By Tamar Nahari, Walla News Service (translated from
Hebrew)
A primate experiment conducted at the Hebrew University
laboratories in Jerusalem, which was documented undercover,
exposes some horrific pictures to view: In the course
of the experiment, electrodes are inserted into a
monkey's brain while he is fully conscious.
The footage was exposed today on Channel 2's national
television news program "Five with Oshrat Kotler."
The experiment exposed took place several months ago,
and its documentation with a hidden camera is considered
to be one of the only full documentations of similar
experiments around the world.
In the footage, the researchers are seen as they
are sawing the monkey's skull and inserting electrodes
into his brain, for the purpose of conducting an experiment
testing the memory activity in the brain. During this
surgery, the monkey is conscious and blinking his
eyes, while his head is locked into a restraining
device. After the surgery, the monkey was transferred
into a cramped cage where he has lived for several
months, in which he was being deprived of drinking
water. In order to drink, the monkey has to prove
his visual memory capabilities in various experiments
conducted in the months following the surgery.
The monkey seen in the footage is called "Malish".
Malish is a two year old long-tail macaque monkey
and was raised in the Mazor (BFC) primate breeding
farm in Israel, which exports monkeys for experiments.
During the experiment, one of the researches was recorded
talking about the experiment and saying that "we
did all kinds of nonsense, simply so we can do something",
while explaining that the experiment was actually
not documented properly because of a failure in the
laboratories' data base system.
Primate Sanctuary
Around four to eight monkeys are supposedly being
held at the present time in the Hebrew university's
laboratories. The monkeys, who have been through various
experiments, can be rehabilitated. A primate sanctuary
for retired "research" primates has been
established recently in Moshav Shdema, next to Gedera
[at the center of Israel], by the "Freedom to
Live" society. The sanctuary could rehabilitate
and care for these monkeys, but it is unlikely that
the university would agree to give them to the sanctuary.
According to an estimation given by the Israeli Society
for Abolition of Vivisection, around 150 non-human
primates are being held in Israeli
laboratories. About a third of them were raised in
primate breeding farms
such as the Mazor (BFC) farm in Israel, while the
rest were captured in
Africa, despite being protected wild animals.
The kinds of primate experiments, which Israeli laboratories
are involved with mainly include organ transplant
experiments and brain research. Brain research experiments,
like the one documented in the Jerusalem University's
laboratories, are usually conducted without the administration
of painkillers or sedatives in order not to interfere
with the research results.
Like Malish, during their stay in the laboratories,
the monkeys are held in isolation, inside cramped
cages which barely allows them any movement, and they
are fed with sterile food porridge.
The Israeli Society for Abolition of Vivisection
(ISAV), has been campaigning for the past several
years against the Mazor primate breeding farm and
against the legality and the approval of wide ranging
experiments that are conducted in various laboratories
around the country on animals such as non-human primates,
dogs, cats and other animals. In January this year
ISAV appealed to the Israeli high court in a demand
to decide on specific regulations regarding the conduct
of animal experiments.
According to ISAV, animal research in Israel is not
accountable to any kind of supervision and allows
for experiments and research procedures that are not
accepted in laboratories overseas. Recently, a petition
signed by several dozen Israeli medical doctors was
published, which expresses objection to most experiments
conducted in the country and calls for a significant
reduction of animal experiments as well as increased
supervision on the laboratories themselves.
Those objecting to placing limits on animal experimentation
claim that such a limit would cause a major hit to
science in Israel, which could result in economical
damage, suspension of the scientists' work and the
loss of research that has been conducted for a long
time. According to their claims, animal experiments
are the first stage in the development of drugs and
procedures that save lives every day.
An article published recently in the British newspaper
The Guardian reflects an increasing trend among
scientists that sheds a new light on the issue. According
to the article, there is no certainty at all regarding
the ability of experiments on animals to predict the
experiment's outcome on the human body.
The article details a series of different experiments
that were conducted on animals, which resulted in
the death of thousands of human beings, since various
drugs that were approved through animal experiments
were eventually discovered to be lethal to humans.
There is also a big question mark surrounding brain
research, like the experiment documented in this article,
because of the inability to make a comparison between
non-human primates and the human primates' brain.
