Madeleine Pickens Withdraws Vet School Donation, Cites Barbaric Live Animal Use As Reason
Wild horse benefactor Madeleine Pickens used her blog today to announce that she is withdrawing a $5 Million donation from the Oklahoma State University Center for Veterinary Health Sciences. Pickens became incensed when she learned that the university, which happens to be her husband's alma mater, uses live animals, especially dogs, for surgical and medical procedural education purposes.
Pickens was allegedly tipped off by a student; the allegations include that OSU purchases animals from so-called Class B breeders. She called the practice of using live animals for practice "barbaric" and that she would move her donation elsewhere.
The School of Geology at Oklahoma State is named for her husband, oil man and energy magnate Boone T. Pickens.
Ms. Pickens' announcement has nothing to do directly with horses, to be sure, although horses might have benefited at Oklahoma State, but it may be a foreshadowing of things to come as Ms. Pickens works toward her ultra-ambitious wild horse sanctuary program. Institutions, companies, and individuals who hope to help Ms. Pickens spend her horse money will surely need to be in alignment with her principles.
Just for the record: Veterinary colleges have different policies about using live animals in educational exercises and all must comply with the Animal Welfare Act.
(Image credit: Madelieine Pickens and Oklahoma State's The Daily O’Collegian)
posted by Fran Jurga @ 2/24/2009
6 comments
6 Comments:
I'd be surprised to find a vet school that didn't - I'm not really sure how breakthrough research would happen nor how new vets would be trained without using live animals.
Live animals are not fodder for whatever worth while pourpose someone deems necessary. There are ways to learn or experiment simply by using cells. Human cells work best for humans anyway. Dose response testing is used on cells with great acurate results.
All life is precious at what level should someone be allowed to set the bar? I say zero is a good height. www.horsesavers.us
Horsedrag, there is no other way to teach the necessary hands-on veternary surgical techniques without using live animals.
Which, in turn reveals techniques to save animal (and other) lives.
Get over it.
horsedrag - while I agree in principle - without animal research we would not have nearly every surgical technique/practice or pharmaceutical. Next time someone you love (OR YOU) need medical treatment - I suggest you tell the doctor your stance. NOT all treatments can be accurately tested on cells alone. Are YOU willing to try a drug that hasn't had extensive testing? What about a lifesaving drug? Like say, insulin if you were diabetic (tested and regulated on animals). Or say needed open heart surgery - also tested on animals. I am sick of people saying NO WAY and then benefiting from everything biomedical research has taught us. I assume that we can sign you up as a guinea pig for some of these trials? Or would you rather die? FYI-the overwhelming majority of species used in research are rats and mice. Funny I never hear anyone clamoring to help them in any other situations!
I APPLAUD MRS. PICKEN'S DECISION TO PULL HER FUNDS FROM OSU. THIS I THINK IS A MORAL CHOICE. IN THIS DAY & AGE NO ANIMAL DESERVE'S TO BE TREATED INHUMANELY. WE AS HUMAN'S ARE BETTER THAN THAT. THERE SHOULD BE OTHER WAYS TO EXPERIMENT WITH OUT CREATING PAIN & SUFFERING. MAYBE IT'S TIME OSU CHANGES THEIR WAYS.
There is a way to ethically use animals for *some* educational purposes - rescue an animals from euthanasia at a local shelter, house the animal in good conditions and use it to teach general health check procedures, such as belly palpation, temperature checks, etc. (nothing invasive or painful), all done under the watchful eye of a vet. After a certain time period, adopt the animal out to a loving home in the community.
In terms of surgical procedures, why can't you practice on cadavers? Then you can do an internship and residency at a vet clinic. In medical school, you are not given a live human to practice surgical techniques on (until internship or residency) - what is the difference?
Yes, this means that medical practice will advance VERY SLOWLY. But ethically, it's really the only way to go.
And to Anonymous (#1) - this all or nothing argument doesn't make sense. You're basically implying that anything you believe in at all, you have to live to the extreme. I think that would be ideal, but it isn't always practical.
Think about it this way - do you believe it's right that children are working is sweat shops in Mexico and China? No? Then by your argument, you should sell everything you own, move to one of those countries, and volunteer with a not for profit doing hands on work to alleviate the problem.
At the very least, your argument directly implies you should be EXTREMELY CAREFUL about how you benefit from this process. You would have to go through everything you buy, find out where each specific part of the production process is done (manufacturing, research, dye jobs, creation of plastics, etc). If any ONE of those processes was done less than ethically, you'd have to stop buying that product, and anything made with the unethical process or item.
That is the argument you used on horsedrag, but it doesn't sound so sane when put into another context, right? Just like the idea that live animals are required for educational purposes; when taken into the realm of med school, it doesn't sound so reasonable anymore.
Instead, people minimize their interaction with or use of the unethical process, and should do more than just talk about how the process is bad (ie. actively work for social change through a variety of venues).
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