PETA co-founder decries animal testing on campus

Adam F. Jarrold Arizona Daily Wildcat Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder and president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, speaks to about 130 people Saturday night at the third-annual Star Awards.

"Something like 90,000 animals are ground up per year at the U of A," said Ingrid Newkirk, the guest speaker Saturday night at Supporting and Promoting Ethics for the Animal Kingdom's 1997 Star Awards. "At that rate we should have eternal life by now."

The third-annual Star Awards, held at the Ramada Inn University, 1601 N. Oracle Road, recognized people who have been outstanding in the animal rights movement in the past year.

Newkirk, who has been on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "20/20" spreading animal rights messages, said that animal experimentation on college campuses is unnecessary and has not helped scientific advancements.

"The best AIDS research has come from human trials, yet we still use chimpanzee brains," she said. "They don't die of AIDS like a person would."

Newkirk said she has seen chimpanzees used in research bang their heads on steel bars because they have nothing to touch or to see.

"They live up to 65 years in a box, in a basement," she said. "We are not moral animals if we do that."

Parker Antin, assistant professor of animal science at the University of Arizona, said although he had the opportunity to use mice and rats in his experiments, he chose to use one-day-old chicken embryos instead.

"I don't use those animals because of philosophical reasons, and it is expensive," he said. "But some things can only be done in mammals and primates."

Newkirk said there are always alternatives to experimenting with animals. She suggested giving students apprenticeships where they could be involved in real surgeries instead of working in dog labs.

"In the apprenticeships, the students were not depressed because their patients didn't die," she said. "The dog labs are dying out because of groups like us."

Newkirk said Harvard has recently eliminated its dog labs from its course of study.

She also suggested using computer programs to simulate experiments. "If you guess wrong you can bring the person back," she said. "With a dog or a pig, they are dead and you just throw them in the trash."

Susan Wilson-Sanders, director of university animal care, said that quite a few animals are used in research at the UA.

She said animals are used in areas such as biomedical research for the treatment of human diseases and in veterinary projects for cures for livestock.

"I definitely think society benefits by doing animal research," she said. "Being an arthritis patient, I have benefited from drugs that we now know about because of animal research."

She said that she has used animals to evaluate the effects of Motrin on arthritis.

Wilson-Sanders said anyone wanting to use animals in their research must first be approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, which works in accordance with the Animal Welfare Act and the Public Health Service Policy.

She said this committee views all animal research and teaching projects that require animals at the UA.

"You have to get a license, pass an exam and get approval," Antin said. "It is a strict thing."

Wilson-Sanders said that out of the 250 to 300 protocols brought before the animal care and use committee each year, only 10 percent ever get funded.

"It's important for students to keep an open mind about it," she said. "It is so easy to hear a biased opinion."

Each fall, Wilson-Sanders tells about 40 UA students about these strict regulations in a class called Human Animal Inter-relationships, said veterinary science Professor John Mara.

Mara said Wilson-Sanders tells the students how the strict regulations are upheld.

The class discusses animal lifestyles and animals' roles in sports, medical research and health care, he said.

Mara said he brings in guest speakers who talk about all sides of the issue to raise the ethical awareness of students.

"I try to present the material so students can grow in their understanding, so they can better evaluate where we go from here," he said.

Roberta Wright, director of Supporting and Promoting Ethics for the Animal Kingdom, which sponsored Newkirk's Tucson visit, gives three lectures to the class each fall.

"Our goal is to educate through public speaking," Wright said. "I teach the animal rights portion of Dr. Mara's class because it is too new for the staff - I take a completely different point of view."

Mara said the two points of view draw mixed reactions from the students.

"The vast majority don't agree with the animal rights movement," he said. "But I want each individual student to make up each of their minds."

Mara said some students are vegans, who believe it is cruel to keep animals under any kind of constraint, while others grew up on ranches where animals were raised for the market.

"Hunting coyotes is normal for a kid on a ranch," he said. "I think it is good that all points of view be listened to if education is to progress."