How Like Us Need They Be?
Rick Bogle, January, 2002
|
The behavioral repertoire
of nonhuman primates is highly evolved and includes advanced
problem-solving capabilities, complex social relationships,
and sensory acuity equal or superior to humans. 1
Thomas M. Burbacher and Kimberly S. Grant |
It is a simple question.
How much like a human being does a member of another species
need to be before hurting or killing them becomes so similar
to hurting or killing a human that we are morally compelled
to react in a similar manner in both instances? If there is
no degree of similarity that will result in similar treatment,
then with what are we left? Why not treat people who look differently,
differently? Why not experiment on albinos, or giants, or midgets,
or dwarfs, or Chinese or Pygmies? It is a simple question. Until
those who choose to experiment on the species most similar to
ourselves answer this question, we can only suppose that their
justifications must be rooted in (an unacknowledged?) bigotry.
Few individuals with more than a passing knowledge of who
monkeys and apes are would argue with the observation made
above by Burbacher and Grant. But such an understanding tends
to segregate people into one of two groups. Either, like Burbacher
and Grant, they see the close similarities between human and
nonhuman primates as an opportunity for exploitation, or else,
like a growing segment of society, they see the affinities
between the primate species as cause for concern, especially
in light of the ways that those in the first group are taking
advantage of them.
When the philosopher Jeremy Bentham wrote: |
The day may
come, when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those
rights which never could have been withholden from them but
by the hand of tyranny. The French have already discovered
that the blackness of the skin is no reason why a human being
should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor
(see Lewis XIV's Code Noir). It may come one day to be recognized,
that the number of the legs, the villosity of the skin, or
the termination of the os sacrum, are reasons equally insufficient
for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate. What else
is it that should trace the insuperable line? Is it the faculty
of reason, or, perhaps, the faculty of discourse? But a full-grown
horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well
as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day, or
a week, or even a month, old. But suppose the case were otherwise,
what would it avail? the question is not, Can they reason?
nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?2 |
He meant that the similarities between species,
even between races, are, in fact, the point on which decisions
regarding our interactions with others should turn.
Burbacher and Grant are representative of those who see similarity
as an opportunity to exploit without much pause for the ethical
questions that, for others, spring so readily to the fore. Burbacher
and Grant reinforce their position quite strongly: |
Nonhuman primates are capable of advanced behaviors
that share important and fundamental parallels with humans.
These parallels include highly developed cognitive abilities
and binding social relationships. The behavioral repertoire
of these animals makes them valuable models for research
on the functional effects of exposure to neurotoxic agents.3
|
Apparently, the “important and fundamental
parallels” and the “highly developed cognitive
abilities and binding social relationships” that many
primate species share are insufficient, in the minds of Burbacher
and Grant, to suggest, by way of Bentham, that these animals
should not be “abandoned without redress to the caprice
of a tormentor.” The neurotoxic agents considered by
Burbacher and Grant include methylmercury, methanol, PCBs, lead,
as well as other neuroactive agents such as cocaine, LSD, morphine,
and PCP. They comment, “Drugs such as phencyclidine (PCP)
produced an overall disruptive effect on all test measures.”
The cognitive abilities of monkeys and apes have increasingly
been shown to be strikingly like the cognitive abilities of
humans. Some of those uncovering these abilities have realized
that there is an implication to such discovery. Fagot, Wasserman
and Young, writing with regard to their own work on abstract
conceptualization in baboons note: “To be sure, the stakes
are high. What is at issue is no arcane point, but the very
distinction between the minds of human beings and nonhuman animals.”4
As the distinction between the mind of a human and the mind
of a monkey becomes more subtle and less easily defined, in
all but terms of quantity, it becomes ever more obvious that
the moral distinctions we make during our dealings with the
two groups likewise must become more carefully considered. This,
also, is no arcane point. Approximately sixty thousand nonhuman
primates are used in the U.S. alone every year for various scientific
and educational purposes.5 The methods used to raise,
house, and utilize these animals are inherently cruel.6
These practices result in much mental duress and, not uncommonly,
physical pain and death.
Harry Harlow used the similarity between rhesus monkey and human
infants to study the nature of love. He understood clearly,
even in 1958, that the two species’ similarities are
such that what is learned about the emotions and psyches of
one species informs us of the emotions and psyches of the other.
He explained:
|
The macaque infant differs from the
human infant in that the monkey is more mature at birth and
grows more rapidly; but the basic responses relating to affection,
including nursing, contact, clinging, and even visual and
auditory exploration, exhibit no fundamental differences in
the two species. Even the development of perception, fear,
frustration, and learning capability follows very similar
sequences in rhesus monkeys and human children.7 |
|
Harlow used these similarities to
the detriment of the baby monkeys on whom he experimented. He
showed that rhesus monkeys reared without contact with others
monkeys or humans developed severe mental problems
and behavioral aberrations. He apparently missed, altogether,
the most profound implications of his work the moral
implications raised by the similarity of emotional need between
the species. He was dead to the implications of the fact that
what is learned about one of the primate species’ mind
informs us of the minds of the other species and that what would
hurt us also hurts them in very similar and familiar ways.
This similarity and familiarity with the minds of other primates
is not surprising. Charles Darwin pointed out there should
be a continuum of attributes throughout all species, with
the most similar attributes being found in the nearest relatives.
We should be able to recognize the emotions being experienced
by chimpanzees and monkeys precisely because we are all so
closely related. This close relationship means that much about
us, about the way we perceive and feel, is the same.
Researchers studying the neurological basis of emotion have
exploited our similarities in a manner that suggests that
they too have missed the more profound implications of the
familial relationship that exists within the primate order.
David Amaral, at the University of California, Davis, and
Ned Kalin, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, experiment
on the emotion centers of monkeys’ brains. The techniques
used by these scientists are similar.
The amygdala is the almond-shaped region of the brain involved
in basic emotions such as fear, anger and aggression. There
is an amygdala in each hemisphere of the brain. Amaral and
Kalin destroy or otherwise damage these structures in monkeys’
brains and then observe the changes in the monkeys’
behavior.
The monkeys used by Kalin and Amaral are macaques. These monkeys
have amygdalas both relatively and absolutely larger than
human amygdalas. Comparative neurophysiology suggests that
the emotions experienced by these animals are more intense
and central to their lives than are the emotions experienced
by humans. As relatively reduced as emotional experiences
must be in humans, they are recognized as being a fundamental
part of our innermost being.
Kalin provides a description of one facet of his work: |
“In nonhuman primates, we are examining behavioral
and physiological correlates of human anxiety. We have identified
a fearful endophenotype that is characterized by high levels
of trait anxiety, a specific pattern of prefrontal brain
electrical activity, and increased levels of stress hormones
in the blood and in the brain. We have developed new techniques
to selectively lesion the primate amygdala and these studies
have provided new insights into the role of the amygdala
in mediating acute fearful responses as compared to states
of long term anxiety.”9
|
Amaral et al.write: |
The amygdaloid complex
is a prominent temporal lobe region that is associated with
"emotional" information processing. Studies in the
rodent have also recently implicated the amygdala in the processing
and modulation of pain sensation, the experience of which
involves a considerable emotional component in humans. In
the present study, we sought to establish the relevance of
the amygdala to pain modulation in humans by investigating
the contribution of this region to antinociceptive processes
in nonhuman primates. Using magnetic resonance imaging guidance,
the amygdaloid complex was lesioned bilaterally in six rhesus
monkeys (Macaca mulatta) through microinjection of the neurotoxin
ibotenic acid. This procedure resulted in substantial neuronal
cell loss in all nuclear subdivisions of this structure.10 |
Amaral writes to justify one federal grant with
an implicit statement of the similarity between monkeys and
humans: |
[C]omplete amygdala lesions
will be produced in neonatal macaque monkeys. The effects
of these lesions on mother-infant and juvenile-juvenile interactions
will be evaluated. Future studies (when the neonates have
matured) will analyze dyadic and tetradic social interactions
and thus allow comparisons of the severity of effects of neonatal
or mature amygdala lesions on social behavior. During these
experiments, the pituitary-adrenal activation of lesioned
and control monkeys in response to social and restraint stressors
will also be analyzed. These studies will provide important
insights into the neurobiology of normal social behavior and
may contribute to an understanding of pathologies of social
communication in disorders such as autism.11 |
The similarities between the primate species’
minds, emotions, and social behaviors are being relied on and
used as justifications for modern experiments on the brains
of awake, usually restrained, monkeys. Commonly, the monkeys
are required to perform some cognitive task in order to receive
a small food reward or a few drops of liquid. It is a standard
procedure in these types of studies to deprive the monkeys of
food and/or water in order to motivate them to perform for the
vivisector. The clear recognition that monkeys and humans have
minds and thought processes that are very similar motivates
some scientists to utilize them as experimental subjects in
these ways, as at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: |
The ability to abstract
principles or rules from direct experience allows behaviour
to extend beyond specific circumstances to general situations.
For example, we learn the 'rules' for restaurant dining from
specific experiences and can then apply them in new restaurants.
The use of such rules is thought to depend on the prefrontal
cortex (PFC) because its damage often results in difficulty
in following rules. Here we explore its neural basis by recording
from single neurons in the PFC of monkeys trained to use two
abstract rules.12 |
Advances in technology are allowing scientists
to make ever-finer measurements of physiological processes in
alert monkeys engaging in cognitive acts. Much of what is known
regarding the neurophysiologic similarities of the primates
is a result of these technological advances, and an argument
might be made that it is only in recent years that the profundity
of the discoveries has begun to amass into a noticeable body
of evidence. But this is not the case at all.
The close mental, emotional, and behavioral
similarities between humans and other primate species has
been well known for many years, while careful scientific observation
and experimentation have been demonstrating these facts for
nearly a century. Wolfgang Kohler, whose investigations Jane
Goodall has cited13 as among the most important
in the literature, wrote in 1925 that: “The chimpanzees
manifest intelligent behavior of the general kind familiar
in human beings.”14
In the early 1960’s scientists were subjecting monkeys,
increasingly, to experiments that displayed the emotional
vulnerability and cognitive depths of these animals. Harlow’s
decades-long career as well as his success at inspiring young
experimental psychologists, resulted in an explosion of papers
associated with maternal and social deprivation and stress,
particularly in infants. These scientists were exploiting
what they already believed to be true regarding the similarity
between the emotional fragility of infant monkeys and humans.15
Masserman, Wechkin, and Terris published the results of a
study that underscores the fact that those who were experimenting
on monkeys, even forty years ago, clearly expected them to
behave as humans might in similar situations. Rhesus monkeys
were trained to pull on one of two chains, depending on the
color of a flashing light, in order to receive food. After
training, another monkey, held in restraints, was displayed
through a one-way mirror.
By pulling the chains in the correct fashion, the first monkey
would receive the food reward, but one of the chains now delivered
a powerful and painful electric shock to the restrained monkey.
It was discovered that most of the monkeys would not shock
another monkey even if it meant not being able to eat. One
of the animals went without food for twelve days rather than
hurting his or her companion. Monkeys who had been shocked
in previous experiments themselves were even less willing
to pull the chain and subject others to such torment.16
(The scientists who had seen monkeys shocked, however, continued
to strap more monkeys into the chair.)
If evidence for the close similarity between a human’s
and a nonhuman’s mind and sense of self was observed
and published so long ago, and if continuing experimentation
has contributed to and expanded that understanding throughout
the century, why hasn’t something been done to bring
our treatment of these animals more in line with the guidelines
we tend to employ when dealing with those in society less
able to care for themselves and assert their own interests?
The answer to this question is moderately complex. Primate
vivisection increased rapidly in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Prior to this time the availability of monkeys was more limited
and many fewer researchers were using these exotic animals.
This changed largely due to the importation of many hundreds
of thousands of monkeys for polio research17 as
well as the U.S. government’s decision to keep pace
or surpass the Soviet’s primate-based biomedical research
programs. In the early sixties the U.S. government began funding
facilities for the breeding, housing, and utilization of monkeys
and apes for research purposes. Today, federally funded projects
around the country maintain many thousands of monkeys and
make them available to government-funded researchers.18
A few large private primate suppliers and consumers of primates
imported over sixty-four thousand monkeys between 1995 and
2000.19
Part of the answer to the question lies in the fact that
the number and type of experiments on primates has increased
to such a degree in such a short time. The public’s
awareness of the issue was less informed simply because many
fewer experiments were being performed and much less information
concerning the minds and emotions of these animals was being
published. Now, more people are being exposed to, more people
are being made aware of, and also more people are deciding
to participate in these studies than only a few decades ago.
Another factor is the absence of checks and balances, no bureaucratic
or regulatory mechanisms are in place to assess the information
or consider the implications of the body of evidence and guide
our policies in this area. Without such a mechanism, the federal
government continues to promote primate research, provide
animals to researchers, make funds available, and invent reasons
to use primates in harmful experiments.20 There
is nothing built into the system to regulate it in any moral
manner, to evaluate current knowledge and consider the implications
for new proposals. Those in a position to raise any doubt
are themselves financially and professionally interested in
seeing the practice continue, and they work within a community
of equally interested individuals.
Within the private sphere there are professional organizations
that should be monitoring scientific endeavor and providing
leadership to lawmakers and the public with regard to the
discoveries that animals other than humans have minds and
emotions so similar to our own that experimenting on them,
that keeping them in concentration-like conditions21,
that killing them and harming them to further our own real
or perceived interests is as unthinkably immoral as it would
be if humans were being treated in similar ways. These organizations
include the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American
Association for Laboratory Animal Science, and the American
Society of Primatology. They each have members claiming to
be primate experts.
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has not
published a position specific to the use of primates in research.
The AVMA lumps all animals together and states: “We
oppose unnecessary restrictions on the use of animals in scientific
research” but remains mute on what “unnecessary”
might mean. Given the close similarity between the primate
species, it is apparent that restrictions are necessary. Given
the Association’s claim that it is the authorized voice
for the profession22 and the claim that veterinarians
have an ethical duty to: “[F]irst consider the needs
of the patient: to relieve disease, suffering, or disability
while minimizing pain or fear,”23 it seems
that this possible check on the use of these animals has failed
completely. The public tends to view veterinarians as animal
experts; the Association’s silence in this area might
be seen by policy-makers in Congress as support for the status
quo, which it probably is.
The American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS)
is the professional organization for animal technicians and
veterinarians working in laboratory settings. The only reasons
the organization might be expected to speak out for these
animals is the intimacy that the members have with the many
ways the animals are harmed and the fact that the public (mistakenly)
expects veterinarians to be advocates for animals. But, the
members are financially beholden to the institutions for which
they work, and it is rare for anyone to speak out since doing
so may jeopardize their livelihood. And, the members are generally
willing and enthusiastic participants in the experiments themselves.
AALAS has no policy concerning the care of, or experimentation
on, primates. AALAS defers to federal regulation in all matters
dealing with animal care and use.24 This is akin
to the National Educational Association or the National Rifle
Association allowing the federal government to decide what
their policies concerning education or gun control should
be. The public cannot look to AALAS for any leadership in
this area.
The American Society of Primatology (ASP) should be the body
speaking the loudest about the implications raised by the
notable similarities between the species. The ASP counts among
its members: Sarah Boysen (“The present findings demonstrate
that chimpanzees can classify natural objects spontaneously
and that such classifications may be similar to those that
would be observed in human subjects.)25 ; Frans
de Waal (“It is really hard for me to imagine that
they do not [have an imagination]. Chimpanzees are very innovative
creatures - they deceive each other (and us!) all the time
and invent many different games for themselves. All of these
abilities require some degree of forethought to what might
be the outcome of an action.”)26; Roger
Fouts (“Humans and chimpanzees differ in their intelligence
by degree, not in the kind of mental processes.”)27;
Robert Ingersol (“Nim’s last words to me were,
‘OutHurryKeyThere…. KeyOut’,
very sad. Nim passed away March 10, 2000. I did not expect
that he would die at a very young twenty-six years old since
chimps usually live well beyond forty years quite regularly.
It has taken me this entire year to be able to speak and now
write about Nim. He was my friend. Maybe my closest friend.
He taught me about right and good, and trust and certainty,
and he taught me what true friends are. Life long friendship,
and if you had ever seen us together you would know what I
mean. I knew Nim for twenty-two of his twenty-six years.”)28;
Vernon Reynolds (“There is no satisfactory way to convince
ourselves of our separate nature, to be certain we feel or
experience something they do not feel or experience; all the
evidence points the other way, to commonality.”)29;
Duane Rumbaugh (“Although nonhuman primates such as
rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) have been useful models of
many aspects of cognition and performance, it has been argued
that, unlike humans, they may lack the capacity to respond
as predictor-operators. Data from the present series of experiments
undermine this claim, suggesting instead a continuity of predictive
competency between humans and nonhuman primates.”)30;
and Shirley Strum (“I was constantly struck by how
much more like humans the baboons now seemed. They learned
through insight and observation, passing new behaviors from
one to another both within a single lifetime and across many
lifetimes. This is social tradition, the beginnings of what
eventually became ‘culture.’”)31.
In spite of this thread of understanding within the ASP,
the leadership is dominated by laboratory researchers intent
on exploiting the similarities nonhuman primates share with
us. Often, very often in fact, the leadership is involved
in research of questionable value and blatant cruelty. At
times it seems that the leadership’s understanding
of the complexities of monkeys’ minds, the emotional
sensitivity of the animals, and the fragility of their developing
psyches is cause for the scientists to devise the most absurd
and deviant experiments. A paper published by a current and
a past president of the Society is illustrative of this point.
The current (as of 2001) president of the ASP is John Capitanio,
a researcher at the California Regional Primate Research Center
(CRPRC) at the University of California, Davis. His colleague,
also at CRPRC, William Mason, is a past president of the Society
and also a past student of Harry Harlow.
The authors write:
|
Cognitive style, reflected
in the generation of novel solutions and the use of identifiable
response strategies in problem-solving situations, was contrasted
in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) reared individually with
either canine companions or inanimate surrogate mothers. Four
experiments were conducted over a 5-year period, examining
problem solving in relatively unstructured as well as more
formal situations. Results indicated that whereas the 2 rearing
groups did not differ on most measures of performance, consistent
response strategies were identified for the dog-raised monkeys.
The results were compared with previously published data from
the same monkeys demonstrating rearing group differences in
abilities to engage in complex social interaction. The animate
nature of the early rearing environment may facilitate the
development of a cognitive style that influences problem-solving
abilities in both the social and nonsocial realms.32 |
In the "General Methods" section of
their paper, Capitanio and Mason explain that they took six
male and six female monkeys away from their mothers before they
were 24 hours old. The infants were each isolated with an electric
cloth-covered heating pad for 14-18 days. At this time they
were each introduced to either "an adult female mongrel
dog" or "a plastic hobbyhorse wrapped with acrylic
fur around its midsecton." When the monkeys were about
three-and-a-half years old, they were taken from their "kennel
mate," a dog or a plastic hobbyhorse, and again placed
in solitary confinement. With this sort of experimentation being
performed by the ASP leadership, sanctioned by a NIH Regional
Primate Research Center, paid for by the United States government,
it should be clear that no change is likely to occur through
normal channels.
The ASP leadership is comprised of those who conduct harmful
experiments on primates themselves or are employed in the
support of such experiments.33 Many members are
similarly employed.34
So, a second part of the answer to the question of why our
treatment of these animals is not more in line with the guidelines
we tend to employ when dealing with those in society less
able to care for themselves and assert their own interests,
is the fact that there is not an official regulatory mechanism
in place that would cause or encourage an evaluation (let
alone an evolution) of current policies, nor is there a professional
organization acting on behalf of the animals due to
a vested economic interest such as AALAC or the ASP,
or else for some other, less clear reason, as the AVMA.
These two factors the relatively recent mounting of
evidence and experiments, and the lack of checks or balances
reinforce the tendency in society to discount the interests
of others.
A third part of the answer lies in the fact that we tend
not to notice those who have no voice when no voice of protest
nor assertion of their rights has been raised. When a voice
does arise, those in power tend to work to discount and marginalize
it. When the issue of rights has arisen, whether involving
race, gender, mental faculty, sexual orientation, nationality,
religion or any other category, history is clear that the
group in power has resisted the extension of protected status
to other groups. Simply, prejudice against others, bigotry,
the perceived protection of one’s own interests, is
a fundamental aspect of human behavior.
How like us do they have to be before the evil we do to them
should be termed criminal?
This question deserves an answer. Historically, the segregation
of nonhuman animals has been based on premises that have evaporated
in step with discoveries concerning the animals’ capabilities
and characteristics. None of the reasons have been able to
withstand close investigation and observation. Whether the
claim has been that only humans use tools, make tools, can
communicate with language, are altruistic, engage in war,
have beliefs, engage in ritual, possess a culture, are capable
of abstraction, of humor, of courage, of deceit, or of responsibility
to others, the claims have all failed. And they have failed
with regard to other primates precisely because, as we attempt
to describe ourselves, we also describe those with whom we
share such close and intimate ancestry.
How like us do they have to be before the evil we do to them
should be termed criminal?
This question deserves an answer, and those with the greatest
access to these animals should be required to answer it. And
until they are willing and able to do so to the satisfaction
of society at large, they should be compelled, legally, to
cease their manipulations of these animals.
A common concern voiced by the vivisectors is that if primates
are acknowledged to be so like us that we should stop our
experiments on them, then where will it all stop? If chimpanzees
are given the simplest rights today, and monkeys tomorrow,
then how long will it be before dogs, cats, rabbits, rats,
mice and flies are similarly protected? The answer must lie
in the question: How like us do they have to be before the
evil we do to them should be termed criminal?
Those wishing to maintain a sharp distinction between humans
and all other species must explain what it is that keeps us
apart. Why are compassion, sympathy, concern, and justice
concepts we should reserve for humans alone? Why should each
of these terms be redefined when speaking of humans or other
animals? When we speak of humane care, why should this term
be differently applied to human children and monkeys?
How like us do they have to be before the evil we do to them
should be termed criminal? How like us need they be?
The public’s awareness of the ethically significant
similarities between the species is increasing. More people
are becoming alarmed and are demanding that the government
act to protect these animals from those who are abusing them.
Over 200 organizations including large national organizations
and small grass roots groups have added their names
to a demand for an immediate moratorium on primate experimentation: |
A Call
for an Immediate Moratorium on Primate Research
During the last 35 years, exploitative primate research has
consumed billions in American tax dollars while it has contributed
very little to human welfare.
It has diverted funding from non-animal research technology
that could have been more productive and from social programs
such as drug rehabilitation, prenatal care, and nutrition
education that could have benefited, directly and indirectly,
the majority of the population.
While over three decades of primate-based research has not
produced the promised cures for human diseases, it has taught
us about the sensitivity of the nonhuman primate subjects.
We now know that nonhuman primates have emotional responses
remarkably similar to human emotional responses.
Apes who have learned American Sign Language have used this
human language to clearly communicate frustration, grief,
and other emotions. There are convincing indications that
nonhuman primates in experiments suffer as intensely, both
physically and emotionally, as humans would suffer in the
same experiments. Recognizing this, we are ethically compelled
to stop using them in experiments.
We are calling for the creation of a presidential advisory
committee composed of primate experts and informed lay people
a panel agreed upon by both pro-animal and pro-research
advocates to critically examine the evidence and make
a recommendation to the president and the nation regarding
the ethical implications of continuing exploitative primate
research.
Until the committee's report is finalized, federal funding
for primate research should cease. |
Notes:
1. Burbacher TM, Grant KS. 2000. Methods for studying nonhuman
primates in neurobehavioral toxicology and teratology. Neurotoxicology
and Teratology. Jul-Aug; 22(4): 475-86. Review.
2. Bentham, J. 1823. An Introduction to the Principles of
Morals and Legislation, Chapter XVII, note.
3. See note 1.
4. Fagot J, Wasserman EA, Young ME. 2001. Discriminating the
relation between relations: the role of entropy in abstract
conceptualization by baboons (Papio papio) and humans (Homo
sapiens). Journal of Experimental Psychology and Animal Behavioral
Processes. Oct; 27(4): 316-28.
5. United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service. 1998. Animal Welfare Report, Fiscal
Year 1998. Table 6. “Number of Animals Used by Research
from First Reporting Year (1973) to the Present.”
6. Normal social bonding in primates begins nearly at birth
between the mother and infant. Normal social situations allow
monkeys to interact with mothers, siblings, and peers almost
constantly. This is critical to normal social and mental development.
Repetitive motions such as twirling, pacing, and flipping
are termed stereopathies, and are a recognized result of social
deprivation in monkeys. Self-mutilation, or self-injurious
behavior, is a recognized result of individual housing and
social deprivation in monkeys. At the Washington Regional
Primate Research Center (WaRPRC) infants are routinely removed
from their mothers at birth and nursery reared. There, infants
have contact with other infants for one hour a day, five days
a week. At the Tulane Regional Primate Research Center infants
are removed from their mothers within three days of birth.
It is estimated by the New England Regional Primate Research
Center that at least ten percent of the monkeys there self-mutilate
themselves to such a serious degree that veterinary intervention
is required. At the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center,
at least one thousand monkeys are individually housed; self-mutilation
is not uncommon there or at the California Regional Primate
Research Center. A veterinarian, who worked at the Wisconsin
Regional Primate Research Center a decade ago, claims to have
achieved pair housing of seventy percent of that facility’s
primate population. After leaving, he believes that the percentage
has fallen to no more than thirty percent pair or group housed.
This is the norm throughout the industry.
7. Harlow H. 1958. The nature of love. Address of the President
at the sixty-sixth Annual Convention of the American Psychological
Association, Washington, D. C., August 31, 1958. First published
in American Psychologist, 13, 573-685.
8. Comparative neurophysiology teaches that the relative size
of the regions or structures of an animal’s brain explains
much concerning their abilities and behavior. Cats possess
a better sense of balance than humans because their cerebellum
is relatively larger. Dogs have better senses of smell because
their olfactory lobes are much larger. That humans are so
much better problem solvers is related to our own large cerebral
cortex.
9. Kalin N. 2001. “Brain Mechanisms Underlying Fear,
Anxiety and Depression.” Neuroscience Training Program,
University of Wisconsin, < http://ntp.neuroscience.wisc.edu/faculty/kalin.html
> (as of) December.
10. Manning BH, Merin NM, Meng ID, Amaral DG. 2001. Reduction
in opioid- and cannabinoid-induced antinociception in rhesus
monkeys after bilateral lesions of the amygdaloid complex.
Journal of Neuroscience. Oct 15;21(20):8238-46.
11. Amaral D. Neurobiology of Primate Social Behavior. Grant
no. 5R01MH057502 National Institute of Mental Health: 1998-2003.
CRISP (Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects)
database http://crisp.cit.nih.gov/.
12. Wallis JD, Anderson KC, Miller EK. 2001. Single neurons
in prefrontal cortex encode abstract rules. Nature. Jun 21;
411(6840): 953-6.
13. Goodall J. 1986. The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns
of Behavior (p 7). Boston: Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press.
14. Kohler W. 1925 (2nd edition, 1951, p 265) The Mentality
of Apes. Routledge & Kegan Paul LTD.
15. For an overview of these experiments up until 1986, see
Stevens ML. 1986. Maternal Deprivation Experiments in Psychology:
A Critique of Animal Models. Published jointly by the
American, National, and New England Antivivisection Societies.
But maternal and social deprivation experiments continue to
be funded by the National Institutes of Health today throughout
the country.
16. Masserman J, Wechkin S, Terris W. 1964. ‘Altruistic’
behavior in rhesus monkeys. American Journal of Psychiatry
vol. 121: 584-5.
17. “Before the race for the polio vaccine, there were
an estimated 5 to 10 million rhesus macaques in India. During
the height of the vaccine work, in the late 1950s and early
1960s, the United States alone was importing more than 200,000
monkeys a year, mostly from India. By the late 1970s, there
were fewer than 200,000 rhesus macaques in India,”
(p. 250). Blum D. 1994. The Monkey Wars. Oxford University
Press.
18. See note 5. Of these animals, many are held in National
Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsored facilities. The eight
Regional Primate Research Centers have approximately twenty
thousands monkeys on hand at any one time. Outside the RPRC
system, other universities such as Wake Forest and the University
of South Alabama have large populations, also sponsored directly
by the NIH. NIH maintains approximately one thousand monkeys
itself at the National Animal Center in Poolesville, Maryland.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a large population
at the National Center for Toxicological Research just outside
Little Rock, Arkansas, and owns another 3000 monkeys kept
on Morgan Island off the coast of South Carolina. The Department
of Defense maintains monkey colonies at various facilities.
Of the nearly sixty thousand primates being used every year,
a very large percentage must be paid for directly with tax
dollars.
19. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service LEMIS [Law Enforcement
Management Information Service]. Data tabulated and itemized
at the Coalition to End Primate Experimentation (CEPE) website:
http://cepe.enviroweb.org/imports_chart.html
20. As a single example among many: NONHUMAN PRIMATE MODELS
OF NEUROBIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS OF ADOLESCENT ALCOHOL ABUSE
AND ALCOHOLISM Release Date: October 4, 2001 RFA: RFA-AA-02-006
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/)
Letter of Intent Receipt Date: January 21, 2002 Application
Receipt Date: February 19, 2002 “PURPOSE: The National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) invites
applications using nonhuman primate models to focus on the
following areas: 1) neurobiological mechanisms and risk factors
for alcoholism during late childhood through adolescence;
2) the relative contribution and/or interaction of genetic,
environmental, and social factors (e.g., stress, peer influences)
with neurobiological mechanisms in the development of adolescent
alcohol abuse; 3) evaluation of the immediate and long-term
consequences of heavy drinking during adolescence on cognitive/brain
functioning; and 4) the contribution of early alcohol exposure
(juvenile and adolescent periods) to excessive drinking and
abnormal cognitive and social functioning during subsequent
developmental stages…. FUNDS AVAILABLE: The NIAAA intends
to commit approximately $2.5 million in FY 2002 to fund approximately
6 to 8 new and/or competitive continuation grants in response
to this RFA….” (Viewable at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AA-02-006.html
as of January 1, 2002.)
21. For instance: On December 15-18, 1998, during an inspection
of the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center, the USDA inspector,
Dr. Isis Johnson-Brown, DVM, noted in her written report that
“the area in front of the feeding pads in corral 3
that the animals have to cross to enter the inside feeding
area is excessively wet, composed of a mixture of mud, algae,
urine and feces, and the same conditions exist in the corners
of corrals 4 and 6.”
22. American Veterinary Medical Association Constitution 2000
Revision. Article II.
23. Principles of Veterinary Medical Ethics of the American
Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), (1999 Revision). Part
II, Professional Behavior, paragraph A.
24. American Association for Laboratory Animal Science. Policy
on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. "The American
Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) endorses
the United States Government Principles for the Utilization
and Care of Vertebrate Animals Used in Testing, Research,
and Training."
25. Brown DA, Boysen ST. 2000 Spontaneous discrimination of
natural stimuli by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Journal
of Comparative Psychology Dec; 114(4): 392-400.
26. DeWaal responding to a PBS broadcasted Scientific American
Frontiers viewer’s online question: “Do chimpanzees
have emotions?” April 17, 2001. http://www.pbs.org/saf/1108/hotline/hdewaal.htm
27. Fouts R. 1997. Next of Kin: What Chimpanzees have Taught
Me about Who We Are, p 350 (emphasis in original). William
Morrow and Company, Inc.
28. Ingersol B. 2000. (unpublished manuscript) Chimp Friends:
Nim Chimpsky 1973-2000.
29. Reynolds V, Reynolds J. 1993. Riding on the backs of apes.
In Ape, Man, Apeman: Changing Views Since 1600. Evaluative
Proceedings of the Symposium Ape, Man, Apeman: Changing Views
Since 1600, a part of the Pithecanthropus Centennial (1893-1993)
Congress “Human Evolution in its Ecological Context.”
Leiden, The Netherlands, 1993.
30. Washburn DA, Rumbaugh DM. 1991. Rhesus monkey (Macaca
mulatta) complex learning skills reassessed. International
Journal of Primatology. Aug; 12(4): 377-88.
31. Strum SC, 1987. Almost Human: A Journey into the World
of Baboons, p 153. Random House.
32. Capitanio JP, Mason WA. 2000. Cognitive style: problem
solving by rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) reared with living
or inanimate substitute mothers. Journal of Comparative Psychology.
Jun; 114(2):115-25.
33. Besides Capitanio, a recent past president, Melinda Novak,
the current treasurer, Steven Shapiro, and the current executive
secretary, Janette Wallis, are all affiliated with primate
vivisection. Novak works with the primate colony at the University
of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is a frequent research collaborator
of Steven Suomi’s, another of Harlow’s students.
Steven Shapiro is a primate veterinarian at the M.D. Anderson
Cancer Center in Houston. Janette Wallis works in direct support
of the Baboon Research Resource Program at the University
of Oklahoma, a supplier of baboons to “three colleges
of the Health Sciences Center, two non-profit research institutions
on the Oklahoma Health Center Campus, the three main university
medical teaching and research institutions in the State of
Oklahoma, and 10 medical centers located throughout the United
States,” (from CRISP entry for grant# 5P40RR012317).
34. Of the 797 members listed in the ASP’s 1999 Directory,
101 were either known by name to this author as primate vivisectors
or listed themselves as affiliated with institutions such
as the NIH Regional Primate Research Centers dedicated to
the experimental use of primates. Many others were listed
as affiliated with institutions known to be involved in primate
experimentation, but not exclusively so. Persons from this
latter group are not included among the 101. The percentage
of ASP members directly involved with the primate experimentation
industry is likely significant with regard to ASP policy decisions.
35. Bogle R. 1997. “A Call for an Immediate Moratorium
on Primate Research.” Coalition to End Primate Experimentation.
View
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