Another interesting animal controversy in the news:
The studies, which began in 2007, attempt to model some of the environmental risk factors associated with human mental illness, such as parental neglect and childhood abuse or
trauma, in an effort to understand how they interact with genetic factors.
Methodologies used in the studies included separating baby monkeys from their mothers shortly after birth; sedating a mother in the baby’s presence to see how it responds when she loses consciousness; intentionally startling monkeys with sudden, loud noises; and subjecting the monkeys to invasive procedures such as spinal taps and intracranial administration of medications.
I think its great that organizations like PETA exist to be advocates for animals and to attempt to keep research and industry in check. Even if the research organizations may not intrinsically value the animals they are using, they will be forced to change their habits or face inevitable grant reduction caused by bad publicity.
I find it very interesting that these were being conducted after the amount of evidence on how sentient and sapient monkeys are…It’s upsetting to me since it feels as though we have come fairly far in our understanding of the cognitive abilities of these animals.
Have any of you used animals as research subjects here at Lafayette? What did you observe about their care?