Primate Freedom Tour Visits Harvard

A quiet Harvard Medical School (HMS) research facility will become the center of protests today as the 1999 Primate Freedom Tour arrives at HMS' New England Primate Research Center in Southborough at 7 a.m.

Members of the tour, which protests the use of primates in medical research, said they plan to picket, leaflet and speak to researchers entering the building.

"The controversy is that if people knew what was happening to the primates...they wouldn't tolerate it," said Steven W. Baer, the local protest organizer. "The whole purpose of the primate research tour is to educate people."

Though protestors feel strongly that their cause is a worthy one, HMS researchers say members of the Primate Freedom Tour are not always well informed of current information about research.

"Hopefully this will be a passing annoyance," said Donald L. Gibbons, director of public affairs for Harvard Medical School. "They have made up their mind and don't care to listen to what we are doing. They routinely use information that is out of date and taken out of context."

The HMS research facility is one of many stops on the Primate Freedom Tour, which began June 1 in Washington state. The tour will end on September 4 at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD.

"Hopefully the people at NIH will speak with us and will agree to put more money into research alternatives," Baer said.

Researchers at Harvard and throughout the United States believe that primate research is vital to understanding certain diseases and phenomena, Gibbons said.

"We don't do research that could be done in other ways. Every experiment goes through a panel that makes sure that they can't be done in any other way," Gibbons said.

The reason that many protestors contest primate research so strongly, Gibbons said, is that they do not understand that researchers only use primates when absolutely necessary.

"They have misinformation,

therefore it is very difficult to engage them in a rational discussion," he said.

Freedom Tour members protest the giving of drugs such as cocaine to primates in an effort to study drug addiction.

"It is morally wrong to do invasive experimentation on them," Baer said. "If you really want to do drug addiction studies, study people on the street. There are socioeconomic reasons for people becoming drug addicts."

The Freedom Tour also protests the study of the AIDS virus on monkeys.

"They give monkeys simian AIDS and try to cure that, but it's not the same. Chimpanzees can live with it and don't display the mass wasting of the body," Baer said.

HMS researchers said they will continue their projects, regardless of the protests.

"I think our researchers believe that they will move forward with the research that they are doing because it is the best thing for mankind, and we're going to try to continue the research," Gibbons said

therefore it is very difficult to engage them in a rational discussion," he said.

Freedom Tour members protest the giving of drugs such as cocaine to primates in an effort to study drug addiction.

"It is morally wrong to do invasive experimentation on them," Baer said. "If you really want to do drug addiction studies, study people on the street. There are socioeconomic reasons for people becoming drug addicts."

The Freedom Tour also protests the study of the AIDS virus on monkeys.

"They give monkeys simian AIDS and try to cure that, but it's not the same. Chimpanzees can live with it and don't display the mass wasting of the body," Baer said.

HMS researchers said they will continue their projects, regardless of the protests.

"I think our researchers believe that they will move forward with the research that they are doing because it is the best thing for mankind, and we're going to try to continue the research," Gibbons said