University of California, UC Berkeley Hall of Shame - Stupid Research on Animals

To see how corrupt and greedy for easy grant money the University of California system is (including UC Berkeley) and its collusion with the dark elements of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, one only need step into these laboratories:

1. UC Davis: http://www.primatefreedom.com/centers/caexptype.html

2. UCSF: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/03/17/17276801.php

3. UCSF: http://www.wwail.org/pdfs/lisberger.pdf

4. UCSF: http://www.vivisectioninfo.org/vivcampaigns/stryker.html

5. UCSF: http://www.vivisectioninfo.org/ucsf/dog_experiments.pdf

6. UCLA: http://uclaprimatefreedom.com/id1.html

7. http://www.pcrm.org/resch/anexp/beyond/monkey_0605.html

8. http://www.animalaid.org.uk/videos/wastedb.ram (Need RealPlayer to view this)

9. http://www.stopanimaltests.com/index.aspx

10. http://www.stopanimaltests.com/AnimalResearchInd.asp


PLEASE WRITE TO THE UNIVERISTY OF CALIFORNIA REGENTS AND THE INDIVIDUAL CAMPUSES TO ASK THEM TO PHASE OUT LIVE ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION.

UC Berkeley's YANG DAN uses 70 CATS, 950 rats, 48 ferrets, 200 mice and 200 hamsters per year.
Supposedly performed under sufficient anesthesia, Yang Dan's cats and other animals are paralyzed with a drug, a hole is drilled in their skulls and electrodes inserted directly into their brains. They are placed in "stereotaxic device with ear bars, eye bars and a mouth bar to stabilize the head position." Their eyes are "glued" to "posts." They are subjected to visual stimuli, and the electrical firings of roughly a dozen single brain cells or less are recorded continuously for up to "72 hours" non-stop until the "cortex stops giving normal visual responses." Rats are placed in a "light-tight box, and kept under no-light conditions for 48 hours to 1 week prior to recording," or one eye would be sewed shut. Rats will also undergo fluid deprivation to "motivate" them to perform tasks to test Dr. Dan's "visual discrimination paradigm."

The purpose, she claims, is to "understand how visual neurons code and process information" and how "connectivity between them are modulated by visual inputs."

NOTE: Animals which are closer to us, such as the rhesus (or macaque) monkey, have been shown to have very different cortices from that of humans. It is not just a matter of size, but also of structure and function. If monkeys are this different, how are the brains of animals such as cats and birds going to give us a better understanding of our own brains? Although the researchers say that there is little or no suffering on the part of the animals, everyone involved in such research has a personal interest in convincing the public, and themselves, that this is the case. In reality, the chances for error which would lead to great suffering is too great.

Other examples at UC Berkeley:

http://www.curedisease.net/resources/index.shtml ; http://www.pcrm.org/resch/anexp/beyond/monkey_0605.html