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For decades, in thousands of laboratories across the country, biomedical researchers have relied on laboratory rats and mice to devise treatments for cancer, heart disease, inflammation and a host of other human afflictions. But what if, despite all the rigorous procedures to ensure valuable test results, many of those studies have been skewed by the most seemingly mundane of factors: what the animals are routinely fed? The concern is that researchers have unwittingly administered hormones present in some rodent chow. A small but growing number of scientists are warning that these hormones are a hidden element in millions of laboratory...

Experiments on non-human primates are the only option for some areas of medicine, according to a report published by the UK’s Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust on Friday. The report lists medical advances that they claim would have been impossible without experiments on monkeys. The publication of the report looks set to aggravate a bitter propaganda war between pro- and anti-vivisectionists trying to win public support on the issue of primate experiments. On Monday, a report is expected to be launched by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection calling for a complete ban on monkey experiments...

Dawn of the zombies 27 May 2006 From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues. Robin Orwant IT STARTS out like any silicon chip: intricate patterns are drawn with light and etched with acid. But this is no microprocessor destined for a computer. Instead there are minuscule chambers filled with human cells: liver cells, lung cells, fat cells, all connected by tiny channels. A nutrient fluid is pumped through the channels, flowing from one chamber to another just as blood flows from organ to organ in the body. That's the whole point. The chip, created by Michael...

Hundreds of people marched in support of animal testing at Oxford University's new £18m biomedical research centre on Saturday. Students, academic staff and members of the public gathered near the lab site, being built under strict security. Anti-vivisection activists, who believe animal testing "belongs in the past", want to stop the centre opening. (snip) Laurie Pycroft, the 16-year-old founder of the student movement Pro-Test, which sparked the campaign in favour of the new laboratory, said: "I felt that it was about time to speak out in support of scientific research." At one point, the two rival groups stood just a...

PeTA gave Pat Buchanan an award ostensibly because he saved the life of a turtle. In actuality, they are using him and his compassion for animals to promote their sick and twisted agenda.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - One is believed to be a chemical weapons expert, another allegedly plotted assassinations. A third planned attacks targeting U.S. troops, while a son-in-law publicized their exploits in the name of al-Qaida and recruited new militants. Now this top group is believed to have been wiped out by a U.S. missile strike. If true, it's far from a death blow to al-Qaida, but analysts say it could weaken the terror group's operations in Afghanistan, which has seen an alarming rise in suicide attacks. The strike apparently missed al-Qaida's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri. And an audiotape aired Thursday, the first...

LONDON, SEPT. 24, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Extremists in England bent on stopping laboratory tests using animals scored a recent victory in their long-running battle. Darley Oaks farm in Newchurch, Staffordshire, announced plans to stop breeding guinea pigs after ceding to a six-year campaign of intimidation, the BBC reported Aug. 23. One of the more recent acts that spurred the decision was the theft of the body of a family member from the local churchyard last October. Over the years the owners of the farm, the Hall family, have been the target of harassing phone calls, bomb scares, and arson attacks. Local...

Stem cell research with monkeys sparks debate Grafting human cells into animals' brains seen having ethical ramifications Updated: 5:24 p.m. ET July 14, 2005 The insertion of human stem cells into monkey brains runs a "real risk" of altering the animals' abilities in ways that might make them more like us, scientists said today. A panel of 22 experts — including primatologists, stem cell researchers, lawyers and philosophers — debated the possible consequences of the technique for more than a year. While the group agrees it is "unlikely that grafting human stem cells into the brains of non-human primates would...

PETA or Medical Research? May 27, 2005 Steven Milloy People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals launched a campaign last week against a drug testing company for alleged violations of animal welfare laws. It’s a smokescreen for animal rights extremists’ real agenda — a complete ban on the use of laboratory animals. PETA claimed at a news conference last week that one of its staffers worked undercover at a biomedical research lab in Vienna, Va., run by Covance, Inc., allegedly videotaping technicians improperly handling monkeys. Covance, which doesn’t have a history of violating animal welfare laws and regulations, responded in...

Last month, animal rights extremists followed the wife of a pharmaceutical company executive to her job, rifled through her car and stole a credit card. They used it buy $20,000 in travelers checks, which they then donated to four charities. “If we find out a dime of that money granted to those charities was taken back we will strip you bear (sic) and burn your (expletive). This is OUR insurance policy.”

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison plans to study whether stun guns alone can kill pigs - or whether other medical factors must be at play - as part of an effort to understand why 70 people have died in North America since 2001 after being shocked by Tasers. Led by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, outraged animal rights activists are calling for an end to the two-year study by John Webster, a professor emeritus of biomedical engineering. Police hail stun guns as a nonlethal way to restrain unruly suspects. But critics blame...

RICHARD DAWKINS WORLD By Mike Gene This page is not completely in character for this site. Nevertheless, Prof. Richard Dawkins is such a Big Player[1] in this overall debate that some aspects of his extremism beg for comment. As such, I will use the page to comment on some of Dawkins’ extremism and update it accordingly (so you might want to check back periodically). As of November 2003, Cambridge University had planned to build a primate research center. Professor Tony Minson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, of Cambridge University, said “We are pleased that this important research centre has been given the go-ahead by...

We don't need more laws against animal rights activists, but a more robust defence of animal experimentation. This year's Queen's Speech, in which the British government sets out its lawmaking agenda for the forthcoming year, was dominated by a string of anti-crime measures - including an unprecedented criminal offence that targets 'economic sabotage' conducted by animal rights extremists. In the past year alone, activists' have succeeded in blocking the £24million primate research centre at Cambridge University, and interrupting work at the £18million animal research facility at Oxford University. UK prime minister Tony Blair, who has vowed to make Britain a...

Forty-five years ago this week, ...1959, most Americans celebrated Thanksgiving sans cranberry sauce. Earlier that month, a government health official had announced that traces of the weed killer aminotriazole — a chemical that caused cancer in rodents — had been found in the cranberry crop. The spokesman urged housewives to "be on the safe side" and refrain from buying cranberries because the rodent data suggested that the "contaminated" cranberries could pose a human cancer risk. There was never any real health risk. The cranberry scare of 1959 marked the beginning of a modern wave of "chemical phobia" and a government...

Janet Tomlinson's name may not ring many bells. Miss Tomlinson, 61, has been an animal-rights rebel in Great Britain for more than 20 years. The Times of London reports she is "a regular protestor" at a guinea-pig farm that supplies animals used in medical research as well as at companies that test products on animals. In May, she was arrested at a protest outside a police station. After a magistrate dismissed an assault charge against her, she raged, "I will not stop fighting this unashamedly biased police force until they are handing me those poor guineas from those stinking sheds!"...

Fury as former surgeon calls for selective assassinations A top adviser to Britain's two most powerful animal rights protest groups caused outrage last night by claiming that the assassination of scientists working in biomedical research would save millions of animals' lives. To the fury of groups working with animals, Jerry Vlasak, a trauma surgeon and prominent figure in the anti-vivisection movement, told The Observer: 'I think violence is part of the struggle against oppression. If something bad happens to these people [animal researchers], it will discourage others. It is inevitable that violence will be used in the struggle and that...

The website could not have been more explicit. "All headlights and glass smashed, all electrics and air lines, oil lines cut, tyres slashed, fuel tanks, oil and transmission tanks contaminated, cab controls smashed up, approx 100 power cables supplying site electrics were chopped through," it said, describing how members of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) had broken into the Bournemouth offices of construction company RMC just over a fortnight ago. "Fuse boxes and other bits of electrics smashed, fuel pumps damaged, fuel tanks spilled, all site conveyor belts slashed beyond repair. Slogans painted everywhere, estimated cost £250,000." According to the...

OSU under fire for animal testing School says mice, rats necessary for research on spinal- cord injuries Saturday, July 17, 2004 Sarah Frank THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH They didn’t hear a peep last year. This summer, however, about a dozen Ohio State University researchers have found themselves the targets of a national group that opposes the school’s use of live rats and mice in a government-funded course. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, based in Washington, wants the university to dump its second annual Spinal Cord Injury Techniques Course, which uses mice and rats to teach researchers how to perform spinalcord...

OutFront Beware Of People Heidi Brown, 07.26.04 Animal-rights activists are getting more violent. Late on the night of May 30 an off-duty police officer was guarding the Monrovia, Calif. house of Mitchell Lardner.... The guard was there because Lardner, his wife and two small children have been under siege for weeks by animal-rights activists. They had spray-painted his home with words like "Puppy Killer" and "You Can't Hide" and paraded by in frightening masks and black robes, announcing with bullhorns "Mitchell Lardner kills 500 puppies a day!" Animal-rights activists are no longer content to set up picket lines. Groups such...

<p>Seven animal rights activists pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges that they promoted violence and vandalism against a research company that tests chemicals on thousands of animals at a New Jersey lab each year.</p> <p>The 10-minute arraignment drew about 30 protesters to the federal courthouse in Trenton, and prompted the U.S. Marshal's Office to heighten security in and around the building. But the demonstration was peaceful and the court proceeding ended without incident.</p>