WAV Comment – We will try to obtain more on this in the coming days.

Regards Mark

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/22/nasa-killed-all-monkeys-on-single-day

Revealed: all 27 monkeys held at Nasa research center killed on single day in 2019

This article is more than 1 month old

27 primates euthanized at California facility

Outcry over revelation that animals were not sent to sanctuary

Every monkey held by Nasa was put to death on a single day last year, documents obtained by the Guardian show, in a move that has enraged animal welfare campaigners.

A total of 27 primates were euthanized by administrated drugs on 2 February last year at Nasa’s Ames research center in California’s Silicon Valley, it has emerged. The monkeys were ageing and 21 of them had Parkinson’s, according to documents released under freedom of information laws.

The decision to kill off the animals rather than move them to a sanctuary has been condemned by animal rights advocates and other observers.

The primates “were suffering the ethological deprivations and frustrations inherent in laboratory life”, said John Gluck, an expert in animal ethics at the University of New Mexico. Gluck added the monkeys were “apparently not considered worthy of a chance at a sanctuary life. Not even a try? Disposal instead of the expression of simple decency. Shame on those responsible.”

Kathleen Rice, a US House representative, has written to Jim Bridenstine, Nasa’s administrator, to demand an explanation for the deaths.

Rice, a New York Democrat, said she has been pushing for US government researchers to consider “humane retirement policies” for animals used in research. “I look forward to an explanation from administrator Bridenstine on why these animals were forced to waste away in captivity and be euthanized rather than live out their lives in a sanctuary,” Rice told the Guardian.

Nasa has a long association with primates. Ham, a chimpanzee, received daily training before becoming the first great ape to be launched into space in 1961, successfully carrying out his brief mission before safely splashing down into the ocean.

But the monkeys euthanized last year weren’t used in any daring space missions or even for research – instead they were housed at the Ames facility in a joint care arrangement between Nasa and LifeSource BioMedical, a separate drug research entity which leases space at the center and housed the primates.

Stephanie Solis, the chief executive of LifeSource BioMedical, said the primates were given to the laboratory “years ago” after a sanctuary could not be found for them due to their age and poor health. “We agreed to accept the animals, acting as a sanctuary and providing all care at our own cost, until their advanced age and declining health resulted in a decision to humanely euthanize to avoid a poor quality of life,” she said.

Solis said no research was conducted on the primates while they were at Ames and that they were provided a “good remaining quality of life”.

In recent years the US government has started to phase out the use of primates in research, with the National Institutes of Health making a landmark decision in 2015 to retire all chimpanzees used in biomedical studies. Critics of the practice argue it is immoral and cruel to subject highly intelligent, social creatures so similar to humans to such conditions.

However, other labs continue to use monkeys in large numbers – a record 74,000 were used in experiments in 2017 – with scientists claiming they are far better than other animals, such as mice, for studying diseases that also afflict humans.

Even when monkeys are retired from research purposes, the task of rehoming them in appropriate sanctuaries still proves haphazard.

“What tragic afterthoughts these lives were,” said Mike Ryan, spokesman for Rise for Animals, the group that obtained the freedom of information documents on the Ames primate deaths. “Nasahas many strengths, but when it comes to animal welfare practices, they’re obsolete.”

A Nasa spokesperson said: “Nasa does not have any non-human primates in Nasa or Nasa-funded facilities.”

As we told you earlier, after hearing from PETA, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) took the historic step of deleting outrageous animal tests—including drowning mice and rats and making them run to exhaustion on an electrified treadmill—from its draft regulation for marketing foods and beverages using dubious anti-fatigue health claims.

The TFDA is now accepting public comments on the regulation through March 1, before finalizing its decision. Please contact the agency to help ensure that it deletes these animal tests in the final version of the regulation.

ACT NOW to speak up for animals suffering in these experiments before the MARCH 1 deadline.

TAKE ACTION HERE:

URGENT: Help Finalize Taiwan Ban on Drowning, Shock Tests on Animals | PETA

URGENT: Help Finalize Taiwan Ban on Drowning, Shock Tests on Animals

Following years of pressure from PETA, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) has announced a groundbreaking decision to delete all animal tests—including drowning mice and rats and making them run to exhaustion on an electrified treadmill—from its draft regulation for marketing foods and beverages using dubious anti-fatigue health claims.

The agency is now accepting public comments through March 1 before finalizing its decision, and it needs to hear from you.

Prior to the TFDA’s announcement of its decision to remove the animal tests from its draft regulation, the agency had endorsed these horrific experiments, which are irrelevant to human health, and PETA sent the TFDA a detailed scientific critique of these tests at the agency’s request.

If the final draft regulation is approved as is after the public comment period ends, for companies that want to make anti-fatigue health claims for marketing food and beverage products, only safe and effective human tests would be required and allowed.

Permanently removing animal testing from the draft regulation would save countless animals’ lives.

During the notorious forced swim test, experimenters fed mice or rats large quantities of the test foods and then starved them for up to 24 hours. Afterward, experimenters dropped them into beakers filled with water and observed how long they struggled before they drowned or remained underwater for eight consecutive seconds. If the animals learned to float and conserve energy, experimenters would stir the water to force them to struggle. To speed up the drowning process, experimenters tied lead wires to animals in order to make it harder for them to swim.

During the treadmill-running test, experimenters also fed rats large quantities of the test foods and then put the animals on treadmills equipped with electrified plates. Experimenters forced them to run at increasing speeds and on steepening inclines and observed how long it took for them to choose repeated electrocution over continuing to run. At the trials’ end, experimenters killed and dissected them.

Not only is animal experimentation cruel, it’s also a colossal failure. Specifically, 90% of animal tests fail to lead to treatments for humans and more than 95% of new pharmaceutical drugs that test safe and effective in animals fail in human clinical trials.

Rats, a preferred target of experimenters worldwide, are highly intelligent. They are natural students who excel at learning and understanding concepts and are at least as capable of thinking about problems and figuring them out as dogs. They have excellent memories, and once they learn a navigation route, they never forget it.

Please TAKE ACTION (link above) and let the TFDA know that you support its deletion of animal testing from the draft regulation for anti-fatigue health claims and that you support keeping such testing banned in the final version of the regulation.