f6098d8b__and_Use_of_Laboratory_Animals__Comments
[ID] 81 [Entry Date] 04/15/2011 at 08:07:09 AM [Affiliation] Self [Comments] 
Comment 1: My understanding is that the new "Guide" will be twice the size of the old guide. I wish to register my opposition to any increases in the regulation of animal research. I also request that existing regulations be modified so as to reduce the disabling burdens they place upon biomedical researchers who are trying to cure diseases that cause human and animal suffering. Biomedical researchers who use animals in their research are already suffocating in a litany of regulations that range from practical to absurd. Many of these regulations are attributable to animal rights extremists who misrepresent animal research as torture. To move in the direction of abolishing all animal research, they have been able to promulgate their falsehoods to a sufficiently large number of activists who have lobbied congress successfully to impose regulations that cripple the ability of biomedical researchers to develop cures for diseases that afflict both humans and animals. More enlightened countries such as Singapore are capable of discerning truth from hyperbole. This is why they are becoming a Mecca for biomedical researchers and we are beginning to see a brain drain from the United States. Several years ago Philip Zimbardo conducted the infamous "Stanford Prison Experiment" which had to be stopped prematurely after only 6 days because of the sadistic abuse of "prisoners" by their "guards". I submit that today's IACUC committees by virtue of the unrestricted powers they have been given, have become the 21st century "guards" and that biomedical researchers have become the "prisoners". Clearly IACUCs are not working as intended and their powers to subject biomedical researchers to their irresponsible whims should be severely curtailed if not completely abolished. Comment 2: I oppose this additional regulation because it adds an unreasonable, disabling burden to institutions that are working for the common good.
Listing of Public Comments on Proposed Adoption and Implementation of the Eighth Edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals