ANIMAL AID AWARDS
FOR MAD SCIENCE 1999
Last October, Animal Aid published a report revealing
the hidden suffering of cats and dogs used for research in British laboratories.
(Betrayed: the silent suffering of cats and dogs,1998).
So disturbing were the revelations, that this year's Animal Aid Awards for Mad
Science (AAMSA) are being made to researchers responsible for equally grostesque
and pointless experiments on cats and dogs - details of which have been published
in scientific journals in the last year.
 The
1998 Animal Aid report detailed ways in which cats and dogs are used for research
into a range of illnesses, for drug and product testing, and for military purposes.
It also highlighted the degree of suffering and casual cruelty inflicted on
these animals throughout their lives - during breeding, whilst being confined
within laboratories and in the course of the experiments themselves.
By illustrating how cats and dogs respond differently from humans to a range
of drugs and how they experience diseases differently from us, our report also
showed the pointlessness of their suffering. Attempting to apply the results
of vivisection to humans is not only unscientific; it can be dangerous.
Details of many experiments are never published due to commercial or military
secrecy, or because the experiments were poorly designed or revealed nothing
worth communicating. The refusal of pharmaceutical companies to share so much
of their data means that many animal experiments are repeated over and over
in different laboratories across the world.
The research projects summarised below are a selection from the 10 1999 winners
of the Animal Aid Awards for Mad Science (AAMSA). The AAMSA's have been awarded
every year since 1992 to researchers engaged in particularly grotesque and ridiculous
experiments.
SELECTED WINNERS
Newcastle University - cats in brain and treadmill experiments
At Newcastle University, eight cats were used to investigate how nerve messages
from the skin of their feet might affect control of their leg muscles. The
cats were anaesthetised and arteries in their necks were tied. Most nerves
to their left back legs were cut below their hip, and two recording wires
were pushed into one of their leg muscles. The cats were placed with their
heads held in a frame over a treadmill - held by pins in their hips and clamps
on their left back leg. Part of their brain was then removed, and the anaesthetic
was discontinued. Some local anaesthetic was applied near the pins in their
hips and to the cut skin of their legs. With the treadmill running to make
the cat's legs 'walk', the reaction to electrical impulses applied to a nerve
from their foot was measured. (Ref: Murphy PR (1999) Adaptive fusimotor reflex
control in the decerebrate cat. Brain Research, 821, 38-49)
Nottingham University - cats in vision experiments
At Nottingham University, five cats were used in research on changes in vision
sensitivity when the eye moves. They were anaesthetised and a hole cut through
their skull to allow an electrode to be inserted into their brain, while a
tube was inserted into their neck to allow artificial respiration. The cats
were kept paralysed and 'lightly anaesthetised' during the experiment. Drugs
were used to dilate their pupils and to hold their eye-membranes open, and
the response of a part of their brains to moving patterns recorded. Caution
is expressed over comparing results from cats and primates. The work was supported
financially by the Wellcome Trust and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council. (Ref: Derrington AM, Felisberti F (1998) Peripheral shift
reduces visual sensitivity in cat geniculate neurones. Vis Neurosci, 15, 875-880)
Leeds University - dogs in blood pressure tests
Researchers at Leeds University used nine dogs to investigate the response
to sudden changes in blood-pressure. The dogs were anaesthetised and their
necks and chests cut open, and instruments were attached to them. Their blood
was circulated out of their bodies and back in again, to allow blood pressure
to be suddenly changed only in a part of their neck arteries. This experiment
provided a physiological explanation for the known and unsurprising tendency
of pilots of high-performance aircraft to experience momentary low blood-pressure
and fainting when their planes are rapidly accelerated vertically after decelerating.
Exposing an astonishing lack of knowledge of human health in the real world,
the authors state that their results suggest that a person bending down then
suddenly standing up could experience dizziness and fainting - an effect which
has been experienced by many people and is known to medicine as postural hypotension.
The experiments were funded by the British Heart Foundation and the United
States Airforce Office of Scientific Research. (Ref: Doe CP, et al (1998)
Reflex vascular responses in the anaesthetized dog to large rapid changes
in carotid sinus presssure. Am J Physiol, 275, H1169-H1177)
Leeds University - dogs in liver experiments
At Leeds University, 11 dogs were used to see whether their livers function
as a reservoir for blood. The research was partly funded by the British Heart
Foundation. Dogs were used despite the authors acknowledging that blood storage
in dogs is very different from that in humans, as they have a large spleen
that functions as a blood reservoir. The dogs were anaesthetised, and their
neck, chest and abdomen were opened. Some of their blood vessels and nerves
were cut away from tissues, and instruments were attached to and inserted
in their bodies. Their blood was mixed with a replacement fluid containing
blood cells from dogs used in earlier experiments. The results were noted
to be dependent on an assumption that responses in the bodies of these battered
creatures were similar to those in living humans - which is a risky assumption.
(Ref: Noble BJ, et al (1998) Blood mobilization from the liver of the anaesthetized
dog. Exp Physiol, 83, 513-522)
Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, Macclesfield - dogs in liver tests for cancer drug
In Macclesfield, 15 beagle dogs (together with a number of rats and mice)
were used by drugs company Zeneca Pharmaceuticals to test whether their drug,
Casodex, increases the level of particular enzymes in the animals' livers.
This drug has been used in men for several years to treat prostate cancer,
and is already reported NOT to cause in humans an increase in the liver enzymes
in question. For 10 weeks the dogs were fed each morning before being dosed
with varying amounts of the drug. They were then killed, and their liver enzymes
were analysed. The results showed that the response of liver enzymes to the
drug differs between the various species. (Ref: McKillop D, et al (1998) Enzyme-inducing
effects of bicalutamide in mouse, rat and dog. Xenobiotica, 28 (5), 465-478)
SmithKline Beecham, Harlow, Essex - cats used to test possible migraine
drugs
At least 100 cats, supplied by Hillgrove Farm cat breeders in Oxfordshire,
were used by drug company SmithKline Beecham in Essex to test the effect of
drugs. The cats were anaesthetised, maintained on artificial respiration,
and had tubes inserted into their blood vessels. A hole was cut in their skulls,
and an electrode was inserted into their brains. Its position was checked
by seeing that their jaws moved and that they dribbled when an electrical
current was applied through the electrode to the brain. Changes to blood pressure
and blood flow following injection of experimental drugs were then measured.
Differences between the effects of various drugs on cats and other species
are mentioned in the paper. (Ref: Raval P, et al (1999) Trigeminal nerve ganglion
stimulation-induced neurovascular reflexes in the anaesthetized cat: role
of endothelin(B) receptors in carotid vasodilatation. Br J Pharmacol, 126,
485-493)
CONCLUSIONS
 The
experiments described above offer just a glimpse of the horrors routinely inflicted
upon animals in UK laboratories. The same public appalled to hear of cats and
dogs being eaten by people in other countries are unwittingly paying - as taxpayers
and consumers - for animals to be subjected to vicious and cold-blooded research.
The result is great suffering with no benefit to humans.
THE COLD STATISTICS
The following statistics on the use in Britain of cats and dogs come from the
most recently published Home Office figures.
 Total
Number Of Animals Used in 1987
Cats 1148, Dogs 5891
Total Number Of 'Procedures' (Experiments)
Cats 1446, Dogs 7490
Because animals may be used more than once, the 'procedures' total is bigger
than the 'number of animals' total.
THE BACKGROUND
A Catalogue of Suffering
The scientists' own published papers reveal that cats and dogs are subjected
routinely to damage of vital body systems, such as the heart, lung, brain and
liver. They are surgically mutilated, infected with lethal viruses and made
to endure convulsions, vomiting and other symptoms.
Cats and dogs are used in the following ways:
 to investigate human afflictions,
such as migraine, heart disease and stroke
to see how the body works
for the testing of drugs,
agricultural chemicals, industrial substances, food additives, household products,
and even war and riot control weapons.
In the Name of Profit
Many of the experiments are commercially driven - carried out to develop new
pharmaceutical products that are essentially duplicates of drugs already on
the market.
Around half the experiments on cats use anaesthetics at some stage. But many
don't, including those in which animals are deliberately infected with feline
immunodeficiency virus (FIV), the cat equivalent of the human AIDS virus.
Dogs are most commonly employed for toxicity tests which rarely use any form
of pain relief, even though the poisoning tests can last for weeks or months.
It is not only during the experiment that animals may suffer. In March 1997,
the Channel 4 television documentary Countryside Undercover revealed how two
technicians at Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) had punched and violently shaken
beagle dogs used for experiment.
Laboratory cats and dogs usually live in barren pens and cages - deprived of
affectionate human contact.
Bad Science
There is a wealth of evidence demonstrating that cats, dogs and other animals
make hopelessly unreliable 'models' of human beings:
The pain-killing drug
morphine, for instance, produces in cats a condition known as 'morphine mania',
which leaves them highly excitable and apprehensive. Equally, dogs failed
to predict heart problems caused by the cardiovascular drugs encainide and
flecainide, which led to an estimated 3,000 deaths in the United States.
The most serious side-effects
of oral contraceptives are on the circulatory system, placing women at increased
risk of blood clots. Animal tests not only failed to identify this problem,
the pill had totally the opposite effect in dogs, making it more difficult
for their blood to clot.
Convenience of the 'Animal Model'
Why are cats and dogs used when results so often prove misleading? The reason
has more to do with tradition and convenience than science. Cats are popular
in physiological research because they are a convenient size, enabling experimenters
to carry out dissections and implant tubes and recording devices, like electrodes,
more precisely than with smaller animals. Beagle dogs are favoured because of
their docile temperament.
AAMSA 1999 researched and written by Phil Sleigh. |
