9 Brain ‘Studies’ Proving Experimenters Need their brains Tested

9. Monkey Brain Experiments at the University of Utah
The victims: Marmosets are highly social creatures who are monogamous, forming family units. The youngsters in the troop help the male take care of the babies, assisting with feeding, carrying, and educating them. They have excellent eyesight and hearing and an acute sense of smell, and they display emotions through their eyelid and ear movements. They also use noises and various high-pitched chirps along with various facial expressions to communicate.
The experiment: A marmoset monkey underwent a highly invasive surgery in the laboratory of Alessandra Angelucci. Laboratory staff tried for up to three hours to find a vein to insert an IV catheter for delivery of fluids. When they couldn’t manage to accomplish this, the experimenters proceeded with the surgery anyway, which included removing a portion of the monkey’s skull and inserting electrodes into his brain. During periods when he was awake for invasive neurological recording, he was repeatedly injected with ketamine, which would have been extremely inadequate for managing pain, and with a paralytic agent to stop eye movement. After the torturous 14-hour surgery and recording, he was dumped back into his cage. Less than 24 hours later, he was dead.
2015, 'Modeling Parkinson’s disease in the common marmoset ... overview of models, methods, and animal care' ... | Yun, J, Ahn, J, & Kang, B | CC BY 3.0
The excuse: Angelucci uses marmosets to study visual information processing (how monkey brains process visual information). The U.S. Department of Agriculture found that this incident constituted a “critical” violation of the AWA, the most severe violation an inspector can identify. However, the university has been allowed to keep all the federal grant money that it was awarded for this project, despite breaking the law.
*****
By comparison with a coin toss, animal experiments are five times worse at predicting the effectiveness of human clinical therapies. Experimenters need to check their own brains, because something is clearly not right there. Their sense of justification and entitlement to inflict inconceivable pain and suffering on sensitive beings is truly incomprehensible. The cruelty is only made worse by the fact that it’s also bad science and a sickeningly huge waste of taxpayer dollars. Animal testing is inexcusable on every conceivable level.