anti-viv article in Indian Express

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Can’t we research without hurting animals?

 

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=16644

 

Indian Express

Wednesday, January 15, 2003

 

" TALKING WITH JANE GOODALL "

 

'We've landed on the moon, can't we research without hurting animals?'

 

You just can't keep the ''Chimp Lady'' down. Living up to the sobriquet the

world has given her, Jane Goodall has been in India for the past few days,

addressing a conference on science and spirituality in Bangalore, visiting a

monkey shelter in the Capital and meeting with All India Institute of

Medical Sciences director Dr P.K.Dave to suggest a meeting ground between

the two extremes of animal rights activists and researchers. Goodall, whose

discoveries in chimpanzee behaviour in Gombe in Tanzania changed the

contours of primate research, argues that experimentation on animals is

''morally unacceptable'' and that it's entirely possible to conduct research

without dragging animals in. The 69-year-old designated UN Messenger of

Peace spoke to Sreelatha Menon.

What is your fondest memory of the chimpanzees you studied in Gombe?

 

That of David Greybeard, the first of the chimpanzees who walked up to me

and accepted a banana. He was the first chimp to lose the fear of man before

the rest did, the first to see a white-skinned ape. That was 40 years ago.

 

What was your first major research finding and what led you to it?

 

That chimps can make tools like man does. In 1960, soon after my research

started, we were under pressure to find something in the first six months,

or we would have lost our grant money. That's when I saw David Greybeard and

another chimp strip off leaves from a twig and fashion a tool to fish

termites from a nest. I was excited and told Leakey (anthropoligist Dr Loius

Leakey) about this. He said we must re-define the word 'tool' and accept

chimps as humans. I also found that chimps used two rocks as a hammer and

anvil to crack nuts, that they were not vegetarians, that hunted and ate

bushpigs and other animals. And that they engaged in primitive and brutal

warfare.

 

Man cannot do without animal experiments for advancement in medicine, the

testing of life saving drugs. Can there be a meeting point between the

researcher who's trying to save humans and the conservator who's trying to

save animals?

 

If there is a need for animal experiments, it will have to be accepted. But

I hate it. It is morally unacceptable. It started in the West and now all

over the world, this road of cruelty to animals for the sake of scientific

progress is being embraced without a second thought.

 

What is the way out?

 

We are the dominant species. We have the brains to subdue elephants. If it's

possible to reach the moon and find life-saving drugs with these brains, it'

s also possible to find ways of progress without hurting animals. Had we

stretched our brains a bit, we would have been further ahead. For animals,

it's torture. So let's get our brains working and get rid of these painful

experiments.

 

What about activists in conflict with scientists? The CPCSEA (Centre for

Prevention of Cruelty and Supervision of Experiments on Animals) here was

accused of hindering experiments in the name of animal welfare.

 

I am aware of the controversy. Activism springs from passion and care.

Unfortunately, it often rubs authority the wrong way. It is true that a vast

amount of cruel experiments on animals has led to nothing. Some have even

harmed human beings. Thanks to activists, laboratories are now thinking of

alternatives. Experiments that would have considered indispensable ten years

ago are now being conducted without using animals.

 

Is a meeting ground possible?

 

I spoke to P K Dave, director of the All India Institute of Medical

Sciences, and a meeting of researchers and activists was organised. I also

approached the Government with a programme called Roots and Shoots. We form

children into groups, with each taking up three projects devoted to

community, animals and the environment. We have 5,000 such groups all over

the world.

 

Are experiments on primates closely supervised in the United States?

 

There is terrible research going on in the United States. Activists are

continually fighting it. But there is no control on research.

 

Is it true that the US and the rest of the West sub-contracts research

projects to Indian researchers since the supply of primates from India is

banned?

 

Yes, but it is very unethical. Unless the use of primates for research is

regulated by law, this will continue. Research using primates is legal in

India.

 

Should animals picked up from the streets be used for experiments or should

they be reared for the purpose?

 

If it is being used to test medicines for pain relief, I suppose any animal

will do. But if it is to test immunity related drugs, the animal has to be

free of disease to be of any use.

 

What age should monkeys used in experiments be freed?

 

They are often kept in laboratory cages for 30 years. They shouldn't be

there at all.

 

To what extent can chimps sense and feel?

 

There is no sharp line between them and us. In fact, in terms of genetic

composition, they differ from man by 1%. That is in comparison to the 50 %

difference between us and fruit flies. They have brains like us, the same

kind of emotions.

 

If what use is the monkey to nature?

 

Use? The jungles belong to them. We did not make the jungles.

 

Are chimps suitable for HIV research? They are being used for SIV (Simian

Immuno Deficiency Virus) research at the National Institute of Virology in

Pune.

 

SIV research has been abandoned in the United States and in Holland as it

has proved to be useless. Both strains 1 and 2 of HIV originated from chimps

but the virus mutated when they jumped into man. So research on them will

yield nothing. In the West, they are phasing out chimps except in research

for Hepatitis C. Often, researchers justify the use of animals just to get

their hands on grant money.

 

Can you name some institutes that have stopped research on primates and

found alternatives?

 

Many labs are phasing out chimps and closing down their chimp facilities.

There is the laboratory for experimental medicine and surgery in primates in

New York and the Biomedical Primate Research Centre, a Government-run

institute in Holland.