From: russ@wpg.com (Russell Lawrence)
Subject: Re: How PETA interacts with the ALF
Organization: WP Group
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1992 00:36:14 GMT

In article <1992Dec21.225131.19827@zooid.guild.org> rwaigh@zooid.UUCP (Rosemary Waigh) writes:
rw>( from the Fall 1992 issue of _PETA_News_)
rw> In the true account above [from _Free_the_animals!_], 'Valerie' 
rw> and her partners copied the Gennarelli tapes, then dropped them 
rw> off on the dorrstep of PETA's offices.  The Animal Liberation 
rw> Front is aware of PETA's whistleblower program and uses it.  

From article <Bzr1Jo.Jt3@acsu.buffalo.edu>, by rms@acsu.buffalo.edu (Robert M. Straubinger):
rs> Ummmm ... what are 'the Gennarelli tapes' ?

From Singer, Peter.  _Animal Liberation_, 2nd ed.  Avon Books: NY, 1990,
pp 80-81:

=====================================================================
"In descriptions of experiments in this chapter up to now, I have 
limited myself to summarizing the reports written by the experimenters 
themselves and published in the scientific journals.  That evidence 
cannot be accused of being exaggerated.  But because of the total lack 
of any adequate inspection or scrutiny of what happens in experiments, 
the reality is often much worse than the published account.  This 
became clear in 1984 in the case of experiments conducted by Thomas 
Gennarelli at the University of Pennsylvania.  The aim of the 
experiments was to inflict head injuries on monkeys, and then examine 
the nature of the damage to the brain.  According to the official 
grant documents the monkeys were to be anesthetized before receiving 
the head injury.  Thus it would seem that the experiments involved no 
suffering.  But members of a group called the Animal Liberation Front 
had other information.  They had also learned that Gennarelli 
videotaped his experiments.  They broke into the laboratory and stole 
the tapes.  When they viewed them, they saw conscious, unanesthetized 
baboons struggling as they were being strapped down before the head 
injuries were inflicted.  They saw animals writhing, apparently coming 
out of anesthesia, as surgeons were operating on their exposed brains.  
They also heard the experimenters mocking and laughing at the 
frightened, suffering animals.  The videotapes were so damning that 
--- though it took more than a year of hard work by the 
Washington-based group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and 
hundreds of animal activists--- the secretary of health and human 
services stopped Gennarelli's funding." 
=====================================================================

From The Washington Post, July 19, 1985, "HHS Secretary Suspends 
Funding Of Pa. Brain-Trauma Experiments; Animal Rights Advocates End 
Sit-In at NIH Offices in Bethesda," by Mark Katches. Section A,
p. 10:

Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret M. Heckler ordered the 
National Institutes of Health yesterday to suspend funding for 
brain-trauma experiments on monkeys at a University of Pennsylvania 
head injury clinic, prompting more than 60 animal rights activists to 
claim "complete victory" and end their four-day sit-in at NIH offices 
in Bethesda.  

Heckler ordered a halt to research at the Pennsylvania Head Injury 
Laboratory until the "serious concerns" raised about procedures used 
at the laboratory are answered.  

Heckler took the action yesterday after receiving a preliminary report 
from NIH investigators reviewing work at the Pennsylvania clinic.  The 
report was scheduled for completion today, but was expedited because 
of the sit-in at the offices of the National Institute of Neurological 
and Communicative Diseases and Stroke, according to NIH spokesman 
Storm Whaley.  

In a prepared statement, Heckler said: "The use of animals must occur 
under protected and humane conditions, and only for scientifically 
necessary purposes .  .  .  .  I have been informed that serious 
concerns have been raised about procedures used by the University of 
Pennsylvania in the use of primates to study head injury .  .  .  .  

Until all questions about the use of primates in these head-injury 
experiments have been satisfactorily resolved, I have instructed NIH 
to suspend the use of federal funds for primate research on head 
injury at the University of Pennsylvania." 

NIH Director Dr. James Wyngaarden later issued a statement saying he 
had complied with Heckler's order.  He said the investigators' 
preliminary report "indicates material failure to comply with the 
Public Health Service policy for the care and use of laboratory 
animals." 

Wyngaarden said he will decide whether to end the project after the 
university responds to the report.  

University of Pennsylvania spokesman Virgil Renzulli said officials 
there had not yet received a copy of the report, but a statement by 
University President Sheldon Hackney and Provost Thomas Ehrlich said 
that "any fault in research will be corrected." 

About 65 demonstrators who remained in the eighth-floor NIH offices 
ended their protest yesterday afternoon after hearing of the 
statements by Heckler and Wyngaarden.  The sit-in began Monday morning 
and lasted more than 77 hours.  

The demonstrators, mostly members of People for the Ethical Treatment 
of Animals, held hands, sang and cried as they were reunited with 
friends, relatives and other animal-rights activists who held signs 
and applauded their exit through the front doors.  

"This is a complete victory," said Gary Francione, a lawyer for the 
group.  "It couldn't have worked out any better." 

But Frank Martin, president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the 
National Head Injury Association, which represents victims of brain 
damage, expressed anger at Heckler's decision, saying that families of 
the persons who have benefited from animal brain research were not 
consulted.  "She did this with total disregard for what our needs are," 
he said.  Martin said his 20-year-old son suffered brain damage four 
years ago.  Research in head injuries has helped him make a 
significant recovery.  

"If it comes to a choice that's going to help my son, I'll take what's 
going to help him and all the kids like him," Martin said.  

Dr. William Raub, director of off-campus research for the 
neurological institute, said he saw the report and supported the 
funding suspension because of the improper anesthesia and unsterile 
techniques allegedly used in the lab.  He said, however, that 
scientists at the university had been able to identify and drain 
fluids in the brain caused by head injuries, thus lessening brain 
damage 
=====================================================================

-- 
Russell Lawrence, WP Group, New Orleans (504) 443-5000
russ@wpg.com   uunet!wpg!russ
Newsgroups: talk.politics.animals