Army Surgeon Seeks to Resume Experiments on Cats

An Army neurosurgeon said Thursday animal rights activists are costing human lives by blocking his experiments that involve shooting cats in the head.

Dr. Michael Carey urged the Army to allow him to resume his research, stopped by Congress 13 months ago after complaints from animal rights groups.

Louisiana State University, the American Medical Assn. and the Assn. of Academic Health Centers joined Carey at a news conference in saying his research is necessary.

The suspension of Carey’s research could have a “chilling effect” on the use of animals in medical research, said M. Roy Schwarz, senior vice president of the medical association.

Beginning in 1983 at the university, Carey fired pellets into the heads of 700 anesthetized cats trying to find ways to improve the treatment of head injuries. Supporters say he was looking into the effects of a promising drug when the research was stopped.

Animal rights groups say the experiments were inhumane and ineffective.

“An anesthetized cat that will feel no pain appears more important to a small number of Americans than does a soldier risking his life for his country,” Carey said.

“I wonder how many lives will be affected by” the suspension, “how many deaths may the animal activists have caused, how much extra suffering, how much disability,” Carey added.

Carey, a reserve colonel, has been called to active duty and is scheduled to go to the Middle East in two weeks. He was a neurosurgeon during the Vietnam War.

More than 16,000 Americans die annually from gunshot wounds to the brain and 70,000 others suffer serious head injuries from other causes.

Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, said Carey’s research is “useless and cruel.”

Barnard said Carey’s finding simply recapped “at great expense things that are already common knowledge.” Barnard said new brain imaging techniques provide a tremendous amount of data on head injuries.

The Army has not made a decision yet on continuing the research.