Nasa announced that it awarded animal experimenter Jack Bergman $1.75 million to subject 28 squirrel monkeys to harmful doses of radiation, in order to study the effects of space radiation on future astronauts. The monkeys will be irradiated at Brookhaven National Laboratory and then shipped to McLean Hospital at Harvard. Supposedly the tests will measure the devastating results of radiation; cancers, brain tumors, blindness, skin inflammation, and premature death, among others. These incredibly intelligent and social animals will be imprisoned in solitary confinement in steel cages and forced to endure years of behavioral tests to "measure" the incredible devastation wrought by radiation, before dying or being slaughtered.
According to new information obtained by PETA through the Freedom of Information Act, approval for the experiment was not obtained by the deadline set by NASA's own grant guidelines, and the decision to fund the project was not in compliance with the Code of Federal Regulations. In addition, the oversight committee has still not been provided with any information about the study's relevance to human health, its likely harm to animals and other fundamental details.
With the Census Bureau stating that 46.3 million Americans were without health insurance in 2008, and analysts stating that with the recession that number is over 50 million, the $1.75 million spent to torture and destroy 28 sentient beings could be used to save American lives. Ironically, in an analysis released on September 17, 2009, Harvard Medical School researchers found that 45,000 people die each year in the United States, largely from lack of insurance and access to good care - about one death every 12 minutes. Americans 64 and under who lack health insurance have a 40% greater chance of death.
"NASA awarded funding to an experiment whose scientific and ethical merits had not even been reviewed by the facilities where it would take place," says PETA Vice-President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. "NASA can chart the most intricate course to distant planets, but it seems to have gotten lost in space when it comes to following its own rules to ensure that animals aren't used in wasteful, harmful experiments."
Mars can wait - but Americans dying from lack of insurance and millions of animals tortured and killed in labs each year, including 28 squirrel monkeys, cannot. Go to PETA's Action Center to email on this issue.
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