Every Day Is April Fool's Day for Taxpayers When It Comes to Animal Experiments, Watchdog Group Claims

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, as Americans prepare to file their annual tax returns, In Defense of Animals (IDA) is unveiling its "Top 10 Reasons Why Animal Research is a Cruel Joke" in recognition of ridiculous and wasteful experiments funded by your tax dollars.

"If you think all animal research is used to treat and cure life-threatening conditions, think again," said IDA Executive Director Anand Ramanathan, BVSc., MS. "Every year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spends billions of your tax dollars to fund animal experiments. Our own research indicates that when it comes to these experiments, every day is April Fool's Day for the American taxpayer."

IDA's "Top 10" list is comprised of NIH-funded experiments that were selected from scientific papers published in 2009 and 2010 (and one from 2008), approved by federally-mandated oversight committees, and published in peer-reviewed journals.

Below is a sampling of experiments that made IDA's Top 10" List. (Warning: Entire List Contains Graphic and/or Sexual Content):

• Female rats might enjoy vaginal stimulation (Dartmouth);
• Baby chimpanzees need nurturing (Emory University/Yerkes National Primate Center);
• Trapped rats freak out (San Diego State U., Colorado State U., U. of Arizona);
• Lizards forced to fight get stressed and then decapitated (Harvard and Univ. of South Dakota);
• Castrated monkeys are less dominant (NIH's internal intramural labs in Bethesda, Maryland).

"These federally funded, published experiments could be considered the 'cream of the crop,' yet they frivolously waste tax dollars and animal lives," Dr. Ramanathan said. "These ridiculous, cruel experiments add nothing to medical progress and tell us nothing we care to know—or didn't know already."

"One can only wonder what occurs in the experiments that don't get published," he added.

The "Top 10" experiments include several funded by an NIH "breakthrough" grant. A researcher who "found" that exercise helps in weight loss, and has received 137 grants in 23 years, also made the list.

IDA contends that its "Top Ten" experiments are just the tip of the iceberg of waste in biomedical animal research. "IDA plans to regularly expose yet more of these ridiculous experiments – to show the sad reality of animal research and the fundamentally broken, taxpayer-supported NIH system that continues to fund these cruel and unnecessary animal experiments," concluded Dr. Ramanathan.

IDA's complete Top 10 list is available at http://idausa.org/ridiculousresearch

In Defense of Animals is an international animal protection organization located in San Rafael, Calif. dedicated to protecting animals' rights, welfare, and habitat through education, outreach, and our hands-on rescue facilities in Mumbai, India, Cameroon, Africa, and rural Mississippi.

Contact:  Eric Kleiman, 717-939-3231

SOURCE In Defense of Animals