This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
The recent changes have turned this article, that used to be reasonably neutral, into a very one sided presentation. This contradicts WP:NPOV and WP:V. For example, if an editor thinks that view point A is the "dominant" one, and B is the "minority", then he must provide a reliable source saying so. Crum375 ( talk) 15:54, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
Also, the vast majority of "rights" arguments were not deleted - only a very few very minor arguments that are held and argued by very small minorities. The major animal rights arguments are still included, although it is now noted which ethical position is occupied by the majority. -- Animalresearcher ( talk) 21:54, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
The mass revert by Crum375 is an example of the "overreliance on reverting as an editing tool, rather than collaboration" that brought this article to mediation. Six days of good-faith edits [which I'm not saying are beyond criticism] by three long-standing editors of this article have been dismissed without prior discussion or agreement. In contrast, Tim's removal of the ALF "source" was based on discussion at Reliable_sources/Noticeboard where the argument for its inclusion was not only lost, but also made moot by the addition of an AP news item as a source. The link is now redundant and its restoration about as welcome as online pharmacy spam in an article on erectile dysfunction. Colin° Talk 21:37, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
No Crumb375, this is an unreliable source produced by an extremist organisation. It has no place whatsoever in this article. Tim Vickers ( talk) 22:02, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
Crum375, I have never seen anyone so totally misunderstand sourcing. Is the Catholic church a reliable source for "Is the Pope Catholic?" Is the Catholic church a reliable source for "Did the Catholic church conspire with Nazis?" WAS 4.250 ( talk) 11:45, 18 February 2008 (UTC)
Firstly, this discussion is moot because we have a reliable source for the text in the article. To press for its inclusion when it is neither needed nor wanted is just wasting everyone's time. Secondly, I am amazed at the question "Is [a publisher] a reliable source".
Colin° Talk 13:41, 18 February 2008 (UTC)
(od) I fully agree that "crap" shouldn't be included. But one editor's crap is another's gold, and that's why we have the content policies that try to be more specific. In this case, PETA is the world's largest animal rights organization, with nearly 2 million members, founded 28 years ago. They have multiple fact checkers and legal counsel, to ensure their published data is accurate. I have asked you above for a single reliable source showing they have ever been successfully sued for libel, or that they have a history of losing libel suits. I am still waiting. Crum375 ( talk) 19:54, 18 February 2008 (UTC)
(od)I think we are in agreement, that if we mention the Riverside ALF break-in, and the removal of Britches, we can use the sources that refer to the video. The Best book includes references to the ALF video, and the university sources also refer to it, claiming it was doctored. So as part of the Riverside ALF incident in the Animal Testing article, we need to present the video as published on PETA's website, as well as the reliably sourced criticisms. Crum375 ( talk) 21:57, 18 February 2008 (UTC)
books, can you substantiate that with a reliable source saying it? Crum375 ( talk) 00:07, 19 February 2008 (UTC)
(od) AR, in Wikipedia we follow reliable sources, not our personal likes and dislikes. I asked you a simple question: can you substantiate your claim that the Lantern Books publisher does not fact check its published books? I have read your above response, and can't find the answer there. Unless you can prove that Lantern is unreliable, it is a good source, and hence we follow it. And if Lantern tells us that the Britches video, taken by ALF and presented by PETA, was part of the Riverside incident, then we present that on Wikipedia. This is what WP:V is all about. Crum375 ( talk) 00:34, 19 February 2008 (UTC)
Crum375, will you stop repeating this nonsense that "a reliable source is the publisher". I wont repeat what I said above, which gives examples of why this is ridiculous. If you wish to change WP policy such that we only examine the publisher in order to determine whether a source is reliable, please post your request to the relevant policy page. The issues surrounding Lantern books were handled very nicely at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard#Lantern books references. Colin° Talk 07:38, 19 February 2008 (UTC)
I dunno, I stop editing for a while hoping that all the POV pushing of the past would die down and we would have sensible people not trying to push their agendas by warping policies. But it seems that it is exactly the same as it was before. *Sigh*
Anyway, on the issue of whether organisations such as BUAV, PETA and the publisher 'Lantern Books' are reliable sources, it is quite simply acceptable that all 3 are. BUAV is used regularly by national media in the UK, along with a good number of national store chains in the UK (The Co-op being one of them). PETA, as has been said, is a large organisation with a long history. They do not have a history of getting facts wrong and as such this means they have a history of good fact checking practices. (And no evidence has been presented here to counter that). Lantern books is a 10 year old company which publishes hundreds of books in areas related to spirituality, the environment, rights issues, etc... If they didn't fact check their books, they as a publishing house would face significant legal problems when things were presented incorrectly. So, again, they are a reliable source.
Stating that simply because they organisations' interests lie within the subject area (ie. PETA is an animal rights organisation etc...) they are unreliable is nonsense. If this were the case then any research by a scientist in the field of neurology would be unreliable as that person has interests in their field!!
So, put simply, just because they aren't a national media organisation, scientific organisation or a government department doesn't mean they are unreliable.
The video hosted by PETA on their PetaTV site is as good a source as any simply because they are the publisher. Many programmes on tv are created by third party companies, but the source would be said to be the channel that aired it - as they are the publisher. This situation is just the same.- Localzuk (talk) 23:05, 29 February 2008 (UTC)
(od) AR, this is Wikipedia. We don't judge reliable sources by what you like or don't like. We use objective criteria, spelled out in WP:V. PETA, a 28 year old publisher, the largest animal rights organization in the world, with almost 2 million members, including many celebrities, is considered a reliable source pending objective proof showing otherwise. The only objective proof in this case would be a history of lost legal suits over the publication of false information. I am still waiting for you to give us one such example. Note that "reliable" for us does not mean gospel truth, only that we may refer to it as a source. Crum375 ( talk) 01:02, 2 March 2008 (UTC)
(OD)The source is not OPRR. They were the first party investigating U Penn that issued findings about PETA. The source has author, publisher, and content. The authors are three academic faculty PhD bioethicists. The content is an article on "Roots of Concern with Nonhuman Animals in Biomedical Ethics", and they are analyzing the contribution of incidents like the U Penn incident on the evolving ideas of ethics in animal testing. The publisher in the US National Academy of Sciences (it is ILAR journal). In other words, we have a highest reliability third party source stating that PETA is unreliable. Furthermore, there is no third party reliable source to provide any alternative explanation for the OPRR findings in the edited video tape. As I also pointed out, the degree to which reliability can be assessed in this case is extraordinary, because it is a very rare situation in which a legal investigatory body has both the source of a report, and the report itself, and opportunity to compare them. This does represent wiki-lawyering, because the evidence, and common sense, dictate that anything that is found in a PETA video about a 1980s ALF raid should not be considered to have been subject to much fact checking, and its accuracy can be expected to be intentionally misleading. That is against the spirit AND text of WP:V and WP:RS. I suspect that this situation is rare enough that the normal protocols are Wikipedia are not sufficiently strong to ensure adherence to policy, especially when multiple Wikipedia admins seem adamant about including unreliable sources. Wikipedia seems more tolerant of including both the unreliable source and the evidence that it is unreliable than not including it at all. -- Animalresearcher ( talk) 12:12, 2 March 2008 (UTC)
Here is the relevant text from the Britches page which includes one reliable third party source on the unreliability of PETA.-- Animalresearcher ( talk) 23:58, 1 March 2008 (UTC)
A similar film was released after the ALF raid on the University of Pennsylvania one year earlier. The Office for Protection from Research Risks ran an investigation on the incident, due to concern about animal treatment in the labs. The investigation included comparing the video footage taken in the U Penn raid with the Unnecessary Fuss video produced by PETA and containing Ingrid Newkirk's voiceover. The PETA video "presented the case history of only one of approximately 150 animals that had received whiplash. By clever editing and inaccurate voice over, the viewer was led to believe that the inhumane treatment depicted on the film was repeated numerous times. In actual fact, one baboon was badly treated, and the film repeatedly showed the particular mistreatment while the commentator narrated that the mistreatment was repeated on a long series of different animals. In all, OPRR identified approximately 25 errors in the voice over description of what was taking place." [1]
260 TEST ANIMALS 'LIBERATED' FROM LAB Chicago Tribune (pre-1997 Fulltext) - Chicago, Ill. Author: Chicago Tribune wires Date: Apr 21, 1985 The Animal Liberation Front claimed the "rescue" Saturday of 260 laboratory animals from a University of California research center. "Early this morning, (16 members of) the Animal Liberation Front rescued 260 animals" from laboratories at the university's Riverside campus, Vicky Miller of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said. She said the university "has been using animals in experiments on sight deprivation and isolation for the last two years and has recently received a grant, paid for with our tax dollars, to continue torturing and killing animals." Campus spokesman Jack Chappell replied, "The claims of animal mistreatment are absolutely false. There will be long-term damage to some of the research projects," including those aimed at developing devices and treatments for blind people.
RAID ON ANIMAL LAB 'SETS BACK' RESEARCH [SPORTS FINAL, C Edition] Chicago Tribune (pre-1997 Fulltext) - Chicago, Ill. Author: Chicago Tribune wires Date: Apr 22, 1985 Years of medical research were lost when a group opposed to animal experimentation raided a university laboratory, smashing equipment and taking about 260 animals, officials said Sunday. The raid, on Saturday, for which the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility, resulted in "several hundreds of thousands of dollars" damage, said Theodore Hullar, executive vice chancellor of the University of California's Riverside campus. "Research has been set back years," he said. Edward Carroll, an associate professor of biology, said the loss of about a dozen rabbits seriously undermined his research on fertility.
CRACKDOWN URGED IN ANIMAL THEFTS Chicago Tribune (pre-1997 Fulltext) - Chicago, Ill. Author: Chicago Tribune wires Date: Apr 26, 1985 Thefts of laboratory animals by animal rights groups could be considered acts of terrorism and may require enactment of federal laws against such raids, says the director of the National Institutes of Health. "There are limits to civil disobedience we can tolerate as an expression of dissent," Dr. James Wyngaarden said Wednesday. He referred to a weekend raid by a group calling itself the Animal Liberation Front on the University of California's Riverside campus in which 467 animals were taken.
Please see Talk:Britches_(monkey)#Proposal_to_move. -- Animalresearcher ( talk) 03:41, 19 February 2008 (UTC)
I was considering replacing one of the older examples in this section with a brief outline of Dolly the sheep, probably the most notable example of a recent animal experiment, and one that raised several controversial ethical issues. It will also be useful that this experiment has been covered in many reliable sources, since it is much better-known than most of the other examples here. Tim Vickers ( talk) 20:34, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
That was just some vandalism, reverted. Another one to consider is the discovery of embryonic stem cells in mice in the 1980s, this is also a highly controversial and relevant result from animal testing and the basis of the current animal research into stem cell treatments. Tim Vickers ( talk) 20:59, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
An opinion piece in the New Scientist may be of interest to editors here.
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help)In it, he investigates the claim "virtually every medical achievement of the last century has depended directly or indirectly [on research involving animals]", which is noted in the lead of this article. I suspect his views aren't notable enough for his opinion to be worth citing, but you guys might be interested in his argument, particularly the need to provide evidence for ones claims: an issue we all struggle with. Apparently his investigation results are due to be published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. Colin° Talk 18:25, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
From what I've read Rollins seems to have extended Tom Regan's argument further then Regan originally contended, but I'm very conscious that philosophy isn't my subject. Could somebody check this is an accurate assessment of the two arguments? Tim Vickers ( talk) 18:11, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
Hi everybody, thanks very much for all your work over the last few months. I think this article is now reasonably neutral, stable and well-referenced enough to be nominated as a Good Article. Are there any outstanding issues people think we should deal with before I put it forwards? Tim Vickers ( talk) 17:28, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
I think the article does look good. One problem I see is that the "History" section still seems to give more of a history of the animal testing controversy instead of the actual history of animal testing itself. Otherwise, the article looks good. Cla68 ( talk) 23:47, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
This article's Good Article promotion has been put on hold. During review, some issues were discovered that can be resolved without a major re-write. This is how the article, as of March 16, 2008, compares against the six good article criteria:
Overall, I'm very impressed at the stability and quality of this controversial article. You should be proud!
Please address these matters soon and then leave a note here showing how they have been resolved. After 48 hours the article should be reviewed again. If these issues are not addressed within 7 days, the article may be failed without further notice. Thank you for your work so far. Van Tucky 00:03, 16 March 2008 (UTC)
For readability, please place any comments or questions pertaining to the hold below rather than within the body of the review. Thank you!
The history section states that treatments for leprosy were developed in armadillos in the seventies and then used in humans. In fact, treatment for leprosy is antibiotics (dapsone, first used in 1941). A vaccine for leprosy was in fact developed in armadillos and seemed to hold great promise - but was shown in 1992 to be ineffectual (you will note that the citation in the history section is from 1981). See "Armadillo leprosy and a failed vaccine" by H.P. Burchfield, the scientist who (controversially, as Eleanor Storrs also claims the honor) first recognized leprosy in armadillos, in World journal of microbiology & biotechnology ISSN 0959-3993 1999, vol. 15, no6, pp. 653-667 (2 p.1/4). Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dulcimerchristy ( talk • contribs) 20:39, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
See : Scollard DM, Adams LB, Gillis TP, Krahenbuhl JL, Truman RW, Williams DL (2006).
"The continuing challenges of leprosy". Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 19 (2): 338–81.
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M. leprae has never been grown on artificial media but can be maintained in axenic cultures in what appears to be a stable metabolic state for a few weeks (414). As a result, propagation of M. leprae has been restricted to animal models, including the armadillo (415) and normal, athymic, and gene knockout mice (222). These systems have provided the basic resources for genetic, metabolic, and antigenic studies of the bacillus. Growth of M. leprae in mouse footpads also provides a tool for assessing the viability of a preparation of bacteria and testing the drug susceptibility of clinical isolates (364, 414)
i.e. you need to cultivate the organism so you can find which antibiotics are effective. This review also discusses how effective the various forms of the BCG vaccine are against leprosy, and the state of vaccine research. I'll add this reference to the article. Tim Vickers ( talk) 20:47, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
In the current entry about the primate research that was performed at UCLA, the experiments are described this way: "each monkey was paralyzed, then used for a single session that lasted up to 120 hours, and finally killed". This description makes one wonder whether the monkeys might have been in pain or distress during those 120 hours. It misses a key fact: the monkeys were deeply anesthetized (with sufentanyl, an extremely potent opioid) throughout the duration of the experiment. My suggestion is to drop the words quoted above, or if it is deemed best to keep them, at least to add the fact that the animals were deeply anesthetized.
All experiments were approved by the UCLA Animal Research Committee and were carried out following National Institutes of Health's Guidelines for the Care and Use of Mammals in Neuroscience. Acute experiments were performed on anesthetized and paralyzed adult Old-World monkeys (Macaca fascicularis). Initially, the animal was sedated with acepromazine (30–60 µg/kg), anesthetized with ketamine (5–20 mg/kg, im) in the cage, and transported to the surgical suite. Initial surgery and preparation were performed under isofluorane (1.5–2.5%). Two intravenous lines were put in place. A urethral catheter was inserted to collect and monitor urine output, and an endotracheal tube was inserted to allow for artificial respiration. All surgical cut-down sites were infused with local anesthetic (xylocaine 2%, sc). Pupils were dilated with ophthalmic atropine, and custom-made gas permeable contact lenses were fitted to protect the corneas. After this initial surgery, the animal was transferred to a stereotaxic frame. At this point, anesthesia was switched to a combination of sufentanil (2–6 µg/kg/h) and midazolam, or sufentanil (0.15 µg/kg/h) and propofol (2–6 mg/kg/h). We proceeded to perform a craniotomy over primary visual cortex. The animal was paralyzed (pavulon, 0.1 mg/kg/h) only after all surgical procedures, including the insertion of the electrode arrays, were complete.
To ensure a proper level of anesthesia throughout the duration of the experiment, rectal temperature, heart rate, noninvasive blood pressure, end-tidal CO2, SpO2, and EEG were continually monitored by an HP Virida 24C neonatal monitor. Urine output and specific gravity were measured every 4–5 h to ensure adequate hydration. Drugs were administered in balanced physiological solution at a rate to maintain a fluid volume of 5–10 ml/kg/h. Rectal temperature was maintained by a self-regulating heating pad at 37.5°C. Expired CO2 was maintained between 4.5 and 5.5% by adjusting the stroke volume and ventilation rate. The maximal pressure developed during the respiration cycle was monitored to ensure that there was no incremental blocking of the airway. A broad spectrum antibiotic (bicillin, 50,000 IU/kg) and anti-inflammatory steroid (dexamethasone, 0.5 mg/kg) were given at the beginning of the experiment and every other day.
-- Animalresearcher ( talk) 20:19, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
Would it be correct to say:
The researcher had received a grant to use 30 macaque monkeys for vision experiments; each monkey was anesthetized, paralyzed, used for a single session that lasted up to 120 hours, and then euthanized. [2]
Thank you for updating the entry. It is much more informative this way. I am not completely in agreement with the word "analgesia" though. It is true that at low doses opioids are analgesics rather than anesthetics, but at those high doses most people would call them anesthetics. More importantly, the Methods section shown above by Animalresearcher indicates that in addition to sufentanil an anesthetic was given: either midazolam or propofol. So I would definitely say that the animals were under anesthesia, not just analgesia. [User:ProtectedModeOn]
U Jain, S C Body, W Bellows, R Wolman, C M Mangano, J Mathew, E Youngs, R Wilson, A Zhang, D T Mangano -- Animalresearcher ( talk) 16:45, 21 April 2008 (UTC)
Hola,
I've been hunting around a lot of animal testing/rights articles on wikipedia, google, and pubmed (school research)... and quite a few of these articles seem to advocate the minority position. One that jumped out at me was the recent edit I made to this article, in the introduction, where originally the BUAV is said to question the scientific benefits of animal testing. The reference cites the BUAV website, and their website only goes so far as to equate animal testing with the continued presence of adverse reactions in humans. The attempted link is clearly an attempt at equating correlation with causation, which obviously isn't acceptable.
Further, there are no reputable, peer-reviewed sources (that i've found, please correct me if i'm wrong) which state that there are few or no benefits to animal testing/research. In my view, taking the BUAV's "word" on this is not credible, as science should only be refuted by science. This seems similar to the debate over creationism and Intelligent Design--proponents of ID choose to ignore the majority scientific consensus and twist (or outright ignore) the science to fit their pre-existing viewpoint.
In this case, I don't believe the BUAV's views deserve as much credibility as they are given in this article. I left their philosophical objections intact, however, as that is certainly open to debate.
-
Monolith2 (
talk) 08:11, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
I planned on going through the entire article at some point later this week; that one edit I made just seemed glaringly out of place so I edited it first.
I certainly understand the need to represent minority viewpoints, but much of this article seems to portray animal research/testing as going against the very principles of the people who practice it - i.e. the scientific community - which isn't true. This goes beyond simply representing a minority view.
I'm certainly open to a section on the ethical and moral concerns of animal testing, as that's all personal opinion. But it doesn't seem proper to state - in the introduction, no less - that a reputable counterpoint to published medical literature considers animal research "bad science." Indeed, the very source that sentence cited was to an FAQ on the BUAV website which didn't even declare animal testing bad science, but just attempted to present adverse drug reactions as something that animal testing hasn't prevented. The only peer-reviewed sources the FAQ lists for this section are studies which have nothing to do with the relation between animal research and safe drugs. The FAQ is full of weasel words and other nonsense that would not be tolerated on Wikipedia itself, so I don't see how it's a serious source or counterpoint to scientific consensus on the matter.
Minority opinions are certainly welcome to representation in this article, but how extreme should that be taken...? Should the article on evolution contain a section of bible quotes as a serious counterpoint to that theory?
- Monolith2 ( talk) 09:38, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
Yeah... as I said, I plan on going through the whole article and trying to even things out a bit. Perhaps we could even create a separate page dealing with the ethics of animal testing and leave this page for the nitty-gritty undisputed facts of why animals are used, what types of animals are used, how these models are effective or ineffective, how successful or unsuccessful theyve been in research, the conditions the animals are held in, etc?
You're welcome to revert that edit I made until I get a chance to sit down and go over the whole thing. When I get around to editing what I think improves the article, should I just post the whole thing up on my talk page or something for us to discuss? Or is there some better way of going about it?
It might take me a couple weeks to get sorted, though. Next week is class finals, so i'm a lil bit busy. I shouldn't even be dallying around on WP right now, actually... i've got a paper due tomorrow morning. lol
- Monolith2 ( talk) 12:18, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
The introduction needs to describe what these groups' believe, this isn't an endorsement of these views, but a description of what these views are. However, I've reworded this sentence a little to make it clear that it is describing the views of a broad range of groups, not just the BUAV. Tim Vickers ( talk) 19:35, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
This piece should be changed to "Animal Research", with animal testing linking to it. The reason is that "testing" has strong connotations of safety testing, which is only a part (approx 1/3) of animal research. To, say, study the physiological properties of an animal's heart is much better explained by the word "research" than by the word "testing". 69.143.106.43 ( talk) 21:41, 18 May 2008 (UTC)London Prophet
Having the image of Enos next to the first introductory paragraph is about as neutral and representative as showing a picture of Stalin near the beginning of the atheism article would be. -- Jane Rightall ( talk) 23:38, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
This article doesn't say much about the reliability of animal testing. It only has two mentions of its accuracy one of which is about how pain could affect the results. I think it deserves a section of its own, right now the article is mainly concerned with the controversies surrounding animal testing. For example I was just reading the Sugar substitute article; it makes a few mentions about some substitutes having adverse effects in mice although they apparently are absent in humans. 203.218.20.203 ( talk) 13:38, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
This was a very helpful thing to read over, because I am having a school debate, and my topic is, "Should animals be tested, or should they not?" I give all my thanks to the writer! Thank you so very much! -5th grader, from Oklahoma —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.227.118.82 ( talk) 02:06, 21 October 2008 (UTC)
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This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
The recent changes have turned this article, that used to be reasonably neutral, into a very one sided presentation. This contradicts WP:NPOV and WP:V. For example, if an editor thinks that view point A is the "dominant" one, and B is the "minority", then he must provide a reliable source saying so. Crum375 ( talk) 15:54, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
Also, the vast majority of "rights" arguments were not deleted - only a very few very minor arguments that are held and argued by very small minorities. The major animal rights arguments are still included, although it is now noted which ethical position is occupied by the majority. -- Animalresearcher ( talk) 21:54, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
The mass revert by Crum375 is an example of the "overreliance on reverting as an editing tool, rather than collaboration" that brought this article to mediation. Six days of good-faith edits [which I'm not saying are beyond criticism] by three long-standing editors of this article have been dismissed without prior discussion or agreement. In contrast, Tim's removal of the ALF "source" was based on discussion at Reliable_sources/Noticeboard where the argument for its inclusion was not only lost, but also made moot by the addition of an AP news item as a source. The link is now redundant and its restoration about as welcome as online pharmacy spam in an article on erectile dysfunction. Colin° Talk 21:37, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
No Crumb375, this is an unreliable source produced by an extremist organisation. It has no place whatsoever in this article. Tim Vickers ( talk) 22:02, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
Crum375, I have never seen anyone so totally misunderstand sourcing. Is the Catholic church a reliable source for "Is the Pope Catholic?" Is the Catholic church a reliable source for "Did the Catholic church conspire with Nazis?" WAS 4.250 ( talk) 11:45, 18 February 2008 (UTC)
Firstly, this discussion is moot because we have a reliable source for the text in the article. To press for its inclusion when it is neither needed nor wanted is just wasting everyone's time. Secondly, I am amazed at the question "Is [a publisher] a reliable source".
Colin° Talk 13:41, 18 February 2008 (UTC)
(od) I fully agree that "crap" shouldn't be included. But one editor's crap is another's gold, and that's why we have the content policies that try to be more specific. In this case, PETA is the world's largest animal rights organization, with nearly 2 million members, founded 28 years ago. They have multiple fact checkers and legal counsel, to ensure their published data is accurate. I have asked you above for a single reliable source showing they have ever been successfully sued for libel, or that they have a history of losing libel suits. I am still waiting. Crum375 ( talk) 19:54, 18 February 2008 (UTC)
(od)I think we are in agreement, that if we mention the Riverside ALF break-in, and the removal of Britches, we can use the sources that refer to the video. The Best book includes references to the ALF video, and the university sources also refer to it, claiming it was doctored. So as part of the Riverside ALF incident in the Animal Testing article, we need to present the video as published on PETA's website, as well as the reliably sourced criticisms. Crum375 ( talk) 21:57, 18 February 2008 (UTC)
books, can you substantiate that with a reliable source saying it? Crum375 ( talk) 00:07, 19 February 2008 (UTC)
(od) AR, in Wikipedia we follow reliable sources, not our personal likes and dislikes. I asked you a simple question: can you substantiate your claim that the Lantern Books publisher does not fact check its published books? I have read your above response, and can't find the answer there. Unless you can prove that Lantern is unreliable, it is a good source, and hence we follow it. And if Lantern tells us that the Britches video, taken by ALF and presented by PETA, was part of the Riverside incident, then we present that on Wikipedia. This is what WP:V is all about. Crum375 ( talk) 00:34, 19 February 2008 (UTC)
Crum375, will you stop repeating this nonsense that "a reliable source is the publisher". I wont repeat what I said above, which gives examples of why this is ridiculous. If you wish to change WP policy such that we only examine the publisher in order to determine whether a source is reliable, please post your request to the relevant policy page. The issues surrounding Lantern books were handled very nicely at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard#Lantern books references. Colin° Talk 07:38, 19 February 2008 (UTC)
I dunno, I stop editing for a while hoping that all the POV pushing of the past would die down and we would have sensible people not trying to push their agendas by warping policies. But it seems that it is exactly the same as it was before. *Sigh*
Anyway, on the issue of whether organisations such as BUAV, PETA and the publisher 'Lantern Books' are reliable sources, it is quite simply acceptable that all 3 are. BUAV is used regularly by national media in the UK, along with a good number of national store chains in the UK (The Co-op being one of them). PETA, as has been said, is a large organisation with a long history. They do not have a history of getting facts wrong and as such this means they have a history of good fact checking practices. (And no evidence has been presented here to counter that). Lantern books is a 10 year old company which publishes hundreds of books in areas related to spirituality, the environment, rights issues, etc... If they didn't fact check their books, they as a publishing house would face significant legal problems when things were presented incorrectly. So, again, they are a reliable source.
Stating that simply because they organisations' interests lie within the subject area (ie. PETA is an animal rights organisation etc...) they are unreliable is nonsense. If this were the case then any research by a scientist in the field of neurology would be unreliable as that person has interests in their field!!
So, put simply, just because they aren't a national media organisation, scientific organisation or a government department doesn't mean they are unreliable.
The video hosted by PETA on their PetaTV site is as good a source as any simply because they are the publisher. Many programmes on tv are created by third party companies, but the source would be said to be the channel that aired it - as they are the publisher. This situation is just the same.- Localzuk (talk) 23:05, 29 February 2008 (UTC)
(od) AR, this is Wikipedia. We don't judge reliable sources by what you like or don't like. We use objective criteria, spelled out in WP:V. PETA, a 28 year old publisher, the largest animal rights organization in the world, with almost 2 million members, including many celebrities, is considered a reliable source pending objective proof showing otherwise. The only objective proof in this case would be a history of lost legal suits over the publication of false information. I am still waiting for you to give us one such example. Note that "reliable" for us does not mean gospel truth, only that we may refer to it as a source. Crum375 ( talk) 01:02, 2 March 2008 (UTC)
(OD)The source is not OPRR. They were the first party investigating U Penn that issued findings about PETA. The source has author, publisher, and content. The authors are three academic faculty PhD bioethicists. The content is an article on "Roots of Concern with Nonhuman Animals in Biomedical Ethics", and they are analyzing the contribution of incidents like the U Penn incident on the evolving ideas of ethics in animal testing. The publisher in the US National Academy of Sciences (it is ILAR journal). In other words, we have a highest reliability third party source stating that PETA is unreliable. Furthermore, there is no third party reliable source to provide any alternative explanation for the OPRR findings in the edited video tape. As I also pointed out, the degree to which reliability can be assessed in this case is extraordinary, because it is a very rare situation in which a legal investigatory body has both the source of a report, and the report itself, and opportunity to compare them. This does represent wiki-lawyering, because the evidence, and common sense, dictate that anything that is found in a PETA video about a 1980s ALF raid should not be considered to have been subject to much fact checking, and its accuracy can be expected to be intentionally misleading. That is against the spirit AND text of WP:V and WP:RS. I suspect that this situation is rare enough that the normal protocols are Wikipedia are not sufficiently strong to ensure adherence to policy, especially when multiple Wikipedia admins seem adamant about including unreliable sources. Wikipedia seems more tolerant of including both the unreliable source and the evidence that it is unreliable than not including it at all. -- Animalresearcher ( talk) 12:12, 2 March 2008 (UTC)
Here is the relevant text from the Britches page which includes one reliable third party source on the unreliability of PETA.-- Animalresearcher ( talk) 23:58, 1 March 2008 (UTC)
A similar film was released after the ALF raid on the University of Pennsylvania one year earlier. The Office for Protection from Research Risks ran an investigation on the incident, due to concern about animal treatment in the labs. The investigation included comparing the video footage taken in the U Penn raid with the Unnecessary Fuss video produced by PETA and containing Ingrid Newkirk's voiceover. The PETA video "presented the case history of only one of approximately 150 animals that had received whiplash. By clever editing and inaccurate voice over, the viewer was led to believe that the inhumane treatment depicted on the film was repeated numerous times. In actual fact, one baboon was badly treated, and the film repeatedly showed the particular mistreatment while the commentator narrated that the mistreatment was repeated on a long series of different animals. In all, OPRR identified approximately 25 errors in the voice over description of what was taking place." [1]
260 TEST ANIMALS 'LIBERATED' FROM LAB Chicago Tribune (pre-1997 Fulltext) - Chicago, Ill. Author: Chicago Tribune wires Date: Apr 21, 1985 The Animal Liberation Front claimed the "rescue" Saturday of 260 laboratory animals from a University of California research center. "Early this morning, (16 members of) the Animal Liberation Front rescued 260 animals" from laboratories at the university's Riverside campus, Vicky Miller of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said. She said the university "has been using animals in experiments on sight deprivation and isolation for the last two years and has recently received a grant, paid for with our tax dollars, to continue torturing and killing animals." Campus spokesman Jack Chappell replied, "The claims of animal mistreatment are absolutely false. There will be long-term damage to some of the research projects," including those aimed at developing devices and treatments for blind people.
RAID ON ANIMAL LAB 'SETS BACK' RESEARCH [SPORTS FINAL, C Edition] Chicago Tribune (pre-1997 Fulltext) - Chicago, Ill. Author: Chicago Tribune wires Date: Apr 22, 1985 Years of medical research were lost when a group opposed to animal experimentation raided a university laboratory, smashing equipment and taking about 260 animals, officials said Sunday. The raid, on Saturday, for which the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility, resulted in "several hundreds of thousands of dollars" damage, said Theodore Hullar, executive vice chancellor of the University of California's Riverside campus. "Research has been set back years," he said. Edward Carroll, an associate professor of biology, said the loss of about a dozen rabbits seriously undermined his research on fertility.
CRACKDOWN URGED IN ANIMAL THEFTS Chicago Tribune (pre-1997 Fulltext) - Chicago, Ill. Author: Chicago Tribune wires Date: Apr 26, 1985 Thefts of laboratory animals by animal rights groups could be considered acts of terrorism and may require enactment of federal laws against such raids, says the director of the National Institutes of Health. "There are limits to civil disobedience we can tolerate as an expression of dissent," Dr. James Wyngaarden said Wednesday. He referred to a weekend raid by a group calling itself the Animal Liberation Front on the University of California's Riverside campus in which 467 animals were taken.
Please see Talk:Britches_(monkey)#Proposal_to_move. -- Animalresearcher ( talk) 03:41, 19 February 2008 (UTC)
I was considering replacing one of the older examples in this section with a brief outline of Dolly the sheep, probably the most notable example of a recent animal experiment, and one that raised several controversial ethical issues. It will also be useful that this experiment has been covered in many reliable sources, since it is much better-known than most of the other examples here. Tim Vickers ( talk) 20:34, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
That was just some vandalism, reverted. Another one to consider is the discovery of embryonic stem cells in mice in the 1980s, this is also a highly controversial and relevant result from animal testing and the basis of the current animal research into stem cell treatments. Tim Vickers ( talk) 20:59, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
An opinion piece in the New Scientist may be of interest to editors here.
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help)In it, he investigates the claim "virtually every medical achievement of the last century has depended directly or indirectly [on research involving animals]", which is noted in the lead of this article. I suspect his views aren't notable enough for his opinion to be worth citing, but you guys might be interested in his argument, particularly the need to provide evidence for ones claims: an issue we all struggle with. Apparently his investigation results are due to be published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. Colin° Talk 18:25, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
From what I've read Rollins seems to have extended Tom Regan's argument further then Regan originally contended, but I'm very conscious that philosophy isn't my subject. Could somebody check this is an accurate assessment of the two arguments? Tim Vickers ( talk) 18:11, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
Hi everybody, thanks very much for all your work over the last few months. I think this article is now reasonably neutral, stable and well-referenced enough to be nominated as a Good Article. Are there any outstanding issues people think we should deal with before I put it forwards? Tim Vickers ( talk) 17:28, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
I think the article does look good. One problem I see is that the "History" section still seems to give more of a history of the animal testing controversy instead of the actual history of animal testing itself. Otherwise, the article looks good. Cla68 ( talk) 23:47, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
This article's Good Article promotion has been put on hold. During review, some issues were discovered that can be resolved without a major re-write. This is how the article, as of March 16, 2008, compares against the six good article criteria:
Overall, I'm very impressed at the stability and quality of this controversial article. You should be proud!
Please address these matters soon and then leave a note here showing how they have been resolved. After 48 hours the article should be reviewed again. If these issues are not addressed within 7 days, the article may be failed without further notice. Thank you for your work so far. Van Tucky 00:03, 16 March 2008 (UTC)
For readability, please place any comments or questions pertaining to the hold below rather than within the body of the review. Thank you!
The history section states that treatments for leprosy were developed in armadillos in the seventies and then used in humans. In fact, treatment for leprosy is antibiotics (dapsone, first used in 1941). A vaccine for leprosy was in fact developed in armadillos and seemed to hold great promise - but was shown in 1992 to be ineffectual (you will note that the citation in the history section is from 1981). See "Armadillo leprosy and a failed vaccine" by H.P. Burchfield, the scientist who (controversially, as Eleanor Storrs also claims the honor) first recognized leprosy in armadillos, in World journal of microbiology & biotechnology ISSN 0959-3993 1999, vol. 15, no6, pp. 653-667 (2 p.1/4). Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dulcimerchristy ( talk • contribs) 20:39, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
See : Scollard DM, Adams LB, Gillis TP, Krahenbuhl JL, Truman RW, Williams DL (2006).
"The continuing challenges of leprosy". Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 19 (2): 338–81.
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M. leprae has never been grown on artificial media but can be maintained in axenic cultures in what appears to be a stable metabolic state for a few weeks (414). As a result, propagation of M. leprae has been restricted to animal models, including the armadillo (415) and normal, athymic, and gene knockout mice (222). These systems have provided the basic resources for genetic, metabolic, and antigenic studies of the bacillus. Growth of M. leprae in mouse footpads also provides a tool for assessing the viability of a preparation of bacteria and testing the drug susceptibility of clinical isolates (364, 414)
i.e. you need to cultivate the organism so you can find which antibiotics are effective. This review also discusses how effective the various forms of the BCG vaccine are against leprosy, and the state of vaccine research. I'll add this reference to the article. Tim Vickers ( talk) 20:47, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
In the current entry about the primate research that was performed at UCLA, the experiments are described this way: "each monkey was paralyzed, then used for a single session that lasted up to 120 hours, and finally killed". This description makes one wonder whether the monkeys might have been in pain or distress during those 120 hours. It misses a key fact: the monkeys were deeply anesthetized (with sufentanyl, an extremely potent opioid) throughout the duration of the experiment. My suggestion is to drop the words quoted above, or if it is deemed best to keep them, at least to add the fact that the animals were deeply anesthetized.
All experiments were approved by the UCLA Animal Research Committee and were carried out following National Institutes of Health's Guidelines for the Care and Use of Mammals in Neuroscience. Acute experiments were performed on anesthetized and paralyzed adult Old-World monkeys (Macaca fascicularis). Initially, the animal was sedated with acepromazine (30–60 µg/kg), anesthetized with ketamine (5–20 mg/kg, im) in the cage, and transported to the surgical suite. Initial surgery and preparation were performed under isofluorane (1.5–2.5%). Two intravenous lines were put in place. A urethral catheter was inserted to collect and monitor urine output, and an endotracheal tube was inserted to allow for artificial respiration. All surgical cut-down sites were infused with local anesthetic (xylocaine 2%, sc). Pupils were dilated with ophthalmic atropine, and custom-made gas permeable contact lenses were fitted to protect the corneas. After this initial surgery, the animal was transferred to a stereotaxic frame. At this point, anesthesia was switched to a combination of sufentanil (2–6 µg/kg/h) and midazolam, or sufentanil (0.15 µg/kg/h) and propofol (2–6 mg/kg/h). We proceeded to perform a craniotomy over primary visual cortex. The animal was paralyzed (pavulon, 0.1 mg/kg/h) only after all surgical procedures, including the insertion of the electrode arrays, were complete.
To ensure a proper level of anesthesia throughout the duration of the experiment, rectal temperature, heart rate, noninvasive blood pressure, end-tidal CO2, SpO2, and EEG were continually monitored by an HP Virida 24C neonatal monitor. Urine output and specific gravity were measured every 4–5 h to ensure adequate hydration. Drugs were administered in balanced physiological solution at a rate to maintain a fluid volume of 5–10 ml/kg/h. Rectal temperature was maintained by a self-regulating heating pad at 37.5°C. Expired CO2 was maintained between 4.5 and 5.5% by adjusting the stroke volume and ventilation rate. The maximal pressure developed during the respiration cycle was monitored to ensure that there was no incremental blocking of the airway. A broad spectrum antibiotic (bicillin, 50,000 IU/kg) and anti-inflammatory steroid (dexamethasone, 0.5 mg/kg) were given at the beginning of the experiment and every other day.
-- Animalresearcher ( talk) 20:19, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
Would it be correct to say:
The researcher had received a grant to use 30 macaque monkeys for vision experiments; each monkey was anesthetized, paralyzed, used for a single session that lasted up to 120 hours, and then euthanized. [2]
Thank you for updating the entry. It is much more informative this way. I am not completely in agreement with the word "analgesia" though. It is true that at low doses opioids are analgesics rather than anesthetics, but at those high doses most people would call them anesthetics. More importantly, the Methods section shown above by Animalresearcher indicates that in addition to sufentanil an anesthetic was given: either midazolam or propofol. So I would definitely say that the animals were under anesthesia, not just analgesia. [User:ProtectedModeOn]
U Jain, S C Body, W Bellows, R Wolman, C M Mangano, J Mathew, E Youngs, R Wilson, A Zhang, D T Mangano -- Animalresearcher ( talk) 16:45, 21 April 2008 (UTC)
Hola,
I've been hunting around a lot of animal testing/rights articles on wikipedia, google, and pubmed (school research)... and quite a few of these articles seem to advocate the minority position. One that jumped out at me was the recent edit I made to this article, in the introduction, where originally the BUAV is said to question the scientific benefits of animal testing. The reference cites the BUAV website, and their website only goes so far as to equate animal testing with the continued presence of adverse reactions in humans. The attempted link is clearly an attempt at equating correlation with causation, which obviously isn't acceptable.
Further, there are no reputable, peer-reviewed sources (that i've found, please correct me if i'm wrong) which state that there are few or no benefits to animal testing/research. In my view, taking the BUAV's "word" on this is not credible, as science should only be refuted by science. This seems similar to the debate over creationism and Intelligent Design--proponents of ID choose to ignore the majority scientific consensus and twist (or outright ignore) the science to fit their pre-existing viewpoint.
In this case, I don't believe the BUAV's views deserve as much credibility as they are given in this article. I left their philosophical objections intact, however, as that is certainly open to debate.
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Monolith2 (
talk) 08:11, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
I planned on going through the entire article at some point later this week; that one edit I made just seemed glaringly out of place so I edited it first.
I certainly understand the need to represent minority viewpoints, but much of this article seems to portray animal research/testing as going against the very principles of the people who practice it - i.e. the scientific community - which isn't true. This goes beyond simply representing a minority view.
I'm certainly open to a section on the ethical and moral concerns of animal testing, as that's all personal opinion. But it doesn't seem proper to state - in the introduction, no less - that a reputable counterpoint to published medical literature considers animal research "bad science." Indeed, the very source that sentence cited was to an FAQ on the BUAV website which didn't even declare animal testing bad science, but just attempted to present adverse drug reactions as something that animal testing hasn't prevented. The only peer-reviewed sources the FAQ lists for this section are studies which have nothing to do with the relation between animal research and safe drugs. The FAQ is full of weasel words and other nonsense that would not be tolerated on Wikipedia itself, so I don't see how it's a serious source or counterpoint to scientific consensus on the matter.
Minority opinions are certainly welcome to representation in this article, but how extreme should that be taken...? Should the article on evolution contain a section of bible quotes as a serious counterpoint to that theory?
- Monolith2 ( talk) 09:38, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
Yeah... as I said, I plan on going through the whole article and trying to even things out a bit. Perhaps we could even create a separate page dealing with the ethics of animal testing and leave this page for the nitty-gritty undisputed facts of why animals are used, what types of animals are used, how these models are effective or ineffective, how successful or unsuccessful theyve been in research, the conditions the animals are held in, etc?
You're welcome to revert that edit I made until I get a chance to sit down and go over the whole thing. When I get around to editing what I think improves the article, should I just post the whole thing up on my talk page or something for us to discuss? Or is there some better way of going about it?
It might take me a couple weeks to get sorted, though. Next week is class finals, so i'm a lil bit busy. I shouldn't even be dallying around on WP right now, actually... i've got a paper due tomorrow morning. lol
- Monolith2 ( talk) 12:18, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
The introduction needs to describe what these groups' believe, this isn't an endorsement of these views, but a description of what these views are. However, I've reworded this sentence a little to make it clear that it is describing the views of a broad range of groups, not just the BUAV. Tim Vickers ( talk) 19:35, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
This piece should be changed to "Animal Research", with animal testing linking to it. The reason is that "testing" has strong connotations of safety testing, which is only a part (approx 1/3) of animal research. To, say, study the physiological properties of an animal's heart is much better explained by the word "research" than by the word "testing". 69.143.106.43 ( talk) 21:41, 18 May 2008 (UTC)London Prophet
Having the image of Enos next to the first introductory paragraph is about as neutral and representative as showing a picture of Stalin near the beginning of the atheism article would be. -- Jane Rightall ( talk) 23:38, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
This article doesn't say much about the reliability of animal testing. It only has two mentions of its accuracy one of which is about how pain could affect the results. I think it deserves a section of its own, right now the article is mainly concerned with the controversies surrounding animal testing. For example I was just reading the Sugar substitute article; it makes a few mentions about some substitutes having adverse effects in mice although they apparently are absent in humans. 203.218.20.203 ( talk) 13:38, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
This was a very helpful thing to read over, because I am having a school debate, and my topic is, "Should animals be tested, or should they not?" I give all my thanks to the writer! Thank you so very much! -5th grader, from Oklahoma —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.227.118.82 ( talk) 02:06, 21 October 2008 (UTC)
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