(KR) Waging war on vivisection

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From Korea Herald

http://www.koreaherald.com/SITE/data/html_dir/2001/12/17/200112170002.asp

By Cahill Staff reporter ()

2001.12.17

 

On an Internet bulletin board run by the Korean Association for

Laboratory Animal Science (KALAS), a professional organization representing

biomedical researchers, someone asked what happens when rats are placed in

the freezer.

 

The animals can survive for a day at minus 20 degrees Celsius, read

the reply.

 

The second researcher, who had once killed a rat this way, said the

animal " moved very slowly " just prior to death, and that icicles were

visible on the body.

 

Park Chang-kil, a professor of environmental studies at Sungkonghoe

University, points to this incident as evidence of a serious problem. Park's

group, Voice for Animals, is now preparing for battle, as legislators

consider two proposals with implications for animal welfare.

 

The National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee is reviewing

regulations for animal research protocol, while the Ministry of Science and

Technology is working to develop bioethics legislation that would affect

animals used in genetic engineering experiments.

 

Park estimates total animal use at 4 million per year. Yang Sung-don,

staff scientist with the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology's

toxicology research center, responding to The Korea Herald on behalf of the

KALAS, placed the number around 1 million, but both admitted accurate

statistics were not available.

 

Recently, the KALAS and the Korean Food and Drug Administration (KFDA)

submitted a proposal to Rep. Kim Hong-shin, an opposition member of the

National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee. According to Kim Kil-soo,

a veterinarian and head of the department of laboratory animal sciences at

Seoul National University (SNU)'s college of medicine, the proposed law

would improve animal welfare and " increase the credibility and

reproducibility " of experiments in scientific journals.

 

Yang called it a " major first step " toward better conditions for

animals in laboratories, explaining that Korea is currently in a

" transitional stage. "

 

" I admit that some undertrained or untrained animal technicians

occasionally treat animals improperly, " Yang said. But bad laboratories, he

maintained, have been disappearing over the last few years. If any still

exist, he claimed, they will soon disappear under the new regulations, which

mandate hiring licensed technicians.

 

Yang also contended that animal research has contributed

" tremendously " to human health and " shouldn't be hampered by extreme animal

activists. "

 

Park of Voice for Animals disagrees. Based on extensive reading and

discussions with experimenters, he said Korean researchers generally don't

consider ethics or animal welfare.

 

Animals in laboratories, he alleged, live in small cages, deprived of

stimulation and opportunities to express natural behaviors. This would not

change under the proposed law, he said.

 

" This law is cosmetic, " Park said. " The preparing committee (that

drafted the law) was composed of breeders and big industry research

institutes (from the KALAS and the KFDA). " He claimed it sets no penalties

for animal abuse, and that the changes would be " very superficial. "

 

Park opposes animal experimentation on moral grounds, believing humans

have no right to use animals for this purpose. As long as they are used, he

said, " Animal organizations and other citizens' organizations need to take

part in making and implementing regulations. "

 

Kim Kil-soo at SNU said the university has an institutional animal

care and use committee (IACUC) that sets regulations for experiments; they

cover ethics, scientific soundness, anesthetic protocol and what the

industry terms " euthanasia. "

 

" Every experiment using live animals, organs and tissues (is subject

to) IACUC approval, " Kim said, explaining that the committee considers the

U.S. National Research Council (NRC)'s " three Rs " : reduction of the number

of animals used, refinement of experiments, and replacement of animal

experiments with other research methods.

 

When animals are " sacrificed, " he said, researchers at SNU must use

methods set out in the NRC guide - injection of barbiturates, nonexplosive

inhalant anesthesia, or gassing with carbon dioxide.

 

Park said the majority of research institutions have no IACUCs. Animal

advocates are calling for their establishment by law at every institution,

he said, adding that they should include people not affiliated with the

institutions.

 

Park doubts the effectiveness of most IACUCs, saying there are no

rules for their composition. This means they tend to favor researchers and

approve frivolous experiments, he alleges.

 

Committees should only allow an experiment if the researcher can show

it will produce substantial benefits, Park said. Some experiments - those

involving severe pain or undertaken for trivial reasons - should be banned

outright, he added, and information about animal research should be

disclosed to the public.

 

Park said Korean laboratories are becoming more secretive, as seen in

the removal of pictures from several industry Web sites after the issue

gained public attention earlier this year. He has also asked several

laboratories to allow him to observe procedures, but said they did not

respond to his requests.

 

Some predict the field of biotechnology will be Korea's " next boom

sector. " President Kim Dae-jung and government officials say biotechnology,

along with information technology, will be one of the nation's strategic

sectors for economic development.

 

One Korean Web site proudly advertises genetically modified mice for

sale as " disease models, " a development Park finds morally repugnant.

Scientists at Korea's National Livestock Research Institute have raised 33

pigs, genetically modified for the ability to produce a drug in their milk.

 

Biotechnology could increase animal suffering in ways we do not yet

fully understand and cannot predict, Park said. The pigs, for example, may

eventually develop painful conditions as a result of genetic modification.

 

The proposed legislation under consideration by the Ministry of

Science and Technology would allow virtually all genetic experiments on

animals, he said, with the exception of research into human-animal

hybridization.

 

In league with other organizations, Voice for Animals is urging the

ministry to consider animal welfare when drafting this bill.

 

This summer, a protest in central Seoul drew a positive response from

passers-by, according to Park and other organizers. " Their reactions to the

horrible pictures of suffering animals were not any different from those of

animal protection activists, " he reported.