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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is considering repealing a rule that exempts captive members of 11 threatened primate species from protection under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). If the agency approves a repeal, the captive animals would be designated as threatened, like their wild counterparts, and researchers would need to apply for permits for experiments. To be approved, studies would have to be aimed at species survival and recovery.
[...] Writing to PETA on 1 March, FWS promised to "consider your petition request promptly," and assess whether ESA protection is warranted for each species. There is precedent indicating that the agency might agree with PETA. In 2015, it designated captive chimpanzees as endangered, like their wild counterparts. In doing so, it wrote that its reading of the ESA indicated that "Congress did not intend for captive specimens of wildlife to be subject to separate legal status on the basis of their captive state."
PETA's Goodman says a listing change would allow animal rights activists to better track—and challenge—research involving captive Japanese macaques. When a researcher applies for a permit to conduct an experiment on a species listed under ESA, the application is published in the Federal Register and open to public comment. That means, says Goodman, "We have the opportunity to stop experiments before they happen. And we have more information as to what the animals are actually being used for, how invasive the experiments are."
The Japanese macaques, also known as snow monkeys, have been housed at the Oregon center, part of Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), since 1965. The troop has provided animal models for multiple sclerosis and for an inherited form of age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of human blindness. Ongoing work studies the effects on offspring when pregnant dams are fed a high-fat diet. Several years ago, some males were castrated and received hormone replacement to study the effect of androgens on neurons thought to motivate aggressive behavior. Females with their ovaries removed have been used to study the effects of hormone replacement therapy on stress and anxiety, with potential applications to mood and stress in menopausal women.
[...] FWS designated the wild Japanese macaque as threatened in 1976, because the Japanese forests needed for its survival had been heavily logged.
Note: PETA = People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Wikipedia page)
Related:
Ebola Vaccine for Great Apes Hindered by Chimpanzee Research Restrictions
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Friday March 10 2017, @08:59PM (1 child)
There are better alternatives.. Do some research. Here is a start [sciencedirect.com] :
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 10 2017, @09:14PM
Lets test your alternatives against the first example in TFS: multiple sclerosis.
There is no in vitro model for multiple sclerosis and it would be impossible to generate one.
There is no cell culture model for multiple sclerosis and it would be impossible to generate one with current technology.
Computational models can't model a multiple sclerosis because we do not understand the disease, the immune system, the blood brain barrier, the brain, cell biology, and molecular biology enough.
Bacteria, yeast, C. elegans, D. melanogaster, and D. rerio cannot get multiple sclerosis. The organisms mentioned, that actually have an immune system, are so divergent that there would be no translation of the findings.