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People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ Mary Beth Sweetland was up in arms over animal experiments that researchers at the University of California-San Francisco plan to carry out on squirrel monkeys.
According to UCSF vice chancellor for research Zach Hall, researchers Marshal Fong and Stephen Chenung plan to anesthetize the animals and then expose them to a range of very high frequency noise. "The animals, when they wake up, will have a hearing disability, one that’s similar to one that millions of Americans have [inability to hear high-frequency sounds]," Hall said.
Sweetland wants the experiments stopped, but Hall said the experiments have already been approved by the university’s committee on animal research and will have practical benefits.
"The research seeks to understand the changes that occur in the brain as the result of sensory deprivation - in this case, hearing loss - with the hope that we can use what we learn to relieve the hearing loss caused by loud noise," Hall said.
As Fong summed it up, "These people [PETA] are distorting the truth here."
Source:
"Activists want UC monkeys spared," Scripps Howard, May 21, 1998.