Your newsletter serves an important function of disseminating information on animal welfare issues. That function is compromised, however, by articles such as "The Importance of Animals in Biomedical and Behavioral Research," which appeared in the Summer 1994 issue ( V.5 No.2 ). The text of the article borrowed heavily from statements drafted by organizations which oppose animal welfare regulatory reforms. While previous administrations, including the Department of Health and Human Services, have been recruited onto this bandwagon, the obvious bias in such propaganda does not serve your readers well.
It is not true that "virtually every medical achievement of the last century has depended directly or indirectly on research with animals." For example, the elucidation and clinical testing of risk factors for heart disease never depended on the use of animals in any way. Certainly, animal experimenters have not hesitated to try their hands in this area, but their work has been in no way helpful. Similarly, the use of animals in stroke research has clearly impeded progress. As a recent review in Stroke indicated, of 25 drugs that reduced the effects of experimentally induced strokes in animals, not a single one worked in humans, and millions of dollars in research funds, not to mention the time and attention of researchers, were wasted in the process.
The second to last paragraph denigrating animal rights advocates is particularly inappropriate. The statement that the majority of physicians "readily accept" the need for animal experiments would certainly have to be rewritten if doctors were polled about specific uses of animals, such as the Draize test, chemical weapons tests, learned helplessness studies, and others.
I presume that this PHS policy statement was not drafted during the current administration. If I am in error, please let me know. Meanwhile, I appreciate that information which is objective and which embraces the spirit of animal protection.
Neal D. Barnard, M.D.
Washington, DC
Dr. Barnard is President of Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine.
[Ed. note: The policy of the Animal Welfare Information Center is to cooperate with other Federal agencies in disseminating official positions of the United States Government on matters of importance to the American public.]
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The Animal Welfare Information Center
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Agricultural Research Service
National Agricultural Library
10301 Baltimore Ave.
Beltsville, MD 20705-2351
Phone: (301) 504-6212
FAX: (301) 504-7125
E-mail: awic@nal.usda.gov
