Dr. Michael

DeBakey

directly

credits

biomedical

research for

his success.

hoisting process, he said. If
this suffering is necessary
because of U.S. government
standards, the meat is still
kosher.
Popular notions behind the
Torah's requirement to
separate meat and milk are
similarly mistaken, Rabbi
Cohen said. The rationale is
often given that this law of
kashrut is solely for the
animals' benefit, so that a
kid (goat) should not have to
be cooked in its mother's
milk.
"This (law) doesn't imply
kindness," he said. "Once a
cow is dead, what difference
does it make to the cow if it's
cooked in milk?"

F

ew aspects of animal
rights are as sensitive
as that of biomedical
research. Ending such
reserve is a central focus for
animal rights activists.
Likewise, guaranteeing that
the experiments continue is
the raison d'etre of groups like
the Incurably Ill For Animal
Research, headquartered out-
side Chicago.

The use of animals in
medical experiments has
steadily declined in recent
years. This is due both to the
researchers themselves, who
have sought alternative
methods to using live
creatures, and to animal
rights advocates.
Some 60 million animals
are used annually in
biomedical research; 90 per-
cent of these are rats and
mice. The rest include
rabbits, pigs, lambs, calves
and monkeys. Dogs and cats
constitute about 1 percent of
animal experimentation.
Like Animal Liberation
author Peter Singer, JAR's
Mrs. Kalechofsky and other
animal rights activists often
compare animals' situation
today —especially with
regard to biomedical resear-
ch — to that of Jews in Nazi
Germany. They note that
Nazis began their experi-
mentation on animals before
moving on to Jews.
Radio commentator Paul
Harvey called animal ex-
periments at a head- injury
laboratory "hideously

remindful of Auschwitz,
Dachau and Buchenwald."
For Jews, "there is a spe-
cial dimension to the
challenge of animal rights,"
writes Rabbi Sidney Jacobs,
a California-based author
and animal rights activist.
"A grim byproduct of the
Holocaust was the silence of
the people and their chur-
ches while millions of Jews
and others were consumed.
Now, Jews dare not turn
their backs or stifle their
outrage while the slaughter
of the voiceless goes on."
"Ninety-three percent of
(animal experimentation) is
not only irrelevant to human
health, but often counter-
productive and even
dangerous to human
health," Mrs. Kalechofsky
claimed. And of the 7 per-
cent that does bring benefit
to humans, "It's like a
transportation system in
which only 7 percent of the
planes and trains can be
counted on to get you where
you want to go."
She said that experiments
performed on animals are

ghastly and inhumane,
citing the case of researchers
who repeatedly "smashed in
a monkey's head" to study
brain damage. Cages in
which animals used for ex-
perimentation live are
"usually filthy and the
animals sit around in their
feces." Chemicals, radiation,
nerve gas and nuclear war
tests are regularly used in
animal experimentation,
Mrs. Kalechofsky asserted.
"Researchers always ask,
`Do you want to save your
dog or your baby?' " when
they defend experimenta-
tion, she said. "Why does it
have to be one or the other?
Do we really want to engage
in an argument about who is
more important to God?"
At the same time, physi-
cians say that animal
research is directly respon-
sible for polio, typhoid,
rabies and diphtheria vac-
cines. Additionally, such
research has helped develop
antibiotics, insulin, an-
tidepressants, open-heart
surgery techniques,
anesthetics, chemotherapy,
and surgical procedures
from suturing to blood typ-
ing.
Dr. Michael DeBakey, who
performed the first heart
transplant in the United
States, directly credits

Like Animal
Liberation author
Peter Singer,
animal rights
activists often
compare animals'
situation today to
that of Jews in
Nazi Germany.

In an effort to combat animal
rights activists, groups have
produced brochures showing the
benefits of animal
experimentation. This book
contains a letter of endorsement
by former Surgeon General C.
Everett Koop.

biomedical (animal) research
for his success. And accor-
ding to the American
Medical Association, the use
of animals is a key to finding
cures for AIDS, Alzheimer's
disease and heart ailments.
The U.S. National In-
stitutes of Health oversees
all medical experimentation
on animals, and laboratories
are obligated to have pro-
posed research approved by
review committees. These
committees must include at
least one veterinarian and
someone not associated with
the laboratory.
U.S. laws also protect
animal rights. These laws
include the 1966 Animal
Welfare Act, which dictates
the kind of care — from cage
sizes to food — warm-blooded
laboratory animals must