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cancer had already been predicted by their chemical structure.” In can be tricky. Clinicians have no control over patients who may other words, for 15 years, billions of dollars of investment money not return for follow-up appointments. Human subjects may even was ploughed into subjecting millions of animals to the most be dishonest about their lifestyles. You can addict monkeys to painful, cruel and barbaric procedures and then killing them, all of crack cocaine or heroin in your nice, clean lab. If you want to which proved nothing new. study human crack or heroin addicts, you may have to interact Even the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) has admitted its with potentially nasty people." failures. In the Los Angeles Times of 6 May 1998, NCI Director Time is also of the essence. "A rat's generation time is weeks, Dr Richard Klausner was quoted as saying: "The history of can- not decades. By the time a clinician publishes one good paper, an cer research has been a history of curing cancer in the mouse. We animal experimenter can publish at least five. The easiest way to have cured mice of cancer for decades and it simply didn't work in publish is to take a concept already published and change some- humans." thing, the type of animal used, the dose of the drug, the method of In the United States in the 1990s, scientists came up with the assessing the results or some other variable." It is the number, as idea of genetically engineering rats to accept human cancers. But opposed to the value of research, that is important to those wish- in 63 per cent of cases, according to the Greeks, the human ing to get on in their scientific career. tumours in the rats did not respond to chemotherapies which are Acceptance of the status quo, not rocking the boat, is also a key "currently and effectively" used in humans, because the way can- factor. The pressure on students and young doctors to publish cers grow in animals is different from how they grow in humans. should not be underestimated. It has led to a proliferation of sci- It begs the question as to how many anticancer drugs which could entific journals which are often edited by researchers using animal be successful in treating human cancers have been missed because experiments. This means that vivisectionists are able to put for- they did not work in mice or rats. Chemotherapeutic agents ward their work, but those who are against animal studies can find which have been successful in humans have all come from non- no place to publish—despite there being an estimated 100,000 sci- animal means, according to the Greeks. entific journals in print today. Many of these journals rely on The next time any of us is tempte advertising revenue from pharmaceu- to put money into a tin shaken by tical companies and others who make cancer research charities which fund products for animal experimenters. research using animal models, we " . Mainstream media also collude to would do well to remember the The history of cancer research keep anti-vivisectionists' work out of words of Dr Irwin Bross, formerly of A A the public eye. At the UK press con- the Roswell Park Memorial Institute has been a history of curing ference of the Greeks’ new book, not for Cancer Research, in testimony cancer in the mouse. We have one journalist from a national newspa- before the US Congress in 1981: cured mice of cancer for decades per attended, despite novelist Jilly "While conflicting animal results Cooper being there to promote it. have often delayed and hampere and it simply didn't work in Reporters and editors soon realise advances in the war on cancer, they humans " that if they want to hang onto their have never produced a single sub- . jobs and maintain a steady flow of stantial advance in either the preven- breaking news, they must keep their tion or treatment of human cancer." — NCI Director Dr Richard Klausner, 1998 §f contacts happy. Most of these scien- tific contacts will be part of the ani- WHY ANIMAL-BASED mal experimentation lobby who will RESEARCH CONTINUES, DESPITE THE EVIDENCE not take too kindly to the prospect of having their industry f even the proponents of the vivisection lobby admit that animal exposed as a money-making fraud. studies are inaccurate and produce little reliable data for human This money, by the way, is yours. The US Government spends extrapolation, why on earth do they continue to employ these around $10 billion of taxpayers’ money each year on animal-based methods? research, according to the Greeks. The largest single provider of Dr Werner Hartinger, a German surgeon, surmised in 1989: funds to medical research institutions in the United States is the "There are, in fact, only two categories of doctors and scientists National Institutes of Health (NIH). But only one-third of NIH who are not opposed to vivisection: those who don't know competing research grant applications includes human subjects.” enough about it, and those who make money from it." So it is not hard to see why animal studies are the preferred option The latter in particular, according to Ray and Jean Greek, is the of researchers with career ambitions and mortgages to pay. main reason. "Scientists are just like the rest of us, materialistic Then there is the grip of corporations to contend with. The ani- and opportunistic. They, too, struggle to survive and excel ina —_ mal experimentation industry grosses between an estimated 100 competitive world," they argue. billion and one trillion dollars a year worldwide. This figure Dr Irwin Bross agrees. In 1986 he was quoted in Cancer includes the employment of hundreds of thousands of people, Research on Animals as saying: "They [scientists] may claim to including those who manufacture and sell jackets for immobilis- love truth; but when it is a matter of truth versus dollars, they love ing animals and pumps for force-feeding them, needles, cages, the dollars more." scalpels and equipment used to kill animals in a specific way, not To get grants for research and stay employed, you must churn to mention the sales of animals themselves. Take Cedar River out papers with the utmost regularity. And the fastest and easiest Laboratories, for example, which specialises in selling cats; its way to get papers published is to use animal experimentation. price is usually $225 for animals less than 16 weeks old. "Animal experimentation is tidy," the Greeks explain. "The Pharmaceutical firms benefit from the industry, too. According lovely thing about rats is that you can go home on Friday night to its 1999 annual report, Merck's sales for the year came in at and rest assured that they will still be in their cages when you get $32,714 million. "The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer in the mouse. We have and it simply didn't work in humans." WHY ANIMAL-BASED TT RESEARCH CONTINUES, DESPITE THE EVIDENCE f even the proponents of the vivisection lobby admit that animal studies are inaccurate and produce little reliable data for human extrapolation, why on earth do they continue to employ these methods? Dr Werner Hartinger, a German surgeon, surmised in 1989: "There are, in fact, only two categories of doctors and scientists who are not opposed to vivisection: those who don't know enough about it, and those who make money from it." The latter in particular, according to Ray and Jean Greek, is the main reason. "Scientists are just like the rest of us, materialistic and opportunistic. They, too, struggle to survive and excel in a competitive world," they argue. Dr Irwin Bross agrees. In 1986 he was quoted in Cancer Research on Animals as saying: "They [scientists] may claim to love truth; but when it is a matter of truth versus dollars, they love the dollars more." To get grants for research and stay employed, you must churn out papers with the utmost regularity. And the fastest and easiest way to get papers published is to use animal experimentation. "Animal experimentation is tidy," the Greeks explain. "The lovely thing about rats is that you can go home on Friday night and rest assured that they will still be in their cages when you get back on Monday. On the other hand, clinical research on humans 30 + NEXUS FEBRUARY — MARCH 2001