Korea: Chimpanzee Scientist Goodall Wants End to Animal Testin

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Chimpanzee Scientist Goodall Wants End to Animal Testing

By Kim Tae-gyu

Staff Reporter

 

Jane Goodall, the world's foremost authority on chimpanzees, on Monday urged

the immediate discontinuation of animal tests because they are mostly

" unnecessary.''

 

" I am concerned that the Korean public are not educated about what actually

happens (when animals are used in testing). People should understand the

experiments are completely unnecessary because alternative ways have already

been developed,'' the 70-year-old said in a press conference in Seoul.

 

She added the researchers in the labs should understand animals are not just

objects and stop going ahead with animal experiments, which are typically

conducted in terrible conditions.

 

" The thing is that through observing and learning about chimpanzees, I

understand the lines between us and the rest of the animal kingdom is not so

big. They have personality and they have feeling. They feel sadness,''

Goodall claimed.

 

Born in 1934 in London, Britain, Goodall moved to Africa to start her

pioneering research with chimpanzees in Tanzania from 1960. The study is

still under way.

 

Living in chimpanzees' environment and gaining their confidence, Goodall

contributed much to understanding the animal by finding that chimpanzees are

not herbivores but omnivores and that they can use tools.

 

In addition, she has a significant impact on how zoos and laboratories treat

animals through her active campaigns to protect them.

 

She also articulated her opposition to Korea's government-backed projects of

studying animals with the aim of transplanting their organs to human bodies.

 

 

" We don't know what we are doing with our technologies. We should worry

about the long-term effect of genetically modified foods or animals. We are

finding terrible problems with cloned animals,'' Goodall said

 

She arrived in Korea on Monday for her third visit and plans to deliver a

speech at Ewha Womans University today 6 p.m. regarding her chimpanzee

research and environmental protection.

 

In time with her visit, Korean groups of " Roots and Shoots'' programs

yesterday announced their launch in Anyang, Kyonggi Province with Goodall

and Kyonggi governor Sohn Hak-kyu attending.

 

Started by Goodall, Roots and Shoots program is a worldwide campaign, which

encourages and supports students, from preschool through university, in

projects that benefit people, animal and the environment.