Animal-Research Poll Was Misleading

To the Editor:

In its December 13 edition, The Chronicle published — without response from research advocates — poll results that were recently announced by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (“Donors Oppose Animal Research,” In Brief: Giving).

The poll reportedly “found that 56 percent of respondents said they would be more likely to donate to a health charity that had a policy against conducting or paying for animal experiments than they would to a charity that did not have such a policy.”

The press release of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine repeatedly contrasts charities that support “animal experiments” with charities that support “cruelty-free testing.” One can only surmise that those oppositional terms were used in the survey, giving respondents a choice between “cruelty-free” and, implicitly, cruelty.

The Chronicle has fallen — unwittingly, we believe — into the public-relations booby trap that the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and others, most particularly the Humane Society of the United States, have set in their attempts to intimidate health charities.

When the questions about animal research were asked straightforwardly in Research America polls (“Do you believe the use of animals in medical research is necessary for progress in medicine?”), 71 percent of the respondents in a 1998 poll said “yes.” When asked “How important do you think it is that the U.S. maintains its role as a world leader in medical research?,” 81 percent of respondents said “very important” in a survey conducted in 2000.

It should surprise no one that the public would prefer research that causes no pain over research that involves pain. So do researchers, who work diligently to minimize pain. In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which regulates the use of such animals, reports that 897,226 of the 1,416,643 animals covered by USDA inspections in fiscal 2000 did not experience any pain or distress whatsoever as a result of research activities. Most other research animals (415,215) received drugs to relieve any discomfort. This is good news.

The issue for the health charities is not whether the public supports animal-based research — it does. The issue is whether the public understands the humane care and pain management provided to laboratory animals.

We hope that health charities will work with the biomedical research community to help educate the public about the importance of animals in research and the excellent veterinary care that those animals receive. We all support animal welfare, but let’s not let animal-rights extremism go unchallenged.

Cate Alexander
Vice President
Americans for Medical Progress
Alexandria, Va.