Animal Research Prompts Protests

Protesters opposed to the use of animals in medical research and demonstrators defending the practice proclaimed their disparate views outside UCLA Medical Center on Monday as the antivivisectionists kicked off World Laboratory Animal Liberation Week.

While the 100 or so members of the Last Chance for Animals group disagreed strongly with the about 30 proponents of animal research, confrontations were limited to a few shouted taunts.

The closest thing to any clash with law enforcement came when UCLA campus police tore down handbills the Last Chance members had taped on windows at the entrance to Reed Neurological Research Center.

Jack Carone, a Last Chance spokesman, insisted that he had to post the bills and the police insisted that he could not. A brief--and rather gentle--shoving match between the protesters and police ended with Carone backing down and leading his supporters in chants of “Vivisection is scientific fraud!”

The Last Chance for Animals supporters had gathered at Westwood Boulevard and Le Conte Avenue about 10 a.m. to unfurl large banners bearing slogans like “Question Vivisection,” and wave placards featuring grisly photographs of animals being used in medical research.

“Vivisection is wrong on two counts,” Carone said. “First, it is scientifically invalid because of the profound biological differences between species. Second, it is a self-evident atrocity.”

Displaying what he said was a transcript of remarks by doctors opposed to vivisection, Carone said there is strong evidence that the medical community is sharply divided on the issue.

Meanwhile, during a press conference at the Medical Center, Dr. Arnold Scheibel, acting director of the UCLA Brain Research Institute, and Dr. Keith Black, a neurosurgeon at the center, said animal research is a necessary part of the fight to treat and prevent serious illnesses like cancer, AIDS and Alzheimer’s disease.

“It is extremely important to know that we are doing everything we can . . . to develop treatments for serious disease,” Black said. “The only way we can do that is to proceed, at least in part, with research on animals.”

In a statement released at the press conference, Albert H. Barber, UCLA’s vice chancellor for research, said the value of animal research “has been proven time and again over the past century, as anyone who has received CPR, open-heart surgery or a polio vaccine can attest.

“However, there are still many diseases that remain untreatable, and millions of people (are) suffering as a result,” Barber said. “It is precisely for these people that animal research is so vital.”

The doctors presented two patients who they said are still alive because of surgery made possible by research on animals--David Reese, who underwent two operations for a brain tumor, and 8-year-old Andria Coffman, who underwent a heart transplant a year ago.

“A year and a half ago, I was told I had two months to live,” Reese told reporters. “Obviously, I’m still here. . . . Continued research is necessary. To stop it would be, in my estimation, criminal.”

About 11 a.m., the Last Chance for Animals supporters began an hourlong march around the medical center, stopping off in front of the neurological research center, the Jerry Lewis Neuromuscular Research Center and UCLA’s School of Public Health for brief speeches.

The march took them past the corner of Westwood Boulevard and Circle Drive, where the proponents of animal research had gathered with their own placards, bearing such slogans as “Animal Research Saves Lives” and “Scientists Love Animals, Too.”

Aside from occasional taunts, the two groups largely ignored one another.

About an hour later, both groups moved to the campus’ Westwood Plaza, where research proponents waved their signs and Last Chance supporters listened to speeches and songs.

Last Chance said it plans additional activities during the week, including a demonstration at Los Angeles County Medical Assn. headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard today, an appearance at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Wednesday, a demonstration at UCLA on Friday and a rally at the Federal Building in Westwood on Sunday.