impulse
activity of individual neurons in the locus coeruleus (LC), a section of
the brain, from chair-restrained, unanesthetized cynomolgus monkeys.
These monkeys (Macaca fasicularis) were restrained to a customized
restraining device consisting of a cubicle in which the monkey's body
was placed, and an opening through which the animal's head extended. If
the monkeys did as trained, yielding the correct behavior: the
depression and releasing of a lever, they received a drop of juice
reward (Tang). To make the primates want the reward, dehydration and
thirst needed to be present. A solid aluminum post was cemented to the
skulls using bone anchors and stainless steel bone screws. To fix the
animals' heads in place, this post was then clamped to the primate
chair, leaving the primate unable to move during recording sessions and
training. During the whole length of the research, the primates were
never observed to progress to the state of rapid eye movement (REM)
sleep. The deprivation of REM sleep has been found to cause anxiety,
paranoia, and the inability to concentrate, leading to emotionally
unstable test subjects.
Another similar project was started May 1, 1996 and will
continue until April 30, 2000. Currently, as you are reading this very
line, primates are suffering inside the doors of the Stellar-Chance
Laboratory, 422 Curie Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA. Professor Aston-Jones
and those individuals he works with are administering environmental
and/or cognitive stressors to these very primates. Does this experiment
seem important or even logical enough to cause suffering to living
sentient beings such as primates, even if information is gained from
doing so? This practice is unethical and needs to be stopped immediately
along with all animal experimentation. An estimated 60-100 million
animals are dying each year in the United States alone for animal
experimentation! If these animals who are suffering and dying for
medical "progress" and scientific curiosity are so different from us
human beings, then how can we validly experiment on them scientifically?
Yet if they are so similar to us, then how can we justify these acts
morally, knowing that never in a million years, would we allow these
cruel experiments to be done to our families and friends?
COME FIGHT THE ANIMAL ABUSE AT U PENNS LABS!
Join the Animal Defense League - PA as we host the
Primate Freedom Tour stop in Philadelphia. Wednesday, August 25th a
march beginning at 11:00am at the vending carts and commons area at 33rd
and Spruce to 422 Curie Boulevard, the Stellar-Chance Laboratories,
going through the heart of Upenn. Approx. 1:00pm outreach may be going
on around Penn's campus
For more information please contact:
ADL - PA
PO Box 22310
Philadelphia, PA 19110
1-888-341-6587
Source: [email protected]
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