Week of action for Nepal's monkeys

Save the oceans too !

Claudius, ofcourse are all the horrible things you mention worth protesting against, for sure. But, the way you express yourself says more about the way You are living.

Maybe people active within the Gateway to Hell campaign also go out on the streets to protest against the invasion of Gaza. Besides that, those people also find time to fight against a nearby export of macaques from Nepal to a huge biomedical research lab in Texas, USA, and against the breeding of these animals for experiments at a breeding centre in Nepal. These animals feel pain like we do. And if there are people all over the world who care for labanimals, let them and do not attack them in a way you do, that's sick and disrespectful for an activist.....if you are an activist and not some one who has nothing better to do then just write and post negative messages.

Sure on a level of importance, animal rights are further down the scale but hey there is no need to be so aggressive mate. You need to vent this anger at the state and all its apparatus. And a debate is needed
with AR to create a broader coalition with the rest of the movement so as not to further isolate its self within its single issue mentality!

Time to move past animal experimental model

 http://www.newsobserver.com/726/story/1357161.html

Robin Cutson
Published: Wed, Jan. 07, 2009 12:30AM
Modified Wed, Jan. 07, 2009 02:01AM

UNC is expanding its animal research labs and storage facilities (CHN Dec. 28). This is as backward as ignoring solar energy to build more coal-burning power plants since medical advances have rendered most animal research outdated.

In 2008, Medical News Today reported advancements in human brain imaging were proving better at devising pain management for conditions like osteoarthritis than decades of animal research. Cancer research projects using complex 3D human cell cultures and mathematical modeling are also proving superior to animal experiments.

In 2008, CNN Health ran the headline, "Scientist: Stem cells could end animal testing," citing the superiority of human stem cell research to animal research. Using human cell tissue to develop vaccines is also considered much safer than using animals since undetected animal viruses may jump the species barrier (think SARS). In 2007, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences recommended less reliance on animals in toxicology studies and more focus on in vitro methods using cells "preferably of human origin" in order to generate "more relevant data." In 2004, the prestigious British Medical Journal published an article titled "Where is the evidence that animal research benefits humans?" stating animal research had inherent flaws and that funding for animal research was holding back clinical research and medical innovations.

The fact is animal research doesn't carry over well to humans. For example, the arthritis drug Vioxx tested safe and even beneficial to the heart in animal tests but was pulled from the market after causing an estimated 320,000 cases of heart attacks and strokes in humans. And sometimes it goes the other way. For example, penicillin was discovered in 1929 but wasn't used until 1939 because its failure to cure infected rabbits had convinced researchers it was worthless. There are hundreds of similar examples.

So why does our government continue doling out grants (your tax dollars) for outdated animal research? The Medical Research Modernization Committee has suggested part of the problem is resistance to change; especially in the way grants are awarded. Funding for innovative ideas is difficult because grants are generally awarded based on a history of publications and researcher experience. If a researcher has experience in animal research instead of human cells or stem cells, then animal research gets funded. And in the "publish or perish" world of academic science researchers can take an already existing animal study and change a small variable or the species being used in order to obtain "new" or "interesting" findings relatively quickly to obtain more grant money.

So UNC's expansion of its animal research and storage facilities gives us the following: outdated medical research; needless animal suffering (ever wonder why this rarely gets mentioned?); air pollution from incinerators used to burn the dead bodies of hundreds of animals; and potential harm to our environment and possibly humans due to the spraying of the treated (but not treated to drinking level safety) animal research waste water into our forests.

So what can you do? When UNC wants something they unfairly bypass our local government officials and go straight to the legislators in Raleigh. And this means citizens need to do the same. We can also push officials at the national level to stop using our tax dollars to fund outdated things and to embrace new technology and advancements -- in energy and medical research.

'To the 2.6 million people around the world afflicted with multiple sclerosis, medicine has offered more frustration than comfort. Time after time, researchers have discovered new ways to cure laboratory rats of experimental induced encephalomyelitis, the murine model of MS, only to face obstacles in bringing the treatment to humans'.
Dr. Gibbs, Experimental and Molecular Medicine, 1999:31:115-121.

"Tests on animals have led to around 100 drugs being thought potentially useful for stroke; not one has proved effective in humans. You don't need to be a balaclava-wearing animal rights activist to question the value of animal studies in this area of medical research."

G2H is preparing something big for the week of action which will happen inside Nepal, however we need your support in the wider world to make this action as effective as possible! On Monday the 12th of January we will announce the action, and we hope there will be plenty of solidarity actions worldwide in support of it. We're about to make a BIG splash in the Nepalese media, so there is a good chance there will be coverage of the global demos at the same time, (or at least a list of cities that saw actions).

We already have actions organised in Europe and the USA, but there is nothing in London yet and London is a very important embassy because the UK links with Nepal are the strongest of any country....but for those who are unable to get to London, do an information stall in your city and send us some pictures. The Nepalese tourism industry is starting to panic due to the campaign, and those with tourism interests in Nepal are flocking to support the campaign there, so the more exposure actions the better!!!

The situation with Nepal's monkeys is not only an animal rights issue, but also a human rights issue as the vast majority of Nepal's population view rhesus monkeys as religous symbols. Many pray to them, offer them small treats and believe that their lives are sacred....meaning that their trapping, breeding and use in vivisection laboratories is a gross blasphemy!!! We are working closely with human rights activists in Nepal on this issue, (which is a small clue to those in the know about what we're going to do next).

To add to the debate RE: Gaza, we at G2H stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza as we stand in solidarity with the people of Nepal. We believe strongly that the struggle against domination and exploitation must transcend all barriers, either race, gender or species....until all are free, none are free!

For all the animal rights groups out there in the UK, please organise a demo or stall during this week of action. Whilst we can't tell you what we're planning yet, what we can tell you is that what we're about to do has never been done by a grassroots AR campaign before. It's unchartered territory but we've always said we will fight this campaign by whatever means necessary and we intend to stick to that promise.

Please help us to make this happen,
G2H