People concerned about the well-being of animals are right to scrutinize the abuse of animals in experiments (Canadian Press story). In Canada, there is no federal law that governs the treatment of animals in laboratories and no experiment is prohibited, no matter how trivial, redundant, or cruel.
Experimenters at the University of British Columbia have drilled holes into the skulls of monkeys and injected toxins that damage their brains; they have induced seizures in monkeys through electroconvulsive shock treatments; and they have used kittens, raised in darkness, to conduct vision experiments. At the University of Alberta, experimenters have inflicted brain and spinal damage on cats and then forced the injured animals to walk on treadmills. And McGill experimenters were recently the object of international condemnation for experiments on mice in which they injected noxious chemicals into the animals’ abdomens, ankles, hands, and feet; placed them on hot plates; and performed various surgeries on them without administering pain relief.
Animals are not inanimate and unfeeling pieces of laboratory equipment. It is wrong to imprison, harm, and kill them and to treat them as if they don’t matter simply because we’re bigger and stronger than they are.
Sincerely,
Alka Chandna, Ph.D.
Laboratory Oversight Specialist
Laboratory Investigations Department
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Norfolk, VA, USA
