Written by PETA
All this week, Slate has been running a five-part series on animal experiments. The series starts out by telling the story of a dog named Pepper who was stolen in 1965 and who "changed American science." As the author, Daniel Engber, points out, the fall-out from Pepper's story led to the 1966 passage of the Animal Welfare Act—the first federal law protecting animals in laboratories.
In today's installment, Engber describes the time he spent as a grad student working on a macaque named Clayton in a university laboratory. He describes how he returned to the lab years later to find that, while his life has moved on—and out of the laboratory—Clayton is still imprisoned, his whole world limited to just two rooms:
In all the time I'd been gone, Clayton had lived in the same room, on the same feeding schedule, and with many of the same neighbors. … Every day or two, he's carted off to a room painted all in black, and his head is fixed in place by the post that still protrudes from his skull. He sits there as always, staring at targets on a computer screen. When he moves his eyes the way he's supposed to, he gets a droplet of Tang as a reward.
Engber also talks about PETA's famous Silver Spring monkeys case, which was the impetus behind sweeping changes made to the Animal Welfare Act in 1985, including the creation of oversight committees that we are currently hounding to do their jobs.
While the series of articles focuses on the use of dogs in experiments, it also describes what is done to rats and mice. That's because no discussion of vivisection can rightly avoid the elephant (or, in this case, mouse) in the room—which is the fact that most of the whopping number of animals used in experiments are these small mammals, who, for no reason other than prejudice and convenience, are still specifically excluded from the Animal Welfare Act.
We strongly recommend taking a minute or two to check out the series—and don't miss part IV, which talks about PETA's undercover investigation at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.
Written by Alisa Mullins
A: The Wrestler director Darren Aronofsky!
That's right, the man best known for his portrayal of human suffering in movies such as the award-winning The Wrestler is now focusing on a different type of suffering … elephant suffering.
As a Brooklyn native, when Darren learned that notorious elephant abuser Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus would be setting up shop at Coney Island all summer long, he sprang into action faster than you can say RoboCop. He penned a powerful letter to the folks at Taconic Investments—who are donating the use of their Coney Island land to Ringling—asking them to reconsider their offer or, at the very least, impose restrictions that could reduce the suffering of elephants and other animals used by Ringling.
Not a Hollywood heavyweight? You can still follow Darren's lead by sending your own letter to Taconic and New York City officials letting them know that you won't stand up for animal abuse at Coney Island.
Written by Christine Doré
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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