Vivisectionist V the Animal Activist in UK

London's April 10 "Independent on Sunday" has a 4,000 word article headed "The Vivisectionist V the Animal Activist. One says his research transforms lives. The other has endured prison."

It is a balanced piece, presenting neither the activists nor scientists as monsters. It is bound to leave most readers realizing that the medical testing system needs a drastic overhaul, even if they are not yet convinced that vivisection should end.

It opens with a discussion of the success that militant animal rights activists have had at preventing the construction of a primate experimentation facility at Oxford. Then we read interviews with:

"Oxford Professor of Neurosurgery Tipu Aziz - one of Britain's leading brain surgeons, and one of the very few professionals willing to speak out publicly on the need for the centre - says that it must be built."

and with

"lifelong animal-rights activist Mel Broughton, 44. He and Robert Cogswell founded SPEAC (Stop Primate Experimentation at Cambridge) to protest at the Cambridge labs. Now renamed 'Speak - the voice for animals', it is the leading group in the campaign to stop the Oxford centre."

We read of Aziz:

"Since 1991, using brain surgery techniques which he helped to pioneer, Aziz has operated on more than 1,000 people suffering from Parkinson's Disease and other uncontrollable movement disorders. The operation instantly stops the convulsions and unlocks their joints - as if by flicking a switch. The procedure, he says, has transformed their lives. It involves permanently inserting two electrodes deep inside the brain to a precise spot: the sub-thalamic nucleus. Wires are passed under the skin to a pacemaker and battery inserted in the chest. Only the battery needs replacing - about every five years.... The operation - which is now estimated to have helped some 30,000 Parkinson's sufferers around the globe - was developed by Aziz and others through experiments on monkeys."

The history of the research is given in some detail. Then we read, "His research continues: into a possible vaccine against Alzheimer's, into multiple sclerosis tremors, and into the theory that the brains of Parkinson's sufferers may be 'repairable' using a modified virus. Aziz uses on average two monkeys a year for his research. 'Monkey studies are an integral part of my work,' he says. 'Every time I see one of my patients, that justifies it.'"

He says that he does the same operation on his human patients as on the monkeys, "And I don't believe that a monkey feels any different, so I'm quite happy with what I do. The experiments we do are not torturing' these animals. These monkeys will come up to us, let us put the radio control over the pacemaker to alter the rate of stimulation, and then they go off and do their own thing while they're videoed. That's our experiment."

He goes on to describe animal rights activists as terrorists. And he criticizes those who call for computer modelling or say that animal research often gives misleading results.

In the interview with Mel Broughton, he and his fellow activists are presented not as terrorists but as "ordinary folks."

The article quotes Broughton's speech on a megaphone outside of the half-built Oxford facility:

"We have learnt that a professor recently applied for a licence to conduct brain experiments on primates. We've seen the licence application. Monkeys will have electrodes fitted into their brains, and will be deprived of food and water. They will be strapped into a chair for up to 18 hours a day. The reason given for this research is to study obesity and hunger in human beings. But we know why people get fat. We know why we feel hungry. Why do this to sentient creatures when you already know the answers? This university is telling the world that this building will be a monument to scientific research into curing diseases in human beings. This is not the case. But the benefit to the researchers, the pharmaceutical industry and the vivisection industry is massive. The technology already exists to carry out safe, beneficial research which will help people suffering from disease, and does not involve inflicting pain on animals who have no choice and are completely at your mercy. Oxford University you should be ashamed of yourselves for relying on this pointless, cruel and callous treatment of sentient beings, and conning people into believing it's for their benefit. Because we've seen the research papers - and we know it's not."

The article offers other nice quotes from Broughton:

"There's this view of animal-rights campaigners that the only people who get involved are either complete lunatics or bunny huggers. The vivisection industry continually tells the public that we don't know what we're talking about and that we're just misguided animal lovers'. I think that's a deliberate move on their part to try to portray us as people who don't have an intelligent argument."

It continues:
"Broughton's passionate conviction - shared, it should be said, by a section of the scientific and medical professions - is that animal experimentation is outmoded, 19th-century science. He and other campaigners - such as Europeans for Medical Progress - say that advances in DNA techniques, computer modelling, tissue culture, and stem-cell research are far more reliable methods of testing drugs and finding cures for diseases. They cite a long list of supposed 'wonder drugs' which tested safe on animals - and were later withdrawn after proving harmful to humans. Animals, they say, have repeatedly proved to be unreliable models for results in humans.

Then another quote from Broughton: "We're not anti-science. I'd be more than happy to see this lab built - but to find cures for human disease using safe, scientific methods. This is about human health as well as about animal suffering."

The article presents Broughton as a gentle person who as a youth "was always looking after injured birds and things," was "arrested at an amusement park in Morecambe while trying to release a dolphin" but who, years later, was caught with incendiary devises in his car and was released from prison in June 2002 after serving two years, eight months."

Though Broughton makes it clear that all of his activism is now legal, he does not apologize for his earlier intentions. "He explains this by saying that history shows that most campaigns for major change have had to go through a stage of direct action, before moving on to legal methods to achieve their aims. That, he insists, is what he's now doing."

On Oxford University's claim that 98 per cent of the animals to be housed in the new facility will be rodents, he comments:

"I think it's extremely cynical, and it's an argument I've heard many times. The idea, I assume, is that most people view rats as vermin, and so they cannot expect much sympathy when they're experimented on. But whether it's a dog, cat, monkey, fish, amphibian or rodent, the point remains that that animal has an ability to suffer. Rodents are sociable, intelligent creatures, and they have the ability to suffer pain."

"I have no qualms in saying that the idea of this lab makes me very, very angry. Change has to come, and we have a very large role in that, by creating a platform that allows others to speak out against what's happening. I do absolutely believe that we are going to change the way society views this issue. And we are in the process of doing that. How quickly that happens is in part down to what we do, and in part down to people who are involved in science. But it is going to happen - make no mistake about that. And I personally won't give up until it does. Ultimately it has to be banned, with legislation to stop it. It will come."

The article gives links to the following.
Oxford University: http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/biomed/; Europeans for Medical Progress: http://www.curedisease.net; Speak: http://www.speakcampaigns.org.uk

Then there is a portion, called "Life Inside The Laboratory," which gives the kind of information one usually finds on animal rights sites rather than in huge newspapers:

"Nearly three million animals are used annually in experiments in Britain. Of these, nearly 4,000 are monkeys. Campaigners have unearthed chilling details of experiments conducted in British laboratories, such as kittens which had one eye sewn shut and part of their brain exposed to research squints; and monkeys which had the tops of their skulls sawn off. A stroke had been induced, and, according to evidence presented at a High Court hearing earlier this year, the animals were then left unattended for up to 15 hours. Some were found dead the morning after the operation, others were in a 'poor condition'".

It also gives reassurances that Oxford will be entirely different (though the papers Broughton quotes might make some question that):

"The Government last year set up a national centre for the 'replacement, refinement and reduction' of animals in research. And Oxford University says that its new Biomedical Research facility will be 'one of the best in the country, in terms of animal welfare. The University of Oxford uses animals only in research programmes of the highest quality and only where there are no alternatives,' it says. 'All such work is carried out under licences issued by the Home Secretary after weighing its potential benefits against the effects on the animals concerned. The University is committed to the principles of reduction, refinement and replacement; on each project it ensures that the number of animals used is minimised and that procedures, care routines and husbandry are refined to maximise welfare. The University is committed to the highest standards of husbandry and housing... We expect that 98 per cent of the animals housed there will be rodents. Depending on other Home Office licences held, there may also be some amphibia, ferrets, fish and primates."

That is an ironic ending given Broughton's comments on that issue.

The whole article, a fascinating read, is available on line at:
http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=142533&source=r_science OR http://tinyurl.com/5pkpk

In line with Broughton's suggestion that his activism is "creating a platform that allows others to speak out against what's happening," I hope activists will use this extensive discussion in the Independent as an opportunity to speak out. The Independent takes letters at: letters [at] independent.co.uk and advises, "If you wish to submit a letter for publication in the newspaper, it must include the sender's name, postal address and daytime telephone number."


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