DuckThatWasn't
November 15th, 2004, 09:39 PM
All right, well, I haven't posted for a while, but I could really use your help. I couldn't find anything about this on VB about this, so I hope that I'm not posting something that's already been here...
...the animal rights group I'm involved with is attempting to get 10,000 signatures on a petition by Dec. 8, when the head of our project will be speaking at the Regents Meeting. Like I said, we'd like to be able to present the university authorities with 10,000 signatures by that date. As of yet we have 5000 (either online or on paper), so time is running out. This issue has been going on for months, by the way, so if it sounds familiar, that's probably why. People have been trying to get these monkeys freed for a while.
ANYWAY, onto the issue itself--34 macaques are currently being housed at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. They've been there for the last 18 or 19 years without once leaving the lab, which is located in a basement. Any windows have been blacked out and no photos have been released. All of this is meant to be part of the public domain, but any documents requested are full of blanked information.
For the first 18 years of their containment, the monkeys were the subject of maternal separation tests in which baby monkeys were taken from their mothers in an attempt to discover how it would affect their development. (I'm summarizing this in a huge way.) Finally, the head scientist decided he was done screwing around with these monkeys, so In Defense of Animals jumped in to present the idea of transferring them to a sanctuary in Oklahoma. This is standard for universities and research compounds--usually, the test animals are given away to sanctuaries for free and sometimes the unis, etc. even offer to pay their way. (The upkeep of lab animals can be expensive--records show that the maintenance of these macaques cost 130,000 a year.) CU, however, demanded $10,000-15,000 per monkey...basically holding them for ransom. Records actually show that CU was considering euthanizing the monkeys after the experiment ended...and then IDA stepped in.
While IDA was debating this matter with the school, the aforementioned head scientist unexpectedly began new experiments. Now, the behavior of the mother monkeys is being examined and recorded in terms of competency. Once their babies hit adolescence, they will be given alcohol and their susceptibility to alcoholism will be gauged by how attentive the mothers were. Real useful experiment, huh?
Anyway, I'm sorry that this is so damn long. If you read all the way through, I really appreciate it and so do all the people involved in this campaign. Please, please consider checking out www.freethecu34.org . Further information (and the petition I mentioned) can be found there.
...the animal rights group I'm involved with is attempting to get 10,000 signatures on a petition by Dec. 8, when the head of our project will be speaking at the Regents Meeting. Like I said, we'd like to be able to present the university authorities with 10,000 signatures by that date. As of yet we have 5000 (either online or on paper), so time is running out. This issue has been going on for months, by the way, so if it sounds familiar, that's probably why. People have been trying to get these monkeys freed for a while.
ANYWAY, onto the issue itself--34 macaques are currently being housed at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. They've been there for the last 18 or 19 years without once leaving the lab, which is located in a basement. Any windows have been blacked out and no photos have been released. All of this is meant to be part of the public domain, but any documents requested are full of blanked information.
For the first 18 years of their containment, the monkeys were the subject of maternal separation tests in which baby monkeys were taken from their mothers in an attempt to discover how it would affect their development. (I'm summarizing this in a huge way.) Finally, the head scientist decided he was done screwing around with these monkeys, so In Defense of Animals jumped in to present the idea of transferring them to a sanctuary in Oklahoma. This is standard for universities and research compounds--usually, the test animals are given away to sanctuaries for free and sometimes the unis, etc. even offer to pay their way. (The upkeep of lab animals can be expensive--records show that the maintenance of these macaques cost 130,000 a year.) CU, however, demanded $10,000-15,000 per monkey...basically holding them for ransom. Records actually show that CU was considering euthanizing the monkeys after the experiment ended...and then IDA stepped in.
While IDA was debating this matter with the school, the aforementioned head scientist unexpectedly began new experiments. Now, the behavior of the mother monkeys is being examined and recorded in terms of competency. Once their babies hit adolescence, they will be given alcohol and their susceptibility to alcoholism will be gauged by how attentive the mothers were. Real useful experiment, huh?
Anyway, I'm sorry that this is so damn long. If you read all the way through, I really appreciate it and so do all the people involved in this campaign. Please, please consider checking out www.freethecu34.org . Further information (and the petition I mentioned) can be found there.