Hype and Hypocrisy on Animal Rights
FBR Chairman Michael
E. DeBakey wrote the following commentary condemning
the hypocrisy of celebrities who support animal rights as well as
research to cure life-threatening afflications such as AIDS and
breast cancer. The Wall Street Journal published Dr. DeBakey's
commentary on December 12, 1996.
This Saturday night at a Paramount Pictures backlot,
screen stars Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin will host a star-studded
awards gala for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Like
many events on behalf of this animal rights group, the Animals Ball
and Humanitarian Awards Gala will feature a large number of celebrities
to attract the attention of the media and the public. A press release
from Paramount indicated that the ceremony will have a "decidedly
sophisticated look" and described PETA as an organization with
"rapidly increasing growth and influence since its humble founding
in a Maryland basement."
It is particularly appropriate that this spectacle
is being hosted by a company that makes its living creating illusions
to captivate the public. Behind PETA's benign, animal -loving facade
lies a destructive and often-overlooked agenda that threatens all
Americans. Animal rights groups like PETA are categorically opposed
to any use of animals for any reason, including their use in research
to find new treatments and cures for deadly diseases such as breast
cancer, Alzheimer's disease and AIDS. PETA's co-founder has said
that even if animal research resulted in a cure for AIDS, "we'd
be against it" – an attitude that has outraged AIDS activists,
who rightfully accuse PETA of equating their lives with those of
laboratory rats.
As ACT-UP activist Jeff Getty pointed out on this
page some months ago, many people in the entertainment industry
fail to recognize the obvious contradiction of simultaneously supporting
the animal rights movement and the fight to cure AIDS, cancer, diabetes
and other life-threatening diseases. We can no longer accept without
question the hypocrisy of actors jumping on the animal rights bandwagon
while wearing the red ribbon of AIDS awareness.
The fact is that the devastation, delay and outright
intimidation that animal rights groups are imposing on the scientific
community are greater today than any time in the history of biomedical
research. As a result, research to prevent, treat and cure many
of mankind's greatest killers and cripplers is being slowed, halted
or prevented. Animal rights fanatics have vandalized laboratories,
destroyed vital equipment and data, harassed scientists (even at
their homes) and caused millions of dollars of destruction to taxpayer-funded
research.
Money raised at such high-profile galas is going
toward crafting legislation, filing lawsuits against research institutions
and lobbying state and federal legislators – all with the
sole objective of halting the use of animals in biomedical research.
I remember vividly how animal research was absolutely
essential to our victory over polio, our progress in treating diabetes,
and what we learned to enable lifesaving organ transplants. Any
damage inflicted today on absolutely vital medical research will
hinder for decades efforts to find cures for cancer, heart disease,
Alzheimer's, AIDS and other life-threatening diseases. Does the
research community work hard to limit its use of animals? Absolutely.
In fact, the number of animals (the vast majority of which are rats
and mice) has been more than halved since 1968. Nonanimal research
methods such as computer modeling are used increasingly. But the
use of animals remains indispensable in many key areas of biomedical
research.
I was recently called upon by medical colleagues
in Russia to consult with them about the health of President Boris
Yeltsin. His impending heart surgery, as the world now knows, proved
successful. Along with many colleagues throughout the U.S., I developed
the coronary bypass operation performed on Mr. Yeltsin, and I recall
how crucial animal research was in making it possible. It was challenging
work, and the techniques were perfected over many years. It is not
the kind of progress that lends itself to movie lot photo-ops. But
it saves lives. News Releases do not.
My message to people in Hollywood who plan to attend
the PETA-Paramount party is simple: Leave your AIDS ribbons at home.
The patients, activists and families, as well as your fans –
and the scientists working hard on a cure – deserve to know
precisely where you stand.
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