Back in May, I had written a letter to the Editor of the Sun Chronicle. See below:
To the editor: Actor James Cromwell has joined In Defense of Animals during World Week for Animals in Laboratories, which wraps up today, to speak out against the use of animals in testing and research.
Cromwell issued these strong statements in support of ending the use of animals in cruel and unnecessary research: “While precious dollars are being cut from every area of government, the wasteful funding of animal experiments that IDA has identified is infuriating. It is time to re-direct taxpayer health funding to actually helping people get well, rather than making animals suffer and die.”
World Week for Animals in Laboratories spotlights the millions of animals who suffer and die each year in research and testing. This is an important time to address the myth that animal experiments are a “necessary evil,” essential for medical progress.
Studies have demonstrated that a significant area of animal research has been a costly waste, but if society is paying attention it should be the last. A new era in biomedical science has emerged without the use of animals, using human cell cultures, genomics and digital imaging, to name a few of the many available methods. Increasingly, scientists are acknowledging that animal research is not producing the results attributed to it, or deserving of billions of taxpayer dollars. Nor does it justify the incredible suffering involved.
Girl for Animal Liberation
Tonight I decided to follow up on my letter to see if there were any responses. There was one, from some narrow-minded, no doubt meat-eating, heartless, soulless Troll. Clearly this douche bag has never watched an undercover video of a research lab. Perhaps she should spend some time educating herself on what exactly goes on behind those closed, fiercely protected walls of a research lab before dismissing my claim.
Who says animal research wasteful?
To the editor:
In the interest of fairness and reader enlightenment, Girl for Animal Liberation should immediately provide, and the Sun Chronicle should publish, her sources for words she wrote in her April 28 letter concerning animal research.
Specifically: “Studies have demonstrated that a significant area of animal research has been a costly wastescientists are acknowledging that animal research is not producing the results attributed to it, or deserving of billions of taxpayer dollars. Nor does it justify the incredible suffering involved.”
Let the readers see all those sources so they can look them up themselves and confirm (or more likely dispute) these assertions!
By the way, James Cromwell is quite a good actor but his knowledge of biomedical research leaves much to be desired. He’s right up there with Meryl Streep and her knowledge of pesticides and toxicology. I wouldn’t trust Cromwell’s opinion on biomedical research policy anyway; he’s probably reading a script someone handed him.
Anna DeMarinis
Girl for Animal Liberation says her sources include swwail.org/literature.html; pcrm.org/health/medNews/mice-fail-as-models-of-human-inflammation-national; pcrm.org/research/animaltestalt/animaltesting;pcrm.org/research/edtraining/; peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/animal-testing-101.aspx, andpeta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/animal-testing-in-depth.aspx.
Girl for Animal Liberation 