University "Can’t Stop" Experiments on Animals

By Michael Mountain, December 18, 2012

Kudos to the University of British Columbia for at least being open with their animal experimentation figures. (They’re the only university in Canada that does this.) Having said that, the figures are not good – and getting worse, not better.

Despite the growth in technology that should be causing researchers to do more of their experimentation on computer and cell models, all that’s happening in reality is that more and better technology is leading people to do ever more experiments on animals.

The number of animals used for research at the U. of BC went up from 211,604 in 2010 to 225,043 in 2011.

The number of animals who were subject to research that involved moderate or severe stress also went up – from 68,203 in 2010 to 83,800 in 2011.

Anne Birthistle of the Animal Defense and Anti-Vivisection Society of B.C., said the treatment of animals who experience pain these experiments can be “pretty horrendous” and like “torture.”

According to the Vancouver Sun, the U. of BC says it’s “trying to reduce the number of animals it experiments on.” This sort of conjures up the image of the famous scene in I Love Lucy where Lucy is in a chocolate factory scrambling to keep up with the chocolates as they go by her on a conveyor belt and pack them into boxes … as if, at the university, the administrators  are trying to get the dogs, monkeys, mice and birds off the conveyor belt before they disappear into the vivisection chambers, but that tens of thousands are somehow getting away from them – more than ever, in fact.

What exactly is the problem? Why can’t they just deny the escalating number of experiments that these Dr. Strangelove researchers are doing?