And AGAIN another reason to educate the general public about the realities of biomedical research involving animals – the Vancouver Sun now reports that animal rights activists are getting more curious about the animal-based research at UBC and affiliated hospitals.
I had heard news of this through the grapevine a few weeks ago actually and I’m not surprised it broke popular media. Science does a very poor job of explaining why animals need to be used in research. Often, the only time it gets publicity is when bad things happen. Couple this with the extreme lack of education provided to many animal handlers, the fact that many studies actually shouldn’t be or don’t need to be using animals, and the lack of public education on the issue… you have a bad situation all around.
Part of me is sympathetic. There are a lot of things I don’t agree with when it comes to animal research in Vancouver. When I worked in the field, there were things that definitely should not have happened. And those need to be fixed, without a doubt. Certainly those aspects of research played a big part in my decision to change careers. But at the same time, I understand the reasons for using animals in certain types of research when used correctly and ethically. The sad part is when this does not happen 😦
AlbinoMouse 
Care to elaborate what “things” you saw that should not have happened to animals?
Thanks for your comment Grace. One lab in particular stands out in my mind unfortunately.
A bit of background:
Assuming that a study actually needs to use animals (a big IF, in my opinion), the researchers have a responsibility to treat the animals well and use appropriate techniques/equipment – this reduces the numbers of animals you need to use overall because it gives better results.
However, this particular lab constantly violated these expectations. For example, sutures come in different sizes. This lab would ALWAYS use sutures that were abrasive and too thick. Why? I’m assuming because these sutures are cheaper and easier to use than the thinner and gentler kind of suture. As a result, the animals would pick at their sutures, bite them off and then walk around with open wounds! These wounds can become infected, which affects experimental results. That makes for bad science, because likely, more animals would need to be used in the long run to get good results. And to make matters worse, the lab would often refuse to re-suture. 😦
Anyways, it’s stuff like this that makes me ANGRY. I’ve always thought that this particularly lab should be banned from using animals. Grr.
Yes, yes, 100% yes.
I can really only speak on behalf of non-human primates, but I’ve seen this too and could not agree more.