Viewpoints
Abusive treatment of animals
By Alka Chandna
September 21, 2009
Monday PM
Dear Editor,
Reports of color blindness experiments on squirrel monkeys at
the University of Washington (UW) have only speculated on any
relevance to human beings and have failed entirely to mention
the pain and misery suffered by the hundreds of monkeys, cats,
dogs, gerbils, and rats used by the experimenters over the past
25 years. These animals are invariably forced to endure lives
of deprivation, terror, depression, and physical trauma.
Indeed, UW has a history of abusive treatment of animals in its
laboratories. In 2007, federal investigators found that UW experimenters
performed dozens of surgeries on monkeys without approval from
the university's oversight committee.
Squirrel monkeys and other primates are highly intelligent animals
who form intricate social relationships, experience a wide range
of emotions, and exhibit a capacity for suffering similar to
that of humans. Imprisoning them in laboratories for any reason
is unjustifiable.
While it is indeed unfortunate that some people cannot see the
difference between red and green, the real tragedy is that animal
experimenters evidently cannot tell the difference between right
and wrong.
Sincerely,
Alka Chandna, Ph.D.
Laboratory Oversight Specialist
Laboratory Investigations Department
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Norfolk, VA
Received September 18, 2009
- Published September 21, 2009
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