my Thinking spot: we'll just file this one under

09 November 2007

we'll just file this one under

things i should know about, but didn't. of course, i feel it is my sworn duty to pass this new knowledge along. you know how i do sometimes.

holly and i were rappin' this a.m. via the internets. holly is a rockin' animal/human rights activist, p.s. - and someone that i consider to be the most knowledgeable about such matters. she is not all hat and no cattle, she walks the talk. and that, my friends, is beautiful and rare in this day and age.

but i digress.

i was expressing my disjunct with a culture so supportive of "finding the cure" for cancer via walk-a-thons and knowing that there are those creating cancers that aren't being held accountable. industry waste, spills, harmful products (deodorant - although studies provide conflicting results - whatever.), etc. basically, we're given these nasty little incurable diseases and then are asked to collect money to find a remedy. we could also file this under "more band aids for cuts that need stitches" - a favorite category of mine these days.

but the plot thickens. i had always assumed this money was being used to, wait for it, find a cure. i assumed that the money was actually being used WISELY and pro-actively. silly me. while i should have assumed that animal testing is a part of all of this, it is also something i have a difficult time thinking too much about. must mean i should give it more thought.

let me just excerpt a bit of the conversation that ensued, what she sent my way:

Although the war on cancer was declared nearly 30 years ago to the tune of $35 billion, cancer deaths are at an all-time high because of our reluctance to move past the animal model to reliable, humane methods of experimentation. "The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer in the mouse. We have cured mice of cancer for decades--and it simply didn't work in humans." -- Dr. Richard Klausner, director of the National Cancer Institute.

Although experimental cancer drugs reduce tumors in mice, experts agree that this treatment cannot and never has been successfully extrapolated to humans. Animal experimenters poison and kill animals by the tens of millions and give cancer sufferers false hopes that a cure is right around the corner. "The patients are the losers when all of this is dangled in front of them and it turns out to be nothing." -- Dr. Robert Mayer, president of the American Society for Clinical Oncology.

Cancer therapies used in animals do not accurately demonstrate side effects that will show up in humans once a product is put on the market. These side effects include muscle inflammation, skeletal stiffness, loss of sensation in the limbs, and brain cell toxicity. In some cases, these side effects force researchers to limit doses to levels too low to be a benefit to the cancer patient, rendering the therapy useless.

More than 100,000 people in the U.S. die from side effects of drugs not detected in animal tests. An additional 2 million people are hospitalized. $4 billion is spent annually treating people for adverse side effects from prescribed drugs.

so not only are animals being tortured, people are dying while time, money and resources are being horribly horribly squandered. apparently there is some "research" being inflicted upon monkeys as well - which will more than likely also wield no valid results for humans.

sick. sad. disguting. all around.

and as if that wasn't enough, she hit me with this, stats taken from the FDA
• More than 90 percent of drugs that appear safe in animal tests fail in human studies.
• More than 100,000 Americans die each year from adverse reactions to approved drugs. This is the fifth leading cause of death in the United States.
• More than half of all approved drugs will be withdrawn or relabeled for serious or lethal effects in humans.

which i verified here, in reference to the vioxx fiasco.

ah, western medicine... i'll save my rant about what this means vis-a-vis the human experimentation that is occuring with anti-depressant/anxiety/panic medications as we speak for another time.

she also gave me this link - charities that do/don't engage in animal testing.

Labels: animal testing, band aids for cuts that need stitches, cancer

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my Thinking spot

09 November 2007

we'll just file this one under

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