UC Berkeley's Animal Experiments (Action Request and graphic)

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends, Here are some things currently going on at UC Berkeley. Please write to the Chancellor of UC Berkeley Robert Birgeneau and the President of UC Regents Robert Dynes. Their contact info can be found in the web. UC Berkeley’s Yang Dan uses 70 CATS, 950 rats, 48 ferrets, 200 mice and 200 hamsters per year. Supposedly performed under sufficient anesthesia,

Yang Dan’s cats and other animals are paralyzed with a drug, a hole is drilled in their skulls and electrodes inserted directly into their brains. They are placed in “stereotaxic device with ear bars, eye bars and a mouth bar to stabilize the head position.” Their eyes are “glued” to “posts.” They are subjected to visual stimuli, and the electrical firings of roughly a dozen single brain cells or less are recorded continuously for up to “72 hours” non-stop until the “cortex stops giving normal visual responses.” Rats are placed in a “light-tight box, and kept under no-light conditions for 48 hours to 1 week prior to recording,” or one eye would be sewed shut. Rats will also undergo fluid deprivation to “motivate” them to perform tasks to test Dr. Dan’s

“visual discrimination paradigm.” The purpose, she claims, is to “understand how visual neurons code and process information” and how “connectivity between them are modulated by visual inputs.” Other examples at

UC Berkeley: · Jack Gallant performs invasive single-cell brain recording in vision experiments on Macaque monkeys. Fluid deprivation is used to make them perform eye movements or visual fixations while they are in restraint chairs with their heads bolted still as single-cell activity

is recorded invasively with wires sticking into their brains. · Ralph Freeman uses 35 cats per year for vision experiments. He performs similar procedures to the cats as Yang Dan does above. · Frederic Theunissen performs invasive brain recordings on 175 finches in a four-year period. He also uses a

wild-caught crow and a wild-caught raven. The purpose, he claims, is to “achieve a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying the perception of complex sounds” and “learning mechanisms during development.” He states “there may exist an overall sexual preference for a male with a ‘sexy song.’” How demented. ·

Jeffery Winer performs highly invasive and gruesome brain and ear recordings on the following 18 animal species per year; namely, 25 cats, 100 rats, 4 gerbils, 4 guinea pigs, 4 gray squirrels, 4 Lesser bushbabies, 4 owl monkeys, 4 opossums, 4 chincillas, 4 ferrets, 4 armadillos, 4 pigeons, 4 barn owls, 4 pallid bats, 6 mustached bats, 6 squirrels monkeys, 4 rhesus monkeys, 4 macaque monkeys. He claims it might benefit humans with hearing problems. However, animal brains are significantly different from human brains. NOTE: Animals which are closer to us, such as the rhesus monkey, have been shown to have very different cortices from that of humans. It is not just a matter of

size, but also of structure and function. If monkeys are this different, how are the brains of animals such as cats and birds going to give us a better understanding of our own brains? While drugs likely alleviate pain to some extent, it is also likely that they alter the functioning of the other systems of the animal which are being studied. Although the researchers say that there is little or no suffering on the part of the animals, everyone involved in such research has a personal interest in convincing the public, and themselves, that this is the case. Here is a great website for referencing the fallacy: http://www.pcrm.org/resch/anexp/beyond/monkey_0605.html Animals used by or under control of UC Berkeley based on the USDA Annual Report of Research Facility for the year ending Sep. 30, 2005 (not including birds, reptiles, fish, lab mice and lab rats): Cats: 47 Guinea Pigs: 30 Hamsters: 590 Rabbits: 423 Non-human Primates: 9 Hyena: 34 Kangaroo Rat: 48 Squirrel: 86 Tuco Tuco: 35 Vole: 72 Wild Mouse:

132 Wild Rat 162 **************************************************************************************** Thank you all. Sincerely, Michelle