]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]            ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS         [[[[[[[[[[[[[[


                                               (10/7/88)
ANN LANDERS, Oct. 6, l988:   The benefits of animal experiments
 [Kindly uploaded by Freeman 07656GAED]

  DEAR ANN LANDERS:  Although I have been an avid reader of
your column for 20 years, I have never written to you.
  This morning I received letters and pictures of animals
being tortured in the name of medical science that made me
sick.  I cannot believe that such atrocities are permitted in 
this country.  What can we do to put a stop to it?
  When I saw pictures of those adorable monkeys and precious 
dogs in cages my heart just broke.  Animals are God's 
creatures, too, and we cannot allow this to go on.  Please, 
Ann, use whatever influence you have to put an end to these 
cruel experiments.
                                        --Pauline F., Island
Park, N.Y.   
 
  DEAR PAULINE:  It's madness all right, but don't overlook 
some of the "animal rights" activists.
  Extremists have infiltrrated laboratories posing as 
volunteer workers, destroyed records, bombed and vandalized 
research facilities, damaged computers, and poured blood on 
the files.  Research on infant blindness was halted in 
California for eight months while claims of animal abuse were 
investigated.  The changes were found to be false.
  The mischief visited on science has cost millions of
dollars.  In April 1987,  the Animal Liberation Front claimed 
responsibility for the fire that destroyed two-thirds of the 
veterinary diagnostic laboratory at the University of 
California at Davis, which resulted in more than $3 million 
in damages.
  Dr. Michael DeBakey, chancellor of the Baylor College of 
Medicine in Houston, a world-renowned pioneer in heart 
surgery, asks these questions:  Would animal-rights activists 
refuse to accept a kidney, heart, or liver transplant if 
these alone could save their lives?  Such advances would not 
have been possible without animal research.  Would they
refuse preventive measures against polio, measles, 
diphtheria, and whooping cough, or treatment for strep 
throat, ear infections, and pneumonia--all made possible 
through animal research?  Do 11 million diabetics deserve the 
right to life that insulin has given them?  Are cancer 
patients entitled to the benefits they receive from radiation 
and chemotherapy?
  It was in monkeys that the AIDS virus was first identified.  
Should we halt all research on this deadly plague because 
monkeys are "adorable"?  There is no way a vaccine or a cure 
for this devastating disease can be found unless we use
animal models for experiments.  Computers won't do.
  I am an animal lover, too.  But when forced to make a 
choice between rats, mice, monkeys, rabbits, cats and dogs, 
and humanity, I choose humanity.

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