Medical Field Defends Use of Animals in Lab

Facing growing protests over the use of animals in biomedical research, a group of medical school deans, research scientists, patient advocacy groups and two Cabinet officers banded together for the first time Friday to defend the controversial practice.

On the eve of a weeklong series of animal rights protests, Health and Human Resources Secretary Louis W. Sullivan and National Drug Policy Director William J. Bennett lent their official support to beleaguered medical researchers facing physical and verbal attacks, cuts in funding and increased costs for security and regulations.

‘Crucial’ for Research

In statements released at a press conference here, Sullivan said that the use of laboratory animals was “crucial” for research on life-threatening illnesses, including AIDS, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Bennett called such research an “indispensable part of our work against drug addiction.”

The high-powered offensive by the government and medical establishment, including the American Medical Assn., indicated the growing influence of more than 200 so-called “animal rights” groups, which oppose, sometimes violently, the traditional use of rats, dogs, monkeys and other animals for biomedical research.

“Congress gets more letters on animal rights than on any other issue,” said Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin, administrator of the U.S. Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration, who defended the use of lab animals.

Animal rights groups have scheduled 300 demonstrations and rallies next week at universities, private research centers and government institutions in New York, Washington, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Sacramento and other cities to mark “Animal Liberation Week” and the 10th anniversary of their movement.

“We want to end the war on animals in laboratories nationwide,” said Ginger Redmon, a spokeswoman for In Defense of Animals, one of the coordinating groups. The groups also generally oppose wearing furs, raising animals in “factory farms,” killing strays and what they call the “exploitation” of animals in other forms.

A War of Sorts

Movement radicals have launched their own war of sorts. Boasting of their 70th “action” for animal rights, an underground group called the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for two arson fires earlier this month that caused more than $150,000 damage at a University of Arizona lab in Tucson. Officials said the group also took 1,200 animals, including 30 mice infected with a disease potentially fatal to humans.

In Norwalk, Conn., a former schoolteacher awaits trial on charges of attempted murder for allegedly trying to bomb a company that uses dogs for surgical training. Other activists destroyed a $3.5-million animal diagnostic lab at UC Davis in April, 1987.

Regina Gavin, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania-based Trans-Species Unlimited, one of the most active animal rights groups, said in a phone interview that her organization does not support such violence. “But we understand the motivation behind it,” she said. “Frankly, I don’t shed a tear when I hear a lab has been broken into.”

Sees Peril to Mankind

Scientists credit research on animals for developing vaccines against polio and measles, treatment against leukemia and lymphoma and new procedures in everything from cataracts to heart surgery. But Gavin said such research was “dangerous to mankind.”

“It is dangerous to extrapolate data from animals to human beings,” she said. Before animals were used for research, she added, “centuries ago, we were going along at a good rate. When we began to test animals, we may have set things back.”

Her group will lead a protest Saturday in lower Manhattan against New York University associate professor Ronald W. Wood, a psychologist who uses rats and eight long-tailed macaques to study the toxicity and other effects of inhaling crack cocaine. He also uses the animals to study the effects of toluene, an addictive compound found in glue, paint thinner, solvents and other common products.

Gavin called the research a “total waste of taxpayers’ money as well as ethically wrong.” But at the press conference at the NYU School of Medicine, Dr. Wood won warm tributes from a panel of federal officials, a representative of the American Medical Assn. and an association of 14 New York medical schools.

Demands Called Baseless

“We will not sacrifice Dr. Wood’s work, or the work of any other scientist that has passed our rigorous review process, to the baseless demands of any animal rights group,” said Charles R. Schuster, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse. He accused Trans-Species of using “misinformation, distortion and outright fabrication” in its campaign.

He and other officials said they are publicly supporting Wood because Cornell University capitulated to protests by Trans-Species last year by forcing a prominent pharmacologist, Michiko Okamoto, to return a three-year federal grant of $530,000 for drug-addiction experiments on cats.

Panelists said that scientists are now forced to spend 30% of their research money to improve security and meet new federal regulations on the care and treatment of lab animals.

Moreover, young scientists and doctors are turning away from needed medical research “in response to pressure and propaganda from animal activists,” said Dr. Russell H. Patterson Jr., head of the AMA’s council on ethical and judicial affairs. He accused the activists of “infiltrating our schools and influencing our children” to further their goals.

Hoping to counter the use of heart-rending photos and stories by animal rights groups, the panel presented a 12-year-old girl from Berwyn, Pa., wearing braces and a pink dress, whose life apparently was saved by animal research.

In a calm voice, Virginia Black said that her daughter, Barbara, was born with fluid on the brain and endured years of pain, vomiting and seizures despite more than a dozen operations. “Our other daughter would ask, ‘Mommy, is Barbara going to die?’ ” Mrs. Black said.

She said the family finally met Dr. Fred Epstein, a New York neurosurgeon who was using cats to study pressure on the brain. After he performed surgery to expand Barbara’s cranial cavity, she now enjoys a normal life as a 6th grader, riding her bike and swimming.

“There is no doubt that I have saved children who would not have survived were it not for animal studies,” Dr. Epstein said.