Animal rights activists recently spray painted graffiti at the home of Ohio State University’s president William Kirwan and OSU’s Bricker Hall. The act of vandalism was apparently in protest of AIDS-related animal experiments slated to begin soon at OSU.
Activists spray painted “Ask Dr. Y Why, Stop the Killing, OSU=Profits Over Pain, Stop Killing Cats and Cat+Meth=Bad Science” on all four sides of Bricker Hall.
The slogans target Dr. William Yonushonis, director of OSU’s laboratory animal resources, who has been outspoken about the importance of animal research. In the wake of the vandalism, Yonushonis reiterated that, “Almost all the major advances in medicine and surgery have been made through animal testing.”
The methaphetamine references refer to research funded by the National Institutes of Health that will be carried out by OSU associate professor of veterinary sciences Michael Podell. The research involves studying the effect that methaphetamines have on the progress of cats injected with FIV (which is similar to human HIV).
Animal activists maintain the research is pointless but as Yonushonis notes, “The research study he [Podell] is doing is worthwhile. HIV replicates at astronomical rates in the brain when used with methaphetamines.” If FIV turns out to replicate in the presence of methaphetamine like HIV does, studying the disease in cats could lead to important information about HIV.
A couple days after the slogans were spray painted, animal rights activists protested outside Bricker Hall against the experiments. The ignorance of the activists was highlighted by protester Nickie Stoan who told the OSU Lantern,
The reason I’m here is that my little brother had a heart transplant, in which they had to experiment on pigs for. He wouldn’t be alive today if they didn’t have that technology. But I think they’re just being curious here, like trying methaphetamines and AIDS. There’s really no connection that it’s going to lead to a cure, and it’s just useless testing, and I think it’s cruel.
It’s amazing just how poor of an understanding many people have of science. Scientists “just being curious” is extremely important to progress in all areas of research; so important in fact that it is given a specific label — basic research. Stoan seems to think that the only animal experiments required for her brother’s heart transplant were some experiments on a few pigs, but in fact hundreds and hundreds of basic research experiments — researchers “just being curious” — provided the insights and understanding necessary so that scientists could ultimately figure out how to transplant organs.
Sources:
Vandals graffiti Ohio State U. president’s house over animal rights issue. Chanda Neely and Monica M. Torline, The Ohio State University Lantern, March 6, 2001.
Protesters call Ohio State U. AIDS research on cats inhumane. John Sobotkowski, The Ohio State Lantern, March 8, 2001.