November 13, 2013
Dear University of Washington Board of Regents:
How in the world can you consider doing something so horrendous?!
PLEASE go visit the animal labs the U already has. But PLEASE do it
unannounced, and make them show you ALL the labs. If you let them know
you're coming ahead of time, experimenters will get the animals out of any
torturous head clamps and other devices, remove the eye coils (remember the
horribly cruel eye coil experiments on monkeys, exposed in the media a few
years ago?), and make it appear as if the animals are treated well.
Remember, the Animal Welfare Act does NOT apply to animals in NIH funded
experiments. And "researchers are NOT required to give anesthetics!!!!
Yes, we know the U wants grant monies from NIH and other agencies. But
it's time to do REAL research to help humans.
Even the ex-Director of NIH, Elias Zerhouni, said, "Researchers have
over-relied on animal data. The problem is that it hasn't worked, and
it's time we stopped dancing around the problem. We need to refocus
and adapt new methodologies for use in humans to understand disease biology
in humans." (NIH Record June 21).
PLEASE put an end to using our taxes for torturing animals.
Thank you,
Darlene Kaiser
Lynnwood, WA
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