FW: [PCRM STAFF] FW: The Japanese National Bio-resources Project

[Guest guest]

The Japanese National Bio-resources ProjectPlease write to the Japanese

government about these animal experiments!

Thank you,

Claudia

 

 

 

JAVA [java]

Wednesday, August 13, 2003 4:05 AM

java

The Japanese National Bio-resources Project

 

 

Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

promotes large scale project, " Mass breeding of monkeys for experimentation "

 

 

JAVA sincerely appreciates your work on behalf of animals and your

continuing support and cooperation with us.

 

The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

has begun promoting a large-scale national program, the " National

Bio-resources Project " .

The objective of this project is to mass-breed Japanese monkeys for various

kinds of

laboratory experimentation. They include cerebral nerve experiments.

 

Appallingly the Ministry plans to collect monkeys from overpopulated zoos

throughout Japan. (Between 1,500 to 2,400 monkeys are scheduled to be

collected) for use as a breeding parent body.

 

Zoos are generally regarded in Japan as an educational facility. Ideally,

children are

encouraged to love and care for animals. However, the principle idea of

this project contradicts

the mission of zoos. We are concerned about the demoralizing influence upon

the minds of

our youth. It is appalling the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,

Science and Technology is responsible for promoting this project.

 

The Primate Research Institute of the Kyoto University has taken the

lead¡¡

in this project. Approximately ten years ago, an International Primate

Protection League (IPPL) newsletter

carried an article detailing cruel treatment by the Primate Research

Institute of the Kyoto

University to monkeys during brain research experiments. The Institute

received severe criticism from overseas. The Institute responded to the

media by stating, " Monkeys are being massively

bred for experiments in the United States. while monkeys have not been bred

in England,

Germany and Switzerland to the same extent due to the strict regulations

regarding monkey

breeding. " The Institute further stated, " Because of the strict

regulations, those

European countries remain behind the United States in medical foundation and

clinic research studies. " The Institute insists on the importance of this

Project by communicating this type of unfounded information throughout Japan

via mass media contacts.

 

(Outline of the National Bio-resources Project)

 

The National Bio-resources Project is a 4.4 billion yen(approximately

U.S.$36,700,000)invested national project both supported and promoted by the

Japanese government. It aims at creating

" the global gold standard of service for providing living resources " . The

project goals include a stabilized supply of experimental animals including

monkeys, mice, rats to laboratories. 300 monkeys per year are targeted to

be available for laboratory experimentation. The Primate

Research Institute of the Kyoto University has been negotiating with scores

of zoos throughout

Japan to secure monkeys. 1,500 to 2,400 monkeys are planned to be

collected. Babies born in

breeding facilities will be sent to laboratories throughout Japan for animal

experiments. Experimentation will include cerebral nerve studies.

 

Please join our campaign! Help us to stop this project! Send your letter

of

Protest to the Japanese Government !

 

 

Two months ago, we asked you to join in our campaign " Stop plans to donate

Japanese monkeys of the Hakodate Municipal Tropic Botanical Garden for

animal experimentation " . This plan was part of this large-scale national

bio-resource project. Thanks to your support and efforts, this plan was

stopped. Thank you. You helped to make a difference.

 

Following the Hakodate case, we discovered a zoo in Matsumoto City had

similar plans. JAVA's strong protests against the plans stopped the zoo

from donating their monkeys.

 

Shockingly, we have learned the Institute is more aggressively negotiating

with a zoo in

Sapporo city about the supplying of monkeys for experiments.

 

The Institute will continue to negotiate with the zoos throughout Japan.

Because the Japanese government is determined to create " the global gold

standard of

service for providing laboratory monkeys " . In order to stop the plans, we

have started

collecting petitions in Japan.

 

Please join our campaign and send strong letters of protest to the

Japanese government. Letters from countries advanced in animal welfare will

have

significant impact on elected officials. The Japanese government does not

listen to Japanese citizens, but are very vulnerable to pressure from

overseas.

 

(Sample letter)

 

Monkeys are highly intelligent. They maintain intricate good structures.

They have complex emotions. They care for others and show love to their

babies as we humans do to our children. Primates are both rationally

intelligent and emotionally capable creatures.¡¡Ethically, using monkeys

in

experiments which inflict mental and physical pain is unacceptable and

unconscionable.

 

Research illustrates primate experimentation is not the gold standard for

study design. Physicians have proven animal-modeled biomedical research

yields results that cannot be safely applied to humans. Many medical

professionals no longer consider primate research results scientifically

valid data.

 

We doubt if the Japanese government is cognizant of the vast majority

of alternative methods (methods not using living animals) for research.

These methods provide clinically relevant data which is more accurate than

animal testing . Japan will never become a leader in biomedical research

by maintaining outdated, unreliable, and unethical methods for conducting

studies.

 

This is an era of ethics and evidence based research. Japan needs to update

methodology with reliable alternative biomedical research. ¡¡

 

Government plans for zoo monkey breeding for experimentation with out-dated

methods is an embarrassment to the field of biomedical research.

England maintains a complete ban on .great apes experimentation. Global

trends indicate a strong movement towards abolition of experiments on

primates.

 

Recently, due to large scale public and professional protests in France

plans for a large-scale breeding facility for experimental was stopped.

Government officials were inundated

with protests from all over the world.

 

We strongly request that the Japanese government to demonstrate their

intelligence and integrity by stopping the project.

 

The above is a sample letter. We welcome letters of protest in your own

words. JAVA also appreciates and encourages your specific examples that

prove the unjustness of this Project by the Japanese government.

 

A copy of your protest letter is appreciated for our records. We plan to

release the article about this project together with your protest letters to

mass media.

 

We would appreciate it if you could send letters of protest by the end of

September.

Please send letters to:

 

Ms. Atsuko Tooyama

Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

3-2-2 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku

Tokyo, 100-8959¡¡Japan

Mail to:voice

 

 

 

 

Kind Regards,

 

 

Yuichi Hasegawa

Executive Director of JAVA

 

--

JAVA Japan Anti-Vivisection Association

4-9-18-411 Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0023 JAPAN

Phone: 81 (3) 5419-8106 Fax: 81 (3) 5419-8107

Mailto:java

http://www.java-animal.org/