Animal Research

UC Irvine police arrested 10 animal rights activists who chained themselves to a door of the university's medical sciences complex Thursday to protest the use of animals in research. The protest was in conjunction with demonstrations against animal research nationwide, and about 160 people, including those at UC Irvine, were arrested on college campuses in the county. The California demonstrations resulted in 48 arrests at UCLA, 8 at USC, and 5 at UC San Diego.

Animal lab technician Raymond Clark III pleaded guilty Thursday to the 2009 slaying of Yale University student and bride-to-be Annie Le, averting what was expected to be a high-profile trial. Clark, whose father said he was burdened by a tortured heart, pleaded guilty to murder and criminal attempt to commit sexual assault. As part of a plea deal, Clark, 26, will be sentenced to 44 years in prison, a prosecutor said. Clark is tentatively scheduled to be sentenced May 20. Prosecutor David Strollo said Le's family was notified about plea negotiations throughout the process.

Animal research has helped scientists understand human disease, and in some cases, develop cures. But it has also exposed them to an onslaught of attacks -- some violent -- from animal rights activists who question the ethics and necessity of animal experiments. This week, the journal Nature takes a look at the complicated case of animal activism and its effects on scientific research, publishing the results of a poll of 980 biomedical scientists from around the world.

Animal research has helped scientists understand human disease, and in some cases, develop cures. But it has also exposed them to an onslaught of attacks -- some violent -- from animal rights activists who question the ethics and necessity of animal experiments. This week, the journal Nature takes a look at the complicated case of animal activism and its effects on scientific research, publishing the results of a poll of 980 biomedical scientists from around the world.

Throughout our lives my wife and I have enjoyed companionship of both dogs and cats who enriched our lives with their loyalty and devotion. For that reason, we will vote yes on Proposition C. Animals benefit from animal research. Vaccines developed from animal research now protect pets and domestic animals from diseases that were fatal not too long ago. Humans also are dependent on animal research. Medical procedures first tested on animals have saved the lives of uncounted humans.

People usually have good reasons for swallowing over-the-counter painkillers: They're hurting. But though the drugs often help, new research suggests that they sometimes do the opposite of what their users intended. That's especially true for serious athletes, for whom pain ? and painkillers ? are regular companions. In recent years, scientists have been studying runners competing in the Western States Endurance Run, a 100-mile race through California's Sierra Nevada mountains that involves more than 18,000 total feet of uphill climbing, more than 21,000 feet of downhill running and an average of 26 hours to complete.

When UCLA neuroscientist J. David Jentsch was a grad student, he never expected his life as an academic would require around-the-clock armed guards, or a closed-circuit TV inside his bedroom so he could keep constant watch over his home. But the high-powered security proved necessary again this month when the researcher, who experiments on monkeys, opened a letter left in his mailbox to discover razor blades and a death threat. "We follow you on campus," Jentsch recalled the note reading.

For eight weeks, M56 moved relentlessly, guided by a primordial compass. He covered more than 100 miles and climbed from sea level to a mile high. He traversed saw-toothed mountains, navigated busy highways and furtively skirted suburban neighborhoods. The 20-month-old mountain lion, wearing a tracking collar affixed by UC Davis researchers, left his mother in the foothills of Orange County in early March and struck out on his own. He traveled south through Camp Pendleton, then turned east toward the high country of eastern San Diego County, which opens on the horizon like a centerfold in a coffee table book.

Concerns about the chemical bisphenol A and its potential health risks have led many consumers to be more careful about the containers they use to carry drinking water and feed their babies. The market has responded with water bottles labeled "BPA-free. " And then, in late July, the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization, reported that high amounts of BPA are present in everyday cash register receipts, as much as 3% of the total weight of the receipt. Certainly, there would be real concerns if the bisphenol A on receipts readily sloughs off onto the fingers of cashiers and buyers, penetrates several layers of skin and enters the bloodstream at potentially toxic levels, says Kristina Thayer, a scientist at the National Toxicology Program, an interagency group charged with evaluating toxic chemicals.

Watch out, little white lab mouse. Barnyard animals are gunning for your job. A bullish group of agricultural scientists says that farm animals have been vastly underrated as a resource for improving human health -- and they're vying for some of the billions of dollars the government invests in biomedical research. The human-sized hearts and blood vessels of pigs are well-suited for the study of cardiovascular disease, they say.

Led by a professor whose car was set on fire last month in an anonymous attack, more than 400 UCLA scientists and their supporters rallied on campus Wednesday to defend research using animals and to protest the violent tactics of some opponents. At almost the same time, about 40 critics of animal research demonstrated just across Westwood Boulevard from the pro-research gathering, and the two groups briefly traded slogans before marching to different UCLA plazas.

Nobody knows Bo like geneticists know Bo. The Obamas may have accepted Bo the Portuguese water dog as First Puppy because of the breed's hypoallergenic coat, but the dogs are also the most genetically studied breed in the world. Thanks to their remarkable history, the dogs have been the source of key insights into the function of certain canine genes, including determining a dog's size and whether it is susceptible to a devastating disease.

Four animal activists have been arrested for their alleged roles in attacking and harassing animal researchers at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz over the last 18 months, the FBI announced Friday. The arrests are a breakthrough in the investigation of attacks against a number of University of California animal researchers that have long frustrated police and school officials.