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Media Coverage It’s not a dog’s life at Brooks AFB from the San Antonio Current The research laboratory at Brooks Air Force Base has been named “the
most painful laboratory in the U.S.” in a recent report by Stop Animal
Exploitation NOW! The animal-rights watchdog group based its findings on federal
documents that show 43 percent of 2,091 animals in Brooks AFB labs
experience “unrelieved pain during experiments,” because they’re
“conducted without the benefit of anesthesia.” Brooks’ spokesman Ed Shannon replied that Air Force researchers “make
every effort to ensure animals are treated humanely during all stages of
research.” He added that Brooks “uses primarily rats and mice” and is
“seeking alternatives to animal use,” including computer modeling. SAEN alleges that Brooks is violating provisions of the 1966 Animal
Welfare Act, which regulates the treatment of most warm-blooded animals
held by zoos, laboratories, and pet stores. The report stated that
between 2004 and 2005, 15 dogs, five primates, 685 mice, and 202 rats
experienced “unrelieved pain” at Brooks AFB. In “Protocol 2003- 06” at
Brooks, eye damage was inflicted on six primates to assess recovery time
from laser-induced retinal injury. According to the Department of Defense’s Biomedical Research
Database, Brooks’ laboratories receive almost $5.4 million a year in
funding to conduct “a different kind of research,” SAEN’s Michael Budkie
explained. Military research focuses on laser injury, irradiation
research, microwave, and chemical-weapons analysis to gauge human
thresholds. Research labs throughout Texas, including those at UTSA and Southwest
Research Institute, experimented on more than 33,000 animals in 2003.
The SAEN report states that the “research projects do not appear to
be unique in nature” and that “many of the projects are potentially
duplicative [and] appear to be very long lived.” The United States Department of Agriculture is charged with enforcing
the Animal Welfare Act; however, the USDA also experiments on animals.
SAEN said the reason a large number of animals are being experimented
with is, “for most federal facilities, the lack of independent oversight
is a problem. It can take years to get data about what’s going on
because you have to go through the Freedom of Information Act.” Budkie likened the USDA and Brooks AFB to “the fox guarding the
henhouse but with Brooks, the fox isn’t even allowed in.” http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16214434&BRD=2318&PAG=461&dept_id=484045&rfi=6 Return to Media Coverage |
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