White Coat Waste Project



Hi Taxpayer, passing along this article - thought you
might find it interesting: 'Disturbing' video: Feds under fire
for scaring monkeys, damaging their brains | A bipartisan group
of lawmakers has "serious concerns" about federal funding of the
primate experiments.






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Dear Taxpayer,

Thanks to your Rapid Response donations, we've launched an
all-out media blitz to educate millions of taxpayers.

Our target? NIH's Fear Factory. Now Congress is taking notice:





Taxpayer, I've pasted NBC's explosive coverage below. Please read
it and share it!!






Ann Marie Dori
Operations Manager
White Coat Waste Project

P.S. Taxpayer, we must capitalize on this momentum. But right
now, we don't have enough resources to de-fund NIH's Fear Factory
- we're still $18,785 short! Can you help?

P.P.S. See below. Media attention like this is incredible. But to
finish the job, we really need more ACTION. Please pitch in
whatever you can afford to help us close the gap. As I write
this, Congress is setting budgets. Tomorrow could be too late!






CLOSE THE GAP »








'Disturbing' video: Feds under fire
for scaring monkeys, damaging their brains
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has "serious concerns" about
federal funding of the primate experiments.


By DAREH GREGORIAN
The federal government has spent almost $100 million on monkey
brain studies since 2007, including $16 million on tests in which
scientists tried to scare the monkeys with rubber snakes and
spiders - and lawmakers are demanding to know why.

"We have serious concerns about whether this questionable
research deserves continued support from Congress and taxpayers,"
a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Reps. Brendan Boyle,
D-Pa., and Brian Mast, R-Fla., say in a letter to the director of
the National Institutes of Health, which was obtained by NBC
News.

Videos of the bizarre tests by the National Institute of Mental
Health, some of which were performed on monkeys whose brains had
been intentionally damaged beforehand, were obtained by the White
Coat Waste Project after it filed a Freedom of Information Act
lawsuit in Washington, D.C., federal court.



The watchdog group shared the videos with NBC News. Some of them
show macaques cowering in the corners of their cages as a panel
is opened revealing a rubber snake or what a researcher described
as "hairy rubber spiders." The government has spent $16.3 million
on the studies since 2007, records show.

Some of the total of $95 million in government funding also went
to other studies monitoring how the monkeys react to nature
documentaries and how they can tell faces apart from fruit,
records show. The scientists damaged various parts of the
monkeys' brains to gauge what effect the damage had on their
responses, the studies say. Some had parts of their brains
removed surgically, while others had parts of their brains
damaged with acid injections.

In the nature documentary experiments, which have cost over $10
million since 2007, some of the rhesus monkeys also had
"custom-designed fiberglass headposts" implanted on their skulls
to immobilize their heads while scientists tracked their eyes,
the study says.

Congress has been urging the Department of Health and Human
Services, which oversees the NIH and the NIMH, to reduce testing
on primates, and lawmakers say the videos have only heightened
their sense of urgency.

"New reports about disturbing taxpayer-funded experiments on
monkeys at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda,
Maryland, demonstrate why more Congressional oversight of NIH
primate research is urgently needed," Boyle and Mast say in a
letter to NIH Director Francis Collins, which was also signed by
Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and
Dina Titus, D-Nev.

Roybal-Allard questioned the scientific need for the experiments
and called for "more efficient and humane non-animal research
alternatives."

"We've made progress, but these disturbing psychological tests on
monkeys that have gone on for decades highlight the need for
greater oversight of NIH efforts to reduce primate testing,"
Roybal-Allard said.

The experiments looking into how the macaques react to the rubber
snakes and spiders is aimed at providing "insights into the
neural regulation of defensive responses to threat and inform the
etiology and treatment of anxiety disorders in humans," the study
says.

Asked about the lawmakers' criticisms, the NIH defended primate
testing, saying it has helped scientists understand how the brain
copes with conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder,
schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

"Monkeys are used in research because of their marked
similarities to humans with respect to anatomy, physiology, and
behavior," the agency said in a statement to NBC News.

"Testing procedures produce a range of animal responses,
mirroring human traits and attributes, ranging from no response
to momentary and transient anxiety. Each animal's well-being was
closely monitored during and after testing by experienced and
trained animal care staff and veterinarians. The procedures under
question resulted in no harm to any of the animals tested."

The letter from lawmakers asks Collins to answer several
questions about how long the experiments have been funded and for
"specific examples of when and where the research has had
successful direct clinical applications in humans."

Under language that was inserted in the agency's spending bill
for the first time in 2020, the NIH has to report to Congress on
its efforts to reduce primate research in favor of alternatives
by December.

Anthony Bellotti, president and founder of the White Coat Waste
Project, said, "Taxpayers should not be forced to foot the bill
to fulfill the morbid curiosities of some out-of-touch NIH
bureaucrats who want to destroy monkeys' brains with toxic acid
and torment them with fake snakes and spiders."






To capitalize on this momentum, and to de-fund the Fear Factory
BEFORE NIH's budget is set, we must cover our Rapid Response
Fund...

BUT WE'RE STILL $18,785 SHORT!!!


Taxpayer, close the gap »


Congress is setting the NIH budget as we speak. THERE'S NO TIME
TO WAIT.
























To stop taxpayer-funded animal tests,
we must first stop the $15 billion+ in wasteful government
spending.

We find, expose, and de-fund wasteful
government spending on animal experiments. To change public
policy, we unite liberty lovers and animal lovers with
hard-hitting investigations and public policy campaigns.










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