Israel: ***Action Alert and update-Exposure of primate experiments in Israel***

[Guest guest]

Noam Lazarus noaml

Sunday, December 02, 2001 1:23 AM

***Action Alert and update-Exposure of primate

experiments in Israel***

 

 

 

December 1, 2001

 

***Action Alert and update-Exposure of primate experiments in Israel***

 

For more information please see

http://www.aesop-project.org/Israel/Experiments_exposed.html

 

Last Tuesday, November 27th, over 300 people, including Israeli parliament

members, gathered at the gates of the Jerusalem Hebrew university to protest

against horrific primate experiments being carried out in the University.

 

The experiments were exposed earlier this month on the Israeli television

Channel 2. The undercover footage that was exposed

showed experiments being carried out on a macaque monkey

called Malish. In the footage, the researchers are seen as

they are sawing the monkey's skull and inserting electrodes

into the brain. During this surgery, the monkey is conscious

and blinking his eyes, while his head is locked into a restraining device.

 

After the surgery the monkey was transferred into a cramped

cage where he lived for several months, in which he was

being deprived of drinking water.

 

** Law proposal to minimize experiments on animals in Israel! **

 

Mr. Yossi Sarid, member of the Israeli parliament and head of the Meretz

party, is working on a proposal for a new law that would completely ban

experiments and procedures on animals, in

the course of training and education (at schools and universities)

as well as a ban on experiments on animals for the purpose of developing

household and cosmetic products. If Sarid's proposal

is going to be accepted as a law, experiments such as the horrific

and pointless primate experiments taking place at the

Jerusalem Hebrew university would be banned.

 

Please write a letter of support to Mr. Sarid, commending him for taking a

stand on animal abuse and leading the way for a brave

new law that would save thousands of animals from abuse and

torture in Israeli laboratories every year.

 

Letters can be sent to:

E-mail: yossis

Fax # 972-2-6360193

 

By regular mail:

Mr. Yossi Sarid

Member of Parliament

Haknesset

Jerusalem

Israel

 

It is very important to write letters of support to the following members of

Knesset (Israeli parliament) who have expressed their outrage over the

exposure of primate experiments in Israel and are working to support Sarid

law proposal as well as an initiative

to have more clarity and access to information regarding

experiments on animals conducted in Israeli laboratories.

 

Please write to the following members of the Knesset:

 

Mr. Nissim Dahan, Minister of Health

Fax # 972-2- 6787662

E-mail: sar and merav.simai

 

Minister Dan Naveh

Fax # 972-2-6754177

E-mail: dnaveh

 

MK Mr. Zevulun Orlev

Fax # 972-2-6753158 or 972-2-6753466

E-mail: zorlev

 

MK Mr. Eitan Cabel

Fax # 972-2-6754130

E-mail: ecabel

 

Regular letters to individual members of the Knesset can be

sent to the address:

 

Mr./Ms.__________

Member of Parliament

Haknesset

Jerusalem

Israel

 

* For an e-mail list of all 120 members of the Israeli parliament please see

http://www.aesop-project.org/Israel/Israeli_parliment_contact.htm

 

** The campaign to save Malish and the monkeys at the Hebrew university! **

 

Malish, Jade, Fred and Simon are still being caged, isolated in the Hebrew

university laboratories in Jerusalem, with open skulls and deprived of basic

needs such as water and the company of their own species.

 

Awaiting a faith of misery, pain and death in the name of science.

Four more monkeys are waiting to undergo this same experiment in

the future.

 

The Israeli Society For Abolition of Vivisection is demanding that the

horrific primate experiments exposed are halted immediately and that

the 8 monkeys enduring pain and loneliness in the university's laboratory be

released to the " Freedom to Live " primate sanctuary in Israel.

 

Please write letters to the university asking them to release the 8 monkeys

in their laboratory and cease this horrific experiment immediately.

 

Letters can be sent to:

 

Prof. Haim Rabinowitch,

Rector of the Hebrew University

E-mail: rabin

Fax # 972-8-9462384

 

Prof. Menachem Magidor

President of the Hebrew University

E-mail: menachem and hupres

 

Prof. Yehosha Kolodny

Dean of Natural Sciences

Department of Geology

kolodny

 

 

For additional information please contact noaml or

tsameret

--------------------------------

Tuesday, November 27, 2001

 

Protest against primate experiments exposed in the Hebrew university

 

300 people, including students and members of the Israeli society for

abolition of vivisection, participated in a demonstration staged next to the

university, where shocking experiments on primates were exposed;

Israeli government minister Naveh and parliament members Sarid and

Cabel participated; The university commented: the experiments are

essential for the development of drugs

 

By Tamar Nahari, Walla News Service (translated from Hebrew)

 

About 300 students and members of the Israeli society for abolition of

vivisection demonstrated today in front of the Hebrew university

campus gates at the ram hill in Jerusalem, protesting against primate

experiments conducted at the university laboratories.

 

The protest took place following the exposure of undercover footage

showing a primate experiment that was taking place several months

ago at the university. The footage was exposed last week in channel 2.

 

The protestors called for the closure of the brain research laboratories

where the experiments are taking place and to fire the laboratory managers.

 

Some of the protestors carried signs saying " tens of thousands of animals

are tortures and butchered here in the name of science " , " Hebrew

university - a place for growing sadists " , and " we were all monkeys once " .

 

The protestors were joined by government minister Dan Naveh (Likud

party),head of the opposition MK Yossi Sarid (Meretz party), and MK Eitan

Cabel (Labor party). Sarid announced that he intends to raise a law proposal

next week with the goal of minimizing the number of animal experiments in

Israel, and for a more strict supervision on them. Medical Doctor Anya

Feigin, a surgeon at the " Shearey Zedek " hospital in Jerusalem, took part in

the protest. Dr.Feigin is one of the signatories to a petition of Israeli

medical doctors, calling to minimize the number of experiments on animals

conducted in the country. Feigin claimed that these experiments are

deceiving the public, because most of them are unnecessary.

 

" We did all kinds of nonsense "

 

In the footage, exposed by channel 2, the researchers were seen as

they were sawing the monkey's skull and inserting electrodes into the

brain, for the purpose of conducting an experiment testing the memory

activity in the brain. During this surgery, the monkey was conscious and

blinking his eyes, while his head was locked into a restraining device.

After the surgery, the monkey was transferred into a cramped cage where he

lived for several months, in which he was being deprived of drinking water.

In order to get water the monkey had to prove his

visual memory capabilities in various experiments conducted in the

months following the surgery.

 

The monkey seen in the footage is called " Malish " . Malish is a two years old

long-tail macaque monkey and was raised in the Mazor (BFC) primate breeding

farm in Israel, which exports monkeys for experiments. During the

experiment, one of the researches was recorded talking about the experiment

and saying that " we did all kinds of nonsense, simply so we can do

something " , while explaining that the experiment was actually not documented

properly because of a failure in the laboratories' computer system, and by

that statement expressing a doubt in the experiment's necessity.

 

The israeli society for abolition of vivisection claims that there are 8

monkeys like Malish in the Hebrew university's laboratories at the moment,

four of them in the course of a similar experiment and four others awaiting

to take part in the experiment.

 

" The researcher's words were put out of context "

 

The Hebrew university said in response: " It must be emphasized that

there is no country in the world, where there is a ban on conducting

experiments on animals for advancing science and medicine. It is not

possible to develop drugs and to save human lives without conducting

research with the help of animals. The experiment (Malish) that was

conducted in the university was approved only after it was thoroughly

examined by the university's ethics committee, and found suitable for

the harsh requirements of the national committee for animal experiments. "

 

" To our regret " , continues the university's response, " the researcher's

words were put out of context and were showed in a way that is deceiving to

the public...The experiment was divided to three stages, while the footage

exposed was taken in the second stage that went according to the plan and

with no failure. The researcher was expressing her worries from the progress

of the computer program for the purpose of the third stage of the experiment

that was going to take place in the future. Now it is possible to say that

the fear expressed by the researcher was unnecessary because the compare

program was completed in time.

 

END