The proposed $1.75 million study would expose the animals to a “large, harmful dose of radiation,” according to the PETA website, after which they would be “locked in steel cages without any companionship,” and “forced to endure years of behavioral tests to measure the inevitable devastation that the radiation causes to their brains and bodies.”
The effects “would likely include brain damage, skin inflammation, blindness, various types of cancer, including brain tumors, and premature death,” PETA argues, adding that “because of drastic biological differences between species, radiation experiments on monkeys won't tell scientists anything about how astronauts will react to deep space.”
Alternatives to primate research include in vitro and clinical methods currently employed by the European Space Agency, which recently condemned the use of monkeys for space experiments, PETA points out.
According to Brookhaven's website, its facility "is a multi-program national laboratory operated by Brookhaven Science Associates for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Six Nobel Prizes have been awarded for discoveries made at the Lab.”
The lab’s stated mission “is to produce excellent science and advanced technology with the cooperation, support, and appropriate involvement of our scientific and local communities.”
To voice your opinion on the proposed experiments:
secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy
In Defense of Animals (IDA) petition:
https://secure2.convio.net/ida/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1371
Brookhaven National Lab
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000
Tel. (631) 344-8000
Listen to Silverstone's phone message here.
Full transcript of Silverstone’s message:
“Hi, this is Alicia Silverstone. I'm sure that you were as disturbed as I was to learn that Brookhaven is considering blasting monkeys with radiation in a really cruel project funded by NASA. These bright but scared to death animals will be locked up for life and may suffer from brain damage, cancer, and blindness before dying in their barren steel cages.
“Brookhaven's reputation as a cutting-edge scientific organization is ruined if this cruel study happens. NASA's European counterpart—the European Space Agency—has publicly condemned such experiments on monkeys.
“So please, please join me. Urge Brookhaven to reject this inhumane and wasteful project.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Bye.”
Katerina Lorenzatos Makris is the author of 17 novels for
publishers including Avon, E.P. Dutton, and Simon & Schuster, and
hundreds of articles for publications such as National Geographic
Traveler, San Francisco Chronicle, and Veggie Life. She wrote a
teleplay for CBS and short fiction for The Bark magazine. With coauthor
Shelley Frost, she wrote Your
Adopted Dog
(The Lyons Press). Holding a B.A. in Environmental Science Studies and
a lifelong interest in animal issues, she spends a lot of her time
battling a severe addiction to dogs.
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