Lab Animal Europe , Faster cures and Recherche Animale

Lab Animal Europe | Volume 13, No. 2 | March 2013



Pleased to share with you my latest article that appeared in the March issue of Lab Animal Europe.



The reason why animal research matters is because we all need cures ! For Some Time = Life. For others animal research needs to be stopped!

Take TWO minutes of your time to listen to those for whom medical research and progress really matters.

Et pour mes amis francophones de par le monde, voici la fabuleuse histoire de James ou comment expliquer la naissance d'un médicament qui un jour peut-être sauvera des vies. Un processus qui inclut la recherche animale, of course! Pour ceux qui souhaitent lire les avancées médicales obtenues par la voie de la recherche animale, veuillez suivre ce lien et découvrir le site recherche-animale.org

Animal Legal Defense Fund Action Alerts target airlines

Animal Legal Defense Fund : Action Alerts

Looking for a cause involving animals? ALDF has it up and running on their web site.

What does it mean for Airlines? Well click on the link under 'Animals on Airplanes need your help' and you will end up at Regulations.gov to submit a comment to a docket by the US DOT on a proposed rule regarding reports by air carriers on incidents involving animals during air transport.

Here's the link if you want to avoid visiting ALDF
 http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=DOT-OST-2010-0211-0008

I did have a previous post on a similar issue with service animals and the US DOT, however this time around it is the general public that is made to believe that Airlines kill your pets or that they loose large numbers of animals, or mistreat them whilst in their custody (remember the BUAV cargo cruelty campaigns). The facts however are different as the reports have demonstrated.

The time has come to pull the plug on needless red tape! Whilst the public has a right to know, it is now clear that Airlines do an excellent job in moving animals safely and with extreme care. As is the case with non human primate movements, the Airlines can decide to stop transporting animals including your beloved pet. Airlines have been deregulated a long time ago therefore commercial decisions  apparently  involve excluding certain animals from one specific shipping community such as research as we have seen at Air Canada and United.

Irony has it that certain carriers spend a lot of money on equipment carrying horses, whereas with monkeys no such investment is required. It's just a question of policy I guess and of being politically correct!

Nevertheless as it has been said before by many and at various levels of society:

THE USE OF ANIMALS REMAINS NECESSARY FOR THE BENEFIT OF HUMANS AND ANIMALS!

and there is support towards the continued movement of lab animals for research ! Read this op-ed piece by Michael Goldberg and Larry Swanson, both are members of the US National Academies of Sciences and University professors.

And if you want to give your hard earned money to protect animals or the environment please do think twice. Evidence has it that your money may just go to killing the very animals you thought you were trying to help as my colleagues at Speaking of Research found out for you!

In the meantime as you probably need to refocus on why all of this animal research does take place,
read this blog post about a mother and her son finding out about Autism.

Growth factor aids stem cell regeneration after radiation damage

Growth factor aids stem cell regeneration after radiation damage

http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2013/02/animal-research-a-want-or-a-need/

Above please find two well written articles, each one illustrating the use of animals in research and how animal research contributes to medical progress. And at the bottom take two minutes and have a thought for Reg Presley- The Troggs, whom lost his battle against cancer.

Those opposing animal research remind me of those that oppose vaccination.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/02/04/jenny_mccarthy_antivaccination_promoter_won_t_be_speaking_at_charity_fundraiser.html

I think there is an overwhelming majority (silent that is) of people out there that understand the need for animal research. Charities should be more forthcoming  about animal research as is suggested here in this article by Tom Holder of speaking of Research.

When disease strikes is perhaps not the best time to find out how your drug or treatment came about to be, however we should all take some time to think about it and realize how much is being done to keep you , your relatives or friends alive or to improve your life. Let's not take this for granted.

I did look at all I and my family have benefited from in terms of medical care and progress.  So my blog is just a little contribution and thank you to those that day in, day out are dedicating their time and efforts to save us all, animals and humans!  The list of those to thank is so long, suffice it to say that these words are there for you  as long as these pages don't disappear. I do hope my airline colleagues will follow me in supporting medical progress and perhaps cease imposing restrictive policies that hinder the search for cures!

!!! THANK YOU !!!

R.I.P Reg Presley - let's win the battle against cancer.

 

Medical progress needs transportation

Pleased to report my guest post on the Speaking of research blog called Safeguarding Medical progress means supporting animal transport.

You can find it by clicking the following link. Likewise if you work in transportation or an affiliated industry, it is important to know how you can support initiatives that seek to support the continued transportation of laboratory destined animals. Being familiar with the sources for educated information about animal research is equally as important.

If your company or you as an individual are called targets by animal extremists, do not hesitate and contact the appropriate parties.   Unless of course you support PETA campaigns against airlines.
In which case you support the statements that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on or use for entertainment (think of zoo's and aquaria or other conservation mechanisms).

With more than one million living species described, the animal kingdom is by far the largest on earth. I can't wait to see PETA's first invertebrate campaign in support of  animal rights for Nematodes (agrilus planipennis). After all, despite their threat to agriculture, aren't they all animals worthy figthing for? What about protection for agricultural plant species many of us depend upon for our  diets? Surely using bees for polination puposes is called slavery by some and exploiting their honey equates to animal cruelty! 

What about you? Is medical progress on your mind? Do the right thing and support animal research. Who knows one day you , or a family member, too may benefit from the many medical advances we are used to. Take a look here.


 

Speaking of research, Monkey Business and the human factor

There is a great article about the work done on primates at the University of Washington's Primate research center . You can read the article here  it is called Monkey Business. I have taken the liberty of relaying the twitter feed by speaking of research an advocacy group that does a really good job of informing the general public at large about animal based research, its importance and achievements.

More importantly in this article are the statement made by Peggy Smith, the Assistant Director of the WaNPRC that I am reproducing here:

For Smith, treatment methods developed in the IPRL — such as how to prevent lungs from sticking together during inhalation and exhalation, and how to keep preterm infants warm without harming them due to their fragility — are largely responsible for saving the life of her son, born three months premature with holes in his lungs, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and heart problems. He was monitored at the UW’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in an isolette — the same type used for infant nonhuman primates in the IPRL. Smith’s son, now 28 years old, survived despite Smith being told multiple times he wouldn’t.

Smith said the experience of seeing how research with nonhuman primates could be used to cure human medical conditions, particularly those of her son, convinced her of the importance of animal research despite the negative connotations that often surround it.

#“If they could save my son, I didn’t care what had been done in research,” Smith said. “Your ethics become clear when you’re faced with a real-life situation. … I understand [animal-rights] activists have a point of view, they have their own reasons like I have mine. The science and facts of research speak for themselves, in my mind.”

Animal Research is not about torturing animals but about saving lives or improving them. I think this pattern is clear in the many posts I have put on my blog, for indeed it does put things in perspective. In real life situtations getting a cure or a treatment for you , your children , your family, friends and neighbours or those that suround you is what counts the most.  We all want to live long and healthy lives.

Whilst on the Speaking of research page I encourage You to take a look at recent posts about position statements on animal research by pharmaceuticals and health charities. Both these key players should do a better job at explaining why animal research matters and how it links to what they do for most of us simply have no idea how a drug is created, developped and marketed.

When it is time for a cure or during a treatment is when you need to make your point, dot the i's and cross the t's. The benefits of doing so in my mind outweigh the nuisance by animal extremists and I don't think I am the only one having this opinion. It is time to speak out towards animal research and medical advancements! Let your elected officials know YOU CARE.

Richard Din

In life we all expect death to take away loved ones, friends and family. Life, as they say, goes on. As it has and always will. But we expect this to happen after a full and long life. It ain't necessarily so.
A friend of mine once told me about his sister who died unexpectedly after a fall. Her organs were donated and today a few other lives were saved or improved as a result of this action. She was in her early forties if I remember correctly.

In California at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs medical Center, Richard Din was a researcher involved in developing a vaccine against a meningitis strain. The strain was vaccine resistant and it somehow ended up in his blood.  He became ill on a Friday, a few hours upon leaving work.  He died of a heart attack the next day Saturday at 2pm, at the age of 25. You can read the full story here.

Richard Din was a researcher and died after handling a rare bacteria strain. He too gave his life to research. He was trying to find a cure that would have helped many of us. It is far too easy to forget about the thousands of brave men and women that are involved in the saving of lives through research and through giving health care. Of course we don't know most of them but on occasions like this it is only normal to pay tribute and if you have the means to contribute in one way or another to a cause that seeks to help, assist or builds upon finding cures for the benefit of mankind, please do so. It doesn't have to be money, it can also be some of your time as a volunteer. My contribution is very small, I only write about others that contribute one way or another to improving our lives, today or tomorrow. I also talk to my relatives and friends about the need for research and how it is negatively impacted by animal rights extremists. Sometimes one can cause great harm with all the best of intentions.

So THANK YOU Richard, for your hard work, your time and energy. Thank you for your dedication and your passion. May your intent and your contribution not be forgotten. It takes brave men and women like you to pave the way and inspire us all. I may not have known you but I sure will remember you!
Talking of improving lives as Richard did, I was reading a post by Dario Ringach on speaking of research about paralysis. The post called not difficult to grasp makes a terrific link between improving lives for paralyzed persons through research using monkeys. Make sure to watch the video. I share his enthusiasm about brain machine interface potential. We all however need to make sure monkeys remain available for such critical research. Do not let their supply chain come into harms way.

Advancing medical research takes a toll both on animals and on humans. In the end it takes our common will power to make it happen but most importantly it takes people like Richard or Dr Chet Morris and his colleagues to make science move on and to provide us all with the hope towards a cure, a new treatment for our common benefit !



  

Of other concerns

The subject of animal research is fascinating! Not only because it helps find cures for humans but also for animals - it works both ways. On a more personnal level I too have benefited from medical advances, since I have had several surgeries, have taken medication and have witnessed how my mother was saved from disease by the use of a radioactive implant. We should not take all of this for granted. We can educate ourselves, our children, friends and people around us about how important animal research is.

This link shows the wide variety of animals that are used in research, for which goals and some of the critical medical milestones reached in time. Remember though that currently rats and mice constitute the majority of animals used.

States United for biomedical research (SUBR)

One can also find information about the essential role of Biomedical research towards the search for cures, treatments and medical advancements here :
Foundation for Biomedical Research

There are some interesting stories to view on the FBR site and teachers can find educational materials for classroom use.

The following blog is an advocacy group that talks about the importance of animal research in medical and veterinary science. It is not only very informative but it also drills down to actual research level as you can see on a recent post about animal models and parkinson's desease.
Speaking of research

There are however other concerns those involved in research should be worried about. Increasingly Universities offer animal law studies. I am not saying this is wrong. Protecting endangered animal species through trade mechanisms such as the CITES convention is a good thing when done properly. However I worry when animals can inherit from humans through trusts or foundations. I worry, when animal rights groups seek to obtain for the benefit of animals the almost identical legal status as humans do. Boundaries are being pushed. Often this is done by using emotions and feelings such as guilt, others try philosophy.

When the devil creeps into the fine print of legislative proposals or initiatives, we should worry. Sentiency is another way of achieving the same purpose. We should however not forget the invaluable benefits humankind derives from medical research and what it is trying to achieve. Those that are involved in animal research , directly and indirectly, must be protected in law for I say it is part of an important public service we all benefit from one day or another, willingly or unconsciously.