Skewed Facts?
(In response to Maxfield Barker’s March 2 article, “PETA takes on ASU.”)
The most striking revelation of PETA’s presentation about the use of thousands of animals in ASU classroom biology experiments was the compelling evidence of some faculty members’ staggering abuse of authority.
In order to justify their continued use of animals in these cruel and outdated exercises, faculty members have repeatedly provided ASU’s animal experimentation oversight committee with misleading, unreferenced and downright untruthful statements about the alleged benefits of using animals instead of alternatives.
PETA’s Justin Goodman provided references to dozens of comparative studies that showed the kinds of experiments being done in classrooms at ASU. Non-animal methods like computer simulators teach students as well as — and in most cases, better than — animal labs.
One especially outrageous claim that faculty members have used — and which the school has accepted at face value and parroted to the media — is that experimenting on live animals is “essential” and “necessary” for students interested in pursuing careers in medicine. However, PETA’s presentation illustrated that more than 90 percent of medical schools — including the University of Arizona — do not use any live animal labs to train medical students. Experience with animal experimentation is not required or expected to be admitted or to graduate, and there is no requirement that one has to experiment on animals in order to teach medicine or even become Board-certified. Major medical professional organizations also endorse the replacement of animals in medical education with non-animal alternatives.
Faculty members are supposed to be people of integrity whom the University community can rely on for credible information. However, it is clear that some are abusing their power by leading their colleagues, students and the public to believe that mutilating and killing animals is a vital experience for future scientists and physicians, when all of the evidence that is available points to the contrary. As a result, ASU’s reputation, students and animals all suffer.
Zubair Hussaini
Undergraduate
