Unbelievably cruel experiments on cats

Dear All

I've been made aware from a thread on the About.com cats forum that unbelievably cruel experiments are being carried out on cats at Ohio State University in the name of science and AIDS research. The information comes from reputable sources.

The first message in the thread begins as follows -
"Associate Professor Michael Podell of Ohio State University continues his cat-killing experiment - and you're paying for it with your tax dollars.

In this experiment, already underway, he infects over a hundred cats with feline immunodeficiency
virus (FIV), and gives them methamphetamines, aka "speed." He hopes to loosely model the brain-damaging efects of AIDS and amphetamines. As the cats gradually deteriorate, he'll make them walk planks to check their balance, perform various other tests on them, subject them to spinal taps (sometimes three in one day), and finally kill them to examine their brains....."

There are several responses, including portion of one reproduced below containing relevant websites and email addresses where you could send a protest.

"The group that has taken the lead on protesting this experiment and keeping it in the public eye is Protect Our Earth's Treasures (POET). The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)did a lead story on the experiment in a recent issue of their magazine
(http://www.pcrm.org/magazine/GM01Spr...1Spring01.html). Cats magazine also had a recent update on the experiment (http://www.catsmag.com/Pages/updates.html)...."

Michael Podell (researcher conducting the experiments)
E-Mail: [email protected]

William E. Kirwan, President - Ohio State University
E-Mail: [email protected]

The whole About.com thread can be read at
http://forums.about.com/n/main.asp?w...ges&msg=3622.4

Well, I don't know if you ever visited their sites but here is the address of PETA:

www.peta.com

You can see lots of similar examples there.

I audited some psychology classes last semester. In one of the courses, there was a part at the end of the 1'st chapter of the book, dedicated to this subject (since this department also does experiments with animals)...Although it was a 5 pages explanation, I wanted to post some of the things written in the book:

Number of Animals Used Annually In USA

Food % 96.5
Hunting % 2.6
Killed in animal shelters % 0.4
All teaching & research % 0.3
Fur garments % 0.2

"..The millions of animals that are killed by insecticides & other pest control efforts in agriculture & elsewhere should also be considered.."

"..The focus on animal rights advocates on curbing animal research efforts is puzzling, given the far greater numbers of animals used in other ways.."

When I visited PETA's web site I was extremely shocked & was crying !
But it is also true that by the help of some of these researches, our pets or family members are saved from many different types of (physiological & psychological) diseases. I am in a dilemma where if human beings have the right to benefit from the use of animals even in the name of saving other lives. I think this is something very much like the stem cells debate going on nowadays (and abortion of course)...

How sad. I would like to pretend we live
in a world that is fair and kind to all living beings.
I read things like this and it become more evident that we
don't and we probably won't ever. I don't understand how somebody
could do this and get up each morning and look at themselves in
the mirror. Those poor animals, all the poor animals that have
to be tortured because of a**holes like this guy. To do experiments that won't prove anything. That is useless and have proven to be useless. How can it still happened?

Somebody should stop them.

Yes, I know of and very much support the work of PETA, even though they have attracted enormous criticism at times, which may in some cases be justified, I'm not sure. A problem with some animal rights advocates is their militant approach, uninformed ranting and rudeness. I think this turns people off - it does me, I know. Also I have to agree with some of the critics that "freedom for freedom's sake" can be a pretty stupid approach. Simply setting a research animal free into an unknown and unfamiliar environment where it probably can't survive (or undergoes enormous stress and suffering in attempting to do so) is not the answer.

"..The focus on animal rights advocates on curbing animal research efforts is puzzling, given the far greater numbers of animals used in other ways.."

Statements like this I can never understand. Lots of animals are used and end up being killed in various ways, but it's the cruelty involved in many forms of research, and the lack of necessity for it in the first place, that's unforgiveable. Re the Ohio University experiments, I look at my own beautiful, loving and trusting cats and cannot cope with the thought that it could be one of them being spinal tapped up to 3 times a day. These poor OHU creatures must also be defanged and declawed otherwise they could not be handled for such manipulations. It's the stuff of nightmares.

There's a good site giving the true story on the worthlessness of many animal experiments at www.curedisease.com