Dear Editor,
In “Animal testing in science a necessary evil” from the March 22 issue of The Eastern Echo, Jennifer Kirby fails to mention the overall failure of tests on animals to advance our treatment of illness when more advanced computer modeling techniques are available today.
The infamously cruel experiments Kirby herself cites are a case-in-point, and I invite readers to learn more about these unnecessary experiments and make up their own mind. Harry Harlow took newborn monkeys from their mothers and kept the traumatized babies in tiny boxes, sometimes for up to a year. Later, Harlow and his student Stephen Suomi created the “pit of despair,” a dark metal box designed to isolate the monkeys from everything. The monkeys were driven insane, incessantly rocking and clutching at themselves, biting their own skin and ripping out their hair. When finally removed from isolation, they were too traumatized to interact with other monkeys. Some starved themselves to death.
Suomi and his colleagues continue such experiments today at the National Institutes of Health, even though the experimenters themselves have admitted that they’re not applicable to human psychological disorders. Jane Goodall has spoken out against the experiments and members of Congress have requested a bioethics review. When Suomi spoke at the University of Michigan this month, he was repeatedly challenged by audience members outraged by his cruel experiments.
Superior research models like complex computer modeling that can predict disease progression and organs-on-a-chip that function as miniature beating hearts, breathing lungs and other human organs have proven far superior to outdated and ineffective experiments on animals. With the availability of these cutting-edge research models, it’s high time we abandon cruel and outdated experiments on animals.
Thomas Progar
