Serbian Animals Voice (SAV)

With thanks to Diana for supplying this very interesting and informative article.

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http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2225931/inferring_outcomes_beneath_the_fur.html

Associated Content. 5 October 2009.

Inferring Outcomes: Beneath the Fur of Animal Experimentation.

By Aaron Brown

Does Animal Experimentation Lead to More False Positives Than Actual Positive Results?

Is animal experimentation still at the head of scientific development, or is it time to say goodbye to an archaic methodology?   Animal experimentation is viewed by most of today’s modern scientists as misleading, expensive, and laborious. Burgos states that large and ever increasing numbers of scientists and doctors claim that animal experimentation is not only ineffective but also counterproductive (par. 16). False findings and toxic medications lead only to more pain and heart ache for the families of the terminally ill individual.

Although the findings of William Harvey allowed for the medical community to understand the workings of the heart and the circulatory system, Harvey’s use for animal experimentation is a far cry from that of modern medicines use of animals in drug experimentation. For when one assumes that the findings in animals are directly correlated to those of human beings then one need only look to the findings of recent discoveries showing accounts of vast differences between animal and human trials of the same drug.

An individual does not need to be an animal activist or a PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) fundamentalist to reason that animal experimentation has long outgrown its usefulness. Burgos goes on to say that each animal is a completely different biomechanical and biochemical entity in and of itself, being that it makes no sense to attempt an extrapolation of data from a non-human animal to that of a human, or even from one species of animal to another (par. 6).

This being the truth, how does modern medicine perceive that attempts at introducing the AIDS virus to an animal (which have all but failed) is a reliable and sound way to find a cure for a disease that seems impossible for a non-human to contract. Even if a way was found for a non-human to obtain the AIDS virus, what reliable data could be gathered from the research that was done on an animal whose genomes react quite differently from that of the human’s? The thought that bone marrow from baboons into human beings (in attempts to fight Leukemia) has failed with costly consequences, furthermore, interspecies organ transplantation has met just as dark fates comparable to artificial organ transplantation and genetic manipulation. These failures are synonymous with the failures and harmful treatments that have been tried on humans due to a positive outcome of an animal test subject. An example of such is how different an animal will react to a chemical than that of a human individual. Burgos points out the fact that although strychnine is fatal to a human, the same drug has no effect on the same guinea pigs that we test much of our modern day medicine on (par. 14).

With the advent of comparative genomics on the forefront of modern science we learn that rats and humans share a common ancestor, yet modifications over time and evolution have changed us so humans are not rats and rats are not humans.

Although there are some extremely close similarities between rats and humans, the end result lies in the details. The variance amongst human genes alone can be a staggering number to look at; no one individual is alike on this planet. Genes may be similar amongst varying species, yet guinea pigs reactions to strychnine is much the opposite from humans, The failures and disinformation that can only be seen as a fault to the medical research community is not only a research failure, but an economic failure as well, the costs of funding these projects is staggering and only growing day by day.

The cost of animal research pushes health care costs through the roof. Estimated costs for health care in the year 2000 were a daunting two trillion dollars, and projections claim a rise to 16 trillion by the year 2030, a whopping 32 percent of the U.S. economy. Of the two trillion that was spent on health care costs in 2000 a potential 9 billion of that was appropriated to the animal research sector. Universities are the obvious benefactor of a majority of these research funds,

Ohio’s Case Western Reserve University received almost 96 million in the year 2001, and that was near median in the budget scale (“The Escalating Cost of Animal Experimentation”, par. 12) One would suppose that with the rise in the health care budget we would see a decrease of terminal diseases, but this is just not the case. Since Nixon’s launch of the “War on Cancer” 37 years ago, cancer rates have gone up by 18 percent and cancer deaths have gone up by 7 percent (Burgos, par. 12).

If funding is not finding a cure for these diseases, then why the high costs, and what is the answer?

The EU (European Union) has found a way to limit animal deaths, limit spending, and still found a cure for a common affliction. The Brussels team in May of 2003 found that when inserting a drug that contained fever-causing agents (pyrogens) into human blood cells opposed to rabbits they would still obtain the same affect. Using human blood cells as an alternative to rabbits in finding cures saves 200,000 rabbits a year and millions of dollars.

The Brussels research group claims to have a better understanding of human immunology now than they did 20 years ago, which will hopefully lead to the safer drugs for consumers due to the fact that they are now testing these human cells as biosensors for pyrogens.

These new tests have several advantages in comparison to the rabbit tests of yore: they are less laborious, cheaper, and more sensitive (meaning higher accuracy and quality ratings).

Validation studies suggest that complete replacement of rabbit testing is possible and are in contrast even better (Brussels Research Group, par. 1-12). Animal testing as shown above is not the only way to obtain testing results, and if anything is a forgone procedure.

The validation of the human blood cell experiment is a first proof that testing can be done without the sacrificing of funds and live beings. These experiments are a stepping stone to the reduction if not the remission of animal testing and experimentation. So gone may be the days of rat mazes, monkey cages, and suspended metal tipped water bottles. Although these projected scenarios may be far in the future, the risky business of animal testing may be standing on its last weak leg.

With the EU on the forefront of breakthrough medical research with regards to animal experimentation, if the pyrogens injected into human blood cells during in vitro testing can produce results independently then the need for animals could be falling further and further away as medical research progresses.

The cost benefits alone will help change the outlook on American health care, with the system in crisis it is time to be looking to alternative means of healthcare. This being the ever changing landscape of the human gene, yesterdays ‘one size fits all therapy’ healthcare outlook may someday be a more personal, individually planned healthcare analysis.

Although many of the animals that are tried and tested in drug experimentation are within near 99 percent of our gene mapping, does not leave us to speculate that the outcomes in animal trials will be the same for human results. When most animal to human trials only obtain a little over a 50 percent success rate, one cannot say that animal experimentation is a viable school of research. Skeptics and realists have longed looked at the cost analysis of animal testing, the Machiavellian means meeting the ends argument, and every time animal testing just seems to fall short of any real scientific goal.

Burgos, Javier B. “Animal Experimentation Is Unscientific.” At

Issue: Animal Experimentation. Ed. David M. Haugen. San Diego:

Greenhaven Press, 2000. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center.

Gale. University of Akron. 15 July 2008

http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&ty

pe=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010002211&source=g

ale&userGroupName=uakron_main&version=1.0>.

“”Brussel’s Research Group”.” 13 July 2008. 13 Jul 2008 .

Carlson, Peggy. “Why We Don’t Need Animal Experimentation.”

Wall Street Journal 07 Nov. 2005. Rpt in The Structure of

Argument. Annette T. Rottenberg and Donna Haisty Winchell. 5th

ed. Boston: Bedfors, 2006. 216-217

Sabin, Heloisa. “Animal Research saves Human Lives.” Wall

Street Journal 18 Oct. 1995. Rpt in The Structure of Argument.

Annette T. Rottenberg and Donna Haisty Winchell. 5th ed.

Boston: Bedfors, 2006. 214-215

“”The Escalating Cost of Animal Experimentation”.” 08 June

2008. 13 Jul 2008 .

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »

UPDATE November 2015

There is a new 2015 petition for this event – please go to our new petition post which is at

https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/2015/11/12/south-africa-first-fruits-bull-killing-competition-petition-please-sign/

A Live Bull Has its Tongue Ripped Out During a First Fruits Ritual.

Target:

President Zuma and South African Ministers for Agriculture, Tourism and Arts and Culture

Sponsored by: 

Katie Timmins on behalf of Compassion in World Farming, South Africa

Please read the following to know more about what happens during the First Fruits ritual. Some of it is taken from a press release by Compassion in World farming, other parts taken from the NSPCA website.
 

IMPORTANT: AS MUCH AS I APPRECIATE ALL OF YOUR VALUED SIGNATURES AND COMMENTS, PLEASE REMEMBER THAT WE NEED TO KEEP THEM ALL POLITE AND RESPECTFUL. WE WILL NOT RECEIVE ANY HELP FROM GOVERNMENT MINISTERS IF WE THREATEN OR INSULT THEM. MANY THANKS

I have purposefully not added photos as they are upsetting, however I have provided a link to a URL with the full press release, where you can see photos and more information:

The First Fruits Festival is a traditional Zulu ceremony whereby young men celebrate their coming of age by killing a bull with their bare hands. That’s around 40 boys of around 14 years old suffocating, gorging, ripping apart a bull with nothing but their own hands.

The NSPCA (Southern African National Councils of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) has been appealing to Governments about this for the last ten years now, but nobody seems to want to do anything as it is culturally sensitive. President Zuma of South Africa is in fact himself Zulu. To quote the NSPCA “Incidents to which the NSPCA has objection and believes are violations of the Animals Protection Act No 71 of 1962 include: – choking the animal by pushing sand or mud down its throat, gouging out its eyes to down the animal, twisting its testicles and tying its penis until the animal succumbs and is then jumped on, kicked and beaten until it dies, usually about 40 minutes after the event began.”

I believe that media and world attention is one way in which we stand a chance of bringing this cruelty to an end. Everybody hates what happens to the dolphins in Japan, but nobody really knew about it until it was exposed in the film the Cove. Please, sign the petition and forward it to as many people as you can to highlight this issue. Please read the following to know more about what happens during the First Fruits ritual. Some of it is taken from a press release by Compassion in World farming, other parts taken from the NSPCA website.

http://www.animal-voice.org/images/stories/webimages/posters/press_release_re_bulls_low-res.pdf

IMPORTANT: AS MUCH AS I APPRECIATE ALL OF YOUR VALUED SIGNATURES AND COMMENTS, PLEASE REMEMBER THAT WE NEED TO KEEP THEM ALL POLITE AND RESPECTFUL. WE WILL NOT RECEIVE ANY HELP FROM GOVERNMENT MINISTERS IF WE THREATEN OR INSULT THEM. MANY THANKS

*** Petition Link:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/help-end-cruel-first-fruits-torture

I have purposefully not added photos as they are upsetting, however I have provided a link to a URL with the full press release, where you can see photos and more information:

The First Fruits Festival is a traditional Zulu ceremony whereby young men celebrate their coming of age by killing a bull with their bare hands. That’s around 40 boys of around 14 years old suffocating, gorging, ripping apart a bull with nothing but their own hands. The NSPCA (Southern African National Councils of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) has been appealing to Governments about this for the last ten years now, but nobody seems to want to do anything as it is culturally sensitive. President Zuma of South Africa is in fact himself Zulu. To quote the NSPCA “Incidents to which the NSPCA has objection and believes are violations of the Animals Protection Act No 71 of 1962 include: – choking the animal by pushing sand or mud down its throat, gouging out its eyes to down the animal, twisting its testicles and tying its penis until the animal succumbs and is then jumped on, kicked and beaten until it dies, usually about 40 minutes after the event began.”

I believe that media and world attention is one way in which we stand a chance of bringing this cruelty to an end. Everybody hates what happens to the dolphins in Japan, but nobody really knew about it until it was exposed in the film the Cove. Please, sign the petition and forward it to as many people as you can to highlight this issue. http://www.animal-voice.org/images/stories/webimages/posters/press_release_re_bulls_low-res.pdf

*** Petition Link:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/help-end-cruel-first-fruits-torture

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »

*** UPDATE *** – CRUSH VIDEOS

I think there is some misunderstanding by some of the folks in this chain.

The Supreme Court has NOT ruled on this.

They did, however, hear a challenge to the statute this week. From what I heard on the radio (Nina Totenberg on NPR always does a summary of what questions the different justices ask), their questioning showed that they had some concerns that it was not drafted narrowly enough – in other words, that it could be used to pull in some forms of expression that should be protected. It generally takes them several months to issue opinions.

For those folks who have been out of high school social studies for a long time, I thought I’d point out that, if the Supreme Court strikes this law down, animal protection groups can read the opinion and come up with new statutory wording that addresses their concerns. They can then find Representatives and Senators to sponsor a bill with the new language and have at it again. I would much rather that the current law turns out to be constitutional because that will put disgusting psychopaths away sooner. But we’re involved in animal protection for the long haul, and I believe we will get this issue taken care of soon even if they strike it down.

There is nothing your Representatives and Senators can do right now. Keep an ear out for an actual ruling on this case, and contact them if it comes out badly for the animals. If you contact them now, you will be ignored because it’s not the right time.

I am a lawyer who edits bar exam review questions for a living. So, yes, I do spend a lot of time thinking about how this works. You may share this as long as you do so in its entirety so I don’t get quoted out of context.

 Ellen in St. Paul

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SAV Comment:

We have now removed our original post on this issue; which was forwarded to us and which as Ellen details above, does not mean that there has been a ruling.

Again, this information has been supplied to us through the network, and so we are providing updated information as we receive it.

Who knows, things may change again within days !!

Filed under: CAMPAIGNS - Global Animal Welfare Issues, GENERAL NEWS - International / National / Regional | Leave a comment »