Rodent Research Plans Spark Self-Esteem Study : Government: Marin County officials order a report on a proposed center’s impact on residents.

It’s a perfect California tale, blending the Golden State’s preoccupation with self-esteem and its often notorious not-in-my-backyard attitude.

In Marin County, a wealthy philanthropic organization has been ordered to study, among other things, the effect that rodent research at a proposed $35-million center for aging would have on the “self-esteem” of the county’s residents.

Calling the requirement “Looney Tunes,” Mary McEachron, administrative director of the proposed Buck Center for Research on Aging, coined a name for the center’s opponents--”rodent activists.”

“The rodent activists have made this process quite expensive,” she said after the Marin County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously ordered that costly additions to an environmental impact report be prepared.

In California, where neighborhood activists have at various times and places opposed construction of a nun’s convent, a burial spot for Ronald and Nancy Reagan and plans to raze a carwash--all in the name of slowing growth and lessening traffic--the Marin County debate raises such battles to new heights.

While some powerful critics are fuming at McEachron’s characterization of her opponents, at least one took the opportunity to reply in kind: “I’ve called her a vivisectionist. I guess it’s tit for tat,” said William Jelinek, a Marin County resident.

Like most opponents of the center, Jelinek cites several reasons beyond its use of animals why he wants to block its construction. Money earmarked for the center would be better spent on direct services to the elderly and needy, he said. There also could be health threats from medical waste generated by the facility.

Jelinek suggested in a letter to Marin County officials that the environmental impact report for the center consider any effect of animal research on the populace’s self-esteem. He came up with the idea after noticing that the Buck Center’s proposal stated that the self-esteem of elderly people would be enhanced by having a research center devoted to aging located in Marin.

“We’re saying there are people who aren’t going to feel good that they’re going to open an animal research plant,” Jelinek said.

As a result, buried in the price tag of a $622,000 environmental impact report is roughly $4,500 for a telephone survey to determine what impact the center--and its use of animals, and possibly fetal tissue, for research--will have on residents’ self-esteem.

The Marin County Planning Department said in a letter to McEachron earlier this week that while “seemingly remote,” a “fair argument has been made” that there may be “social disruption, demonstrations, pickets” if animal, and possibly fetal tissue, research goes on at the center.

Such demonstrations could “significantly reduce the quality of life and community self-esteem and adversely affect a significant segment of the people in the neighborhood and community at large,” the letter noted.

The center agreed to pay for the self-esteem survey, anticipating that a judge might order it, McEachron said. And, she assumes, a lawsuit will be filed by “rodent activists” if the Marin County Board of Supervisors approves the center sometime next year.

“This is not intended to be pejorative. It is descriptive,” McEachron said of the label. Insisting that dogs, cats and primates will not be subjects of research, she added: “We’re going to be using rats, mice and lower forms of animals, including worms. ‘Animal rights activist’ is too broad a term.”

The center on aging is funded by the Buck Trust, a $502-million fund that was established in 1975 by late philanthropist Beryl Buck. Buck’s estate, which held stock in a small oil company, ballooned in value in the 1970s when Shell Oil bought that company.

In her will, Buck asked that money be used to benefit the needy of Marin County, which is one of the wealthiest counties in the nation. The center on aging will receive its money from 15% of the fund’s annual income, plus government and other grants.

The planned 300,000-square-foot research center, with its 128 housing units for researchers, will be located on vacant land north of Novato, near California 101.

According to the proposal, scientists will study the genetic and biological basis of aging, as well as psychological and demographic factors of aging. The center’s proposal says its research may be applied to Alzheimer’s disease, osteoporosis, Parkinson’s disease and strokes.

Marin County Supervisor Brady Bevis, whose district includes the proposed site of the facility, said Wednesday she was angered by McEachron’s characterization of the critics.

Citing deeply held environmental concerns of her constituents, Bevis said: “There has been a concerted attempt to make it look as though the only people who have questions are animal rights people. That simply isn’t the case.

“There are a lot of genuine concerns--like toxic waste, the traffic, the housing impact, the effect of having a large center devoted to pure research in an otherwise rural community.”

Elliot Katz, a veterinarian and founder of the San Rafael-based In Defense of Animals, said his greatest concern is the use of animals for research. Contending that a “growing segment of society” opposes the “mutilation of animals” for such purposes, Katz said the center would “ruin this whole community.”

“Part of living here in Marin and part of (the) feeling of living here is that you don’t have institutions that are maiming and incinerating animals,” he said.