Princeton U's lab animal violations (cont.)

For at least the 2nd year in a row, Princeton University has been cited for violations in caring for laboratory animals. The Times of Trenton reported on Saturday that once again a USDA inspection revealed that some primates were not provided with water for over 24 hours and there were “inconsistencies in the use of animals from what was described in the IACUC protocol.”

IACUC stands for Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee – a group legally required to exist where research occurs. According to a university spokesperson last year after violations were publicized, this committee consists of 3 members, a veterinarian, a member from the Princeton-area community and “a practicing scientist experienced in animal research.”

The same spokesperson reportedly indicated last year that the university was “strengthening" this committee. However, this year’s repeat of some violations prompts questions about how much stronger the committee is now – assuming members exercise any kind of oversight.

Of course the far bigger question is, Why animal research (Princeton’s term) or experimentation (the word others use) at all in 2011? One quick answer seems to be “money.” Animal research for the government and for companies wanting to test products on animals pay institutions and/or their researchers.

Decades ago, Peter Singer, ethicist and Princeton faculty member, wrote about the field of animal research – its horrific cruelty and its inapplicability to humans. How could it possibly have become more humane or germane since then?
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“Males behaving dadly”

Natalie Angier, the writer who brings life, and laughs, to NYTimes science coverage, was at it again yesterday – this time with primates and their “mothering” tendencies. Except that it’s the dads, or at least the males, who do the mothering, and they reportedly love every second.

Angier writes about Barbary macaques for whom infants are status symbols, networking tools and bonding instruments. Sometimes those babies don’t even belong to the males who use them; the important thing is to carry one anyway.

The “downy black fur and wrinkly pinkish face” of a macaque baby enraptures adult males, who “will hold up the infant like a holy thing, nuzzling it, chattering their teeth,” and bewildering whoever observes the behavior.

What we usually think of as “motherly” behavior is often the province of dads in the primate world. Angier writes: “In 90 percent of mammalian species, promiscuity is common and paternity uncertain; females gestate the young internally and then provision them with breast milk, and males rarely have any evolutionary incentive . . . . Yet in that remaining 10 percent, the daddy decile, we find most of the world’s primates.”

This unusual fathering occurs in other species too, according to Angier. Male pipefish, for instance, oversee nourishment for their offspring, and some male birds are keepers of the nest.

Angier’s story, “Paternal Bonds, Special and Strange,” is accompanied by a cunning short video showing two adult male macaques holding, hugging and not letting go of a baby, who seems desperate to get out of their embrace, walk around and explore!
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(http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/science/15fath.html)