From: East Anglian Animal Rights Network
Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2007 5:47 PM
Subject: To all anti-vivisectionists and ar associations in GB
Tierversuchsgegner
Berlin
und Brandenburg e. V. (Germany)
Please
forward ? please forward ? please
forward
To
all anti‑vivisectionists and animal protection/animal rights
associations in Great Britain
Major
success for animal protection in Germany
Prof. Dr.
Alexander Thiele is doing research at the University of Newcastle
upon Tyne in Great Britain and had planned to continue this
research in Berlin (Germany), through an endowed
chair.
At the beginning
of 2006, Prof. Thiele submitted to the Berlin regulatory authority
for animal research an application for doing brain research
experiments on rhesus monkeys. The aim of his research is to
investigate the visual system in the brains of primates. Among
other things, he is interested in how the individual neurons (nerve
cells) work together e. g. during eye
movement.
These
experiments on primates are carried out in the so‑called primate
chair. The animal?s body is strapped into the chair, only the
extremities can be moved freely. The head is
restrained.
For
ethical reasons, the regulatory authority prohibited him from
carrying out these experiments.
Those
responsible were strongly encouraged by major protests from the
public not to approve Prof. Dr. Alexander Thiele?s application for
the experiments.
It
is very likely that now Prof. Thiele will stay and continue his
research in Great Britain!
Please,
try and see to it that also in Great Britain this researcher is no
longer able to go on with his cruel experiments.
Description
of a brain research experiment on rhesus monkeys
Basically, all
the experiments on the monkeys follow the same pattern: the animals
are trained to enter the primate chair. Only there they get the
liquid vital for them. They enter the chair voluntarily without the
need to apply force, as they suffer from severe thirst. Once the
training phase has been completed, the animal?s head is fixed to
the chair using screws inserted into the scull. The intention is to
not allow the animals to move their heads by a single millimetre.
The electrodes implanted into the monkey?s brain are connected to
an electronic recording device for later evaluation of the
results.
Example: the
chair is pushed into a closed dark box with a monitor inside on
which images of e. g. fruit and vegetables are shown which the
animals have to memorize. They are required to press the respective
button when recognizing the images. If they press the correct
button they get one drop of apple juice or
water.
This way the
monkeys ?work? nonstop, as they try to quench their thirst. The
animals have to go through this procedure for up to six hours,
several times a week.
The opening of
the scullcap for inserting the electrodes and plug contacts causes
the monkeys considerable post‑operative pain. The hour-long
fixation of the head, the liquid deprivation and the housing in
small cages mean the most severe cruelty to these animals who
normally live in social groups and are very
mobile.
Studies on
humans carried out at the University of Marburg (Germany) have
shown: people who had their heads restrained voluntarily, asked to
be freed after 20 minutes as they were no longer able to stand
the situation. The animals, however, are forced to go through this
for hours.
Please, do not let this happen any longer!
June
2007
Brigitte
Jenner
President
of
Tierversuchsgegner
Berlin und Brandenburg (Antivivisectionists Berlin and
Brandenburg)
Berlin,
Germany
jenner@tierversuchsgegner-berlin-brandenburg.de
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