Jane Goodall against using animals for tests

[Guest guest]

Conservationist Jane Goodall urges medical scientists to stop using

animals for tests

 

Mon Jan 13,12:15 PM ET

 

By RAJESH MAHAPATRA, Associated Press Writer

NEW DELHI, India - Jane Goodall, one of the world's best-known

primate experts, said Monday that medical scientists must find

alternative ways to conduct tests and stop cruelty toward millions of

animal caged in laboratories around the world.

 

" We don't need animals for these tests. With the incredible brains

that human beings have ... we can find other ways, " said Goodall.

" If we had not used animals before, we would have been further ahead

in (treating) human diseases, " Goodall said. She was delivering a

lecture, titled " Reason for Hope, " organized by the Wildlife Trust of

India in New Delhi.

 

Goodall insisted that animal experiments are not the best option for

tests, because they often produce inconclusive results. She said

animals are used for these tests because " we have come to think it is

imperative. We treat them as we like. "

Goodall, on her first-ever visit to India, says she holds hope that

things will improve as people around the world are learning to share

the planet with animals.

 

She cited the success of her campaign to protect chimpanzees in Gombe

Stream National Park in Tanzania, where the number of local

volunteers has grown from 15 to 5,000 in 15 years.

 

Goodall, who began her research on chimpanzees in 1960 at Gombe, said

conservationists must also think of ways to cope with overpopulation

and economic development.

 

" Development will not stop. We have to find other ways to protect the

animals, " she said, giving the example of a breeding ground for

cranes in Taiwan, which was moved to make way for a railroad.

 

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