Senator Takes Jabs at Animal Experimenters in ‘Star Wars’–Themed Attack
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Arizona) just released “Wastebook: The Farce Awakens,” a Star Wars–themed feature on his website that takes jabs at wasteful government spending. Among the tax-money recipients that seem to need the lightsaber treatment? Several experiments on animals that would make Chewbacca howl.
The Southwest National Primate Research Center in Texas received $8 million from the National Institutes of Health for a grant that allowed experimenters to put 12 marmoset monkeys into “exercise balls” that were then set onto a running treadmill. One monkey vomited, two defecated, and another died during the experiment. The monkeys were shoved into exercise balls on treadmills several days a week for months. The National Institute on Aging is already spending more than $600,000 to conduct similar experiments.
Colorado State University is getting $1.2 million in funding from NASA for experimenters to try to imitate the impact of space travel on bones in the back legs of 23 sheep. Experimenters affixed a brace to each animal’s back leg for several weeks and then removed bones from most of the sheep. They found that the brace made bones more likely to break and it slowed down healing following removal of the bones. The experimenters’ own report highlights experiments that NASA had already conducted in humans, making these animal ones irrelevant and pointless. Colorado State University’s mascot is, ironically, a sheep.
Experimenters at Duke University, with more than $700,000 in funding from the National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian, forced 68 shrimp to fight one another and videotaped the “shrimp fight club.”
What You Can Do
Every year, the U.S. government spends approximately $12 billion in taxpayer money on cruel animal experiments. You don’t have to channel the Force to help end wasteful government spending and animal abuse. Tell the National Institutes of Health to retire all federally-owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries now.
Note: PETA supports animal rights, opposes all forms of animal exploitation, and educates the public on those issues. PETA does not directly or indirectly participate or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office or any political party.
