Dutch lobby group Animal Rights claim 12 rhesus monkeys will be subjected to the tests and most of them will be killed when the taxpayer-funded experiments are complete.
TIM STICKINGS: Animal rights activists are demanding an end to brain experiments on monkeys at a Belgian university where the primates have boreholes drilled into their skulls. Monkeys at KU Leuven have electrodes implanted in their brains and rods attached to their heads with cement, according to Dutch lobby group Animal Rights. Activists say 12 rhesus monkeys will be subjected to the tests and most of them will be killed when the taxpayer-funded experiments are complete…
‘In order to be able to measure their brain activity, all test monkeys are made “ready for use”. ‘Electrodes are implanted into the brain via boreholes in their skulls. Cement is used to attach a fixation rod or “hat” to the skull. ‘This rod serves to fix the head of the monkeys during later brain measurements. The animals have to go through heavy training programmes for months and are put on strict water diets to force them to cooperate with the researchers’…
Campaigner Jen Hochmuth condemned the use of monkeys as ‘useless and cruel experiments that only serve to satisfy the curiosity of scientists lacking compassion’. ‘The brain experiments on monkeys are not a necessary evil but plain evil,’ she added… ‘The brain experiments cause the monkeys a lot of suffering,’ the group said as it urged people to sign a petition calling for the monkeys to be freed…
Animal Rights said the researchers were benefiting from a €1.8million subsidy from Flemish taxpayers towards their controversial experiments. In addition to the 12 monkeys in this experiment, the university has dozens more of the animals locked up in its laboratories, the activists claim… The university says the use of animals is necessary – pointing to breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s research that have been achieved with monkey experiments. SOURCE…
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