{"id":47535,"date":"2016-12-08T14:33:32","date_gmt":"2016-12-08T20:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=47535"},"modified":"2016-12-08T14:33:32","modified_gmt":"2016-12-08T20:33:32","slug":"researchers-and-animal-rights-activists-continue-their-heated-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/researchers-and-animal-rights-activists-continue-their-heated-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers and animal rights activists continue their heated debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Catherine Chen<\/strong><\/p>\n

More than 200 rats \u201cgo through\u201d Mason Lab each year.<\/p>\n

The lab at the University of Chicago conducts experiments with the rats to study psychology, neurobiology and social behavior and advance diagnosis and treatment for human conditions.<\/p>\n

The Mason Lab used 24 rats in their latest research focusing on rats\u2019 helping behavior. The rats died after they fulfilled their scientific obligations.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there isn\u2019t anything else we can do with them [the rats], they will be euthanized by the animal resources staff. Sometimes we want to look at their brains further, so we\u2019ll do the euthanasia ourselves, take the brains out and do further analysis on them,\u201d said Haozhe Shan, one of the researchers in Mason Lab..<\/p>\n

There is no exact figure of rats killed annually in experiments across the country because laboratory rats are excluded from the Animal Welfare Act, the only Federal law in the United States that regulates the treatment of animals in research, exhibition, transport and by dealers. Also excluded from the act are birds, laboratory mice, farm animals and all cold-blooded animals such as reptiles.<\/p>\n

Dogs and primates are less widely used in labs. But statistics from the Beagles Freedom Project, an organization aiming to rescue animals from labs showed that about 70,000 dogs are used in research experiments every year, 96 percent of which are beagles.<\/p>\n

Peggy Mason, professor of neurobiology at the University of Chicago and the leader of Mason Lab, said \u201cthe ultimate goal is to explore things in the rats that we can\u2019t explore in humans.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the experiments done by the Mason Lab demonstrated\u00a0who\u00a0 rats will help escape from a trap and studied whether\u00a0helping behavior is determined by environment rather than by genetics. Researchers found that rats would always help the rats that they grew up\u00a0with, regardless of their biological differences. Rats refused to help the stranger rats to escape even if they are of the same biological breed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t do that experiment in humans, just can\u2019t do it, obviously,\u201d Mason said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe benefit from animal research every day. The fact that I don\u2019t have polio, the fact that I am alive today, is all due to animal research that has occurred in previous decades,\u201d Mason said. \u201cYou don\u2019t even need to go that far. There are new findings every day, and the fact is that you can\u2019t find the information out on humans that used informed consent.\u201d<\/p>\n

By testing vaccines on monkeys, humans trumped polio in the early 20th century. Vaccines for the prevention of hepatitis, typhus, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and smallpox are all outcomes of animal research. These cures have largely decrease infant mortality rate and expanded humans\u2019 life expectancy.<\/p>\n

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an animal rights organization, estimated that millions of rats die in labs each year, however.<\/p>\n

Dr. Alka Chandna, PETA\u2019s senior laboratory oversight specialist, said rats are social, intelligent and exhibit self-awareness as humans do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn laboratories, rats are treated like disposable laboratory equipment, rather than the feeling beings they are,\u201d Dr. Chandna said. \u201cThey feel pain, fear, loneliness and joy just as we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers at the Mason Lab focus on rats\u2019 helping behavior and altruism. They use rats because of the animal’s sociability.<\/p>\n

Shan said rats are more social than larger animals such as tigers and lions and thus have more behaviors for the researchers to observe. Rats are also less expensive and easier to maintain.<\/p>\n

Mason said the use of animals including rats in science experiments is strictly regulated by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. The IACUC in each university and research center has the responsibility to review, approve and guide animal research to assure the humane care and use of animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything we do has to be approved by the IACUC. They go through if the procedures are appropriate, if the number of rats are appropriate, etc,\u201d Mason said.<\/p>\n

Chandna said the use of animals in experiments is \u201can application of the morally bankrupt \u2018might is right\u2019 principle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt boils down to the moral principle that we do not have the right to manipulate and kill animals for our own purposes,\u201d Chandna said. \u201cIt is wrong to experiment on animals for the same reason that it is wrong to experiment on the poor, the mentally disabled, or the institutionalized. That they are smaller, weaker, or less able to communicate in ways that we can understand does not give us the right to barter their lives away. It is not necessary or ethical for nonconsenting people or animals to be tortured and killed for \u2018the common good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Chandna also questioned whether the results of animal research can be applied to humans.<\/p>\n

Paula Clifford, executive director for Americans for Medical Progress, opposed\u00a0Chandna\u2019s position. She said practically every cure and drug we have today was developed with the help of lab animals, and the claim that animal research is not applicable to human is \u201csimply not true,\u201d given the large number of benefits humans have gained from animal research.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is true that not all work with animals is successful, but even these failures add to the body of knowledge that advances medicine,\u201d Clifford said.<\/p>\n

Clifford said whether humans and animals are equal is a personal and philosophical question. She personally thinks humans and animals are not equal, but \u201call work with animals to benefit humans must be done humanely with respect for the animal while striving to eliminate all pain and discomfort.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnimal research is something people talk about a lot lately. I can see why it would be problematic to some people,\u201d Shan said. \u201cBut I think it\u2019s very important to consider the benefits that it has done to both the health of animals and humans. The fact that we can treat a lot of illnesses in animals, pets, humans, is because we did the animal research in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Lab rats are euthanized after research is done. (Catherine Chen\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Catherine Chen More than 200 rats \u201cgo through\u201d Mason Lab each year. The lab at the University of Chicago conducts experiments with the rats to study psychology, neurobiology and social behavior and advance diagnosis and treatment for human conditions. The Mason Lab used 24 rats in their latest research focusing on rats\u2019 helping behavior. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":333,"featured_media":47562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[452,2941,28,29,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beyond-chicago","category-fall-2016","category-general-interest","category-health-and-science","category-public-affairs"],"yoast_head":"\nResearchers and animal rights activists continue their heated debate - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/researchers-and-animal-rights-activists-continue-their-heated-debate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Researchers and animal rights activists continue their heated debate - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Catherine Chen More than 200 rats \u201cgo through\u201d Mason Lab each year. 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