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Animal
Commandos Online
Activist Resource & History
Animals Abused as Subjects in Research
"For the animals, it is an eternal Treblinka."
Estimates of the number of animals, other than humans, that are used in experiments every year range from 17 million to 22 million. These animals are subjected to experiments in which they are made ill, in which they are inflicted with pain, in which limbs, nerves, and muscles are damaged, in which they are burned while conscious, and in which they are exposed to chemicals and cosmetics. Their lives end as they are "sacrificed", perfused, autopsied and their brains are sectioned for histological studies. Most people would never consider doing these things to an animal, but rarely reflect on the carnage that goes on when the laboratory door is closed. Witness some current research conducted under the support of National Institutes of Health grants. The research is being conducted at Barrow Neurological Institute of St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona.
TITLE OF PROJECT: ALLOGENIC GLIOMA IN IMMUNE COMPETENT DOGS
Principal Investigator: Michael Berens
Subjects: Dogs (female beagles and their puppies)
Funding agency: NIH through NINDS (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)
Objectives of research: 1) To implement a procedure for injecting cancer cells (glioma cells) into unborn puppies at a time when their undeveloped immune systems will not reject the cells. 2) To use this procedure for developing an animal model that will develop malignant brain tumors. 3) To study the course of these brain tumors in dogs. 4) To study different courses of therapy on the dogs including irradiation, chemotherapy and surgical excision. 5) To sell the patented procedure for injecting the cancer cells into fetal puppies and "tricking" their immune systems into accepting the cancer cells. 6)To use the dogs and puppies with brain tumors in toxicity testing for cancer treatments.
Method:The fetuses of pregnant female beagles are injected with glioma cells at a point in development when a puppy's immune system will not reject the cells. The cells cause the development of small tumors under the skin of the puppies. At four to six months of age, the tumors are excised from under the skin of the puppies. The puppies are put into a stereotaxic instrument, a hole is bored into the parietal lobe of the brain, the excised tumor is planted in the brain. The implanted tumors develop into large malignant brain tumors in the puppies. The course of the brain tumors and treatments are followed. The treatments include irradiation, chemotherapy, and surgery. At between nine and twelve months of age, the puppies are destroyed and histologies are performed.
The cost in lives of this failed research: From 1990 to 2000, Michael Berens has performed hundreds of fetal implants in developing beagle puppies. These implants have resulted in aborted puppies, still born puppies, puppies born with serious birth defects such as hydrocephalus or missing limbs, and healthy puppies born without the predicted tumors. Most of these healthy puppies have been destroyed. Only two documented cases of the predicted subcutaneous tumor being implanted in the brain of a puppy have been documented. This means that the failure rate of this project is more than 98%. How many dogs and puppies have participated and lost their lives in this failed research? Between the ten year period in which this research has continued, Michael Berens has been approved to work with 470 female dogs and their puppies. Most of the puppies are now dead. 120 healthy puppies were used for sterotaxic surgical practice and then euhanized or euthanized and used as tissue donors for other aspects of this project. Twenty-one litters were aborted. 92 puppies have been born dead, died shortly after birth, or were born with severe birth defects. BECAUSE OF YOUR EFFORTS, MICHAEL BERENS CURRENTLY IS DOING NO WORK ON DOGS OR PUPPIES AT BARROW NEUROLOGICAL INSTITUE.
Update on the canine glioma project at Barrow Neurological Institute
HOW CAN I HELP NOW?
Write and Telephone the following Conservative Officials. They can help animals and all you have to do is bug them enough to do it:
1. Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County Sheriff's Department
Tell Sheriff Arpaio that you support his investigation of Michael Berens and the canine glioma project. Ask the sheriff to recommend that Michael Berens be prosecuted for cruelty to animals under the Arizona Statutes. Tell the sheriff that you are aware that the Arizona Statutes allow prosecution of laboratory and research personnel and that you believe the number of aborted litters, puppies born dead, and with birth defects after failed fetal implant surgeries, and the number of perfectly healthy puppies euthanized and used for surgery practice and as tissue donors indicates to you that Dr. Berens crossed the line from research into cruelty.
2. Maricopa County Attorney, Richard Romley
Tell the County Attorney, that you as a citizen of Maricopa County expect that he will prosecute Michael Berens if the Sheriff's office recommends prosecution. Tell the County Attorney that you realize his office can decide to prosecute or not to prosecute, but as a citizen of Maricopa County, you urge his office and expect his office to prosecute.
3. Write Senator John McCain and Congressman John Shadegg. Tell them you are very grateful for their assistance in learning the status of the canine glioma project.
4. Write your Congressman and Senators and tell themthat you do not want Michael Berens given a nonfunded extension of the canine glioma project. Make the point that you, a taxpayer, who paid for this project, want this project permanently ended and not supported in anyway by NIH.
5. Write Constance Atwell, Director, Extramural Programs, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Tell Dr. Atwell that you, as a taxpayer who paid for this project, want this project completely ended and that you do not want Michael Berens given even an unfunded extension of the project.Emphasize that you want a written response to your letter. CC a copy of your letter to your congressional representative, to Senator John McCain, and to Congressmna John Shadegg.
6. Write Robert Spetzler, Director of Barrow Neurological Institute. Tell Dr. Spetzler you do not want Michael Berens permitted to do any research on dogs or puppies at Barrow.
7. Write Lattie Coor, President of Arizona State University. Tell Dr. Coor you support ASU's termination of this protocol in 1999. Tell Dr. Coor that you want Michael Berens removed as adjunct professor at ASU. Click here for Contact information for Lattie Coor, President of Arizona State University.
Arizona
Congressional Representatives
NAME: Matthew Salmon, (R)
PHONE: 1-202-225-2635
FAX: 1-202-225-3405
E-MAIL:matt.salmon@mail.house.gov
WEB:http://www.house.gov/salmon/
NAME: Ed Pastor (D)
PHONE: 1-202-225-4065
FAX: 1-202-225-1655
E-MAIL: ed.pastor@mail.house.gov
WEB: http://www.house.gov/pastor/
NAME: Robert Stump (R)
PHONE: 1-202-225-4576
FAX: 1-202-225-6328
E-MAIL: none
WEB: none
NAME: John Shadegg (R)
PHONE: 1-202-225-3361
FAX: 1-202-225-3462
E-MAIL: j.shadegg@mail.house.gov
WEB: http://www.house.gov/shadegg/
NAME: James T. Kolbe (R)
PHONE: 1-202-225-2542
FAX: none
E-MAIL: jim.kolbe@mail.house.gov
WEB: http://www.house.gov/kolbe/
NAME: John Hayworth (R)
PHONE: 1-202-225-2190
FAX: 1-202-225-3263
E-MAIL: http://www.house.gov/writerep/
WEB: http://www.house.gov/hayworth/
Arizona
Senators
NAME: Jon Kyl (R)
PHONE: 1-202-224-4521
FAX: 1-202-228-1239
E-MAIL: info@kyl.senate.gov
WEB:http://www.senate.gov/~kyl/
NAME: John McCain, (R)
PHONE: 1-202-224-2235
FAX: 1-202-228-2862
E-MAIL:Senator_McCain@mccain.senate.gov
WEB:http://www.senate.gov/~mccain/
Click
here to find your representatives in Congress
MAKE THESE POINTS:
1. Dr.
Berens has been using an in vivo canine model. Cancer research in this area
has moved from in vivo models to in vitro models. Several researchers have
suggested that brain tumors implanted artificially in the brain invade in
fundamentally different ways than naturally occurring brain tumors.
2. There is no evidence that this model will directly apply anymore relevantly
than other animal models to humans. Over a ten year period this project
has had a failure rate of 95%. ASU terminated any relationship with this
project in 1999 because of the ongoing failure rate, the number of healthy
puppies euthanized, the number of aborted litters and puppies born dead
or with birth defects after the fetal surgeries. The data submitted to NIH
in the 1999-2000 funding period shows the same pattern of healthy puppies
being euthanized and an alrmingly high number of aborted puppies and puppies
born dead or preterm. The failure rate for this period is 98%.
3. Puppies were subjected to procedures that a human cancer patient could
not ethically be subjected to. When questioned by members of the ASU IACUC
about support given to puppies being exposed to experimental radiation and
chemotherapy treatment, Dr. Berens said the puppy would be monitored for
white count and that they would back off on treatment when it (the puppy)
cannot take anymore.
4. Dr. Berens and others successfully have grown cell lines from human brain
tumors and should continue to use human cell lines. Puppies and dogs cannot
be used as living culture media for the growth of brain tumors.
5. You are aware that Dr. Berens has patented the procedure for injecting
the glioma cells into the fetal puppies. Basic research funded by National
Institutes of Health with your tax dollars should not support the patenting
of procedures to be marketed for profit.
6. You are aware that this canine model has been published only twice by
Dr. Berens in the literature and presented only three times as a paper.
Several other canine glioma models already exist including at least one
in immune competent puppies.
7. You are aware that this research has been cited very infrequently in
the cancer literature.
8. You are aware that NIH uses the publication process as an index of the
value of research and you wonder why research that has been published and
cited so little is being given an unfunded extension when Michael Berens
had 10 years to analyze data.
9. One species cannot suffer at the expense of another. You are aware that
as long as Michael Berens continues to analyze data, this research project
stays active. He continues to process data in the face of an astronomical
failure rate and loss of lives to the puppies subjected to his procedures.
10. You will not continue to support St. Joseph's Hospital and Barrow Neurological
Institute as long as Michael Berens is allowed to do research on dogs and
puppies.
11. Tell Lattie Coor, President of Arizona State University, that you want
Michael Berens removed as an adjunct faculty member at ASU until these studies
on the puppies are permanently stopped by Michael Berens.
12. Any other points
that you would like to make.
What
else can I do to stop the use of animals in research?
Go to the
conservative sites below to learn more about the use of nonhuman animals in
research, your rights to inquire about the welfare of animals used in research,
and the lack of protection for animals under the Animal Welfare Act.
National
Organizations
Action Against Vivisection
American Anti-Vivisection Society
Animal Legal Defense Fund
The Animal Liberation
Front
Animal Rights Resource Site
The Ark Trust
The Greyhound Protection League
In Defense of Animals
The Humane Society of the United States
No Compromise
Last Chance for Animals
Medical Research Modernization Committee
National Anti-Vivisection Society
New England Anti-Vivisection Society
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals
Psychologists for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals
Arizona
Organizations
Animal Defense League
of Arizona
Animal
Welfare Alliance of Arizona
Greyhound Network News--Newsletter of the
Greyhound Protection League published in Arizona
LEARN
THE LAWS. Read the Animal Welfare Act, the National Institutes of Health
guidelines and procedures for animal welfare assurances, and the duties
of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Answer this question,"Is
there protection for animals in the laboratory?"
Click here to go to NIH Office
of Laboratory Animal Welfare.
Click here to go to NIH Crisp Database
and read abstracts of the funded research.
For
more information contact:
Email: shaynie_aero@yahoo.com
MORE COMING SOON.
