Chinchilla Laboratory Research
Posted by Jennifer Snyder on Tue, Oct 26, 2010 @ 01:58 PM
As I sit here typing and I am very conflicted. I believe in the necessity for advancement in medicine and understand the need for research, but it is very difficulty for me not to feel empathy as a car full of chinchillas look up at me on their way to a research facility in Boston.
My first instinct was to hand the man I had purchased my bulk feed from a wad of cash and tell him I would take them all, every last fuzzy one of them, but then what? I thought I could put them on my rescue page of the site and surely people would want to keep chinchillas from such a fate. Then what? He would go back to his ranch pick up another batch of chinchillas and drive back to Boston and sell them to the research lab.
Why chinchillas for research? Why not something else? Don't they usually use rats? I started asking myself this questions as the man I bought chinchilla feed off of was asking me for directions to the lab. I told him that I couldn't help him, I didn't want to mislead him...that was the way I put it-- too tempting to send him on a wild goose chase. I knew the answer though. why chinchillas?
What many people do not realize is that chinchillas have the closest hearing range to humans. For the last 20 years, Chinchillas have been used for researching the auditory system, because the chinchilla's range of hearing (20 Hz to 30 kHz) and cochlear size is close to that of a human, and the chinchilla cochlea is fairly easy to access.
On top of the hearing and ear similarities, chinchillas are also easy to maintain, live long life spans, breed easily in captivity, and they are easily trained. With this long list of reasons it's no wonder that chinchillas have moved into the popular category for testing. The research started with Miller in the 1970's and continues today. I starting reading a few research papers, and testing is testing. It is not meant to be a pleasant experience for the animal.
In one paper, "Behavioral hearing Rage of the Chinchilla," by Rickye S Heffner and Henry E. Heffner they describe some of the experiments the chinchillas are subjected to. In one experiment
"Thresholds were determined behaviorally by training the chinchillas to indicate the presence of water by momentarily ceasing to drink from a water spout in order to avoid a mild shock from the spout..."
No one "likeS" the idea of testing on animals, just as no one "likes" the idea of abortion or many other controversial issues out there. Research also indicates that violence to animals leads to violent crimes.
I have many friends who work in research and many of them are vegetarians, own pets and hate that they have to sacrifice the lab animals. One of my close friends even snuck 2 home as pets when the experiment was over! The questions is what are the alternatives? The only way to effectively stop animals from being used as research are to find new ways of testing that give us the same valuable data without subjecting any human or animal to discomfort. At this time I don't have that answer or solution, but there are great organizations out there like Altweb, the Alternatives to Animal Testing Web Site, that are trying to find the answer. Altweb has five practical goals:
- To assist scientists and others seeking to conduct a search for alternatives methods.
- to serve as a CRP—"central reference point"—for alternatives information, publications, databases, calendars, and other resources.
- to support the creation and maintenance of new alternative resources as needed, when no other organization can/will do so
- to promote the use of alternatives resources by publicizing them on the site and through e-mail or other outreach
- to facilitate communication and collaboration among members of the alternatives community, in particular those who work in database or information management.
I am hoping that one day we can move away from animal testing and research and I am happy that organizations are out there looking for alternative solutions. But what do you think?