To the editor:
I must commend Bella Ishanyan, Kavya Sarathy and the editors at The Daily Collegian for the outstanding job they did in relating the research work of Dr. Agnes Lacreuse at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The piece was clearly balanced to express the concerns of some UMass students and to allow for the positions of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to be featured, as well as present a thorough examination of Dr. Lacreuse’s work.
It is rare in this day and age to see such a fair and unbiased news story about animal-based medical research be presented in the way that the Collegian did. More often than not, it is the extreme, vitriolic and false narrative of groups like PETA that is what results from “news” coverage. As Dr. Mélise Edwards so accurately pointed out, PETA is less interested in engaging in “deeper conversations” than in “… resort[ing] to clickbait articles to instill rage in the public …,” which, as she notes, is consistent with PETA’s ultimate goal: generating donations.
As UMass Amherst is a longstanding member of the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research – the nation’s oldest regional non-profit organization supporting biomedical research professionals – I have witnessed first-hand the harassment that PETA has directed at UMass for the past three and a half years. They regularly and publicly harass Dr. Lacreuse and UMass institutional officials, seeking to embarrass them at events ranging from family weekends and convocations to graduations and president’s receptions. All the while, UMass has been open and transparent about its work, though that side of the story rarely gets told. That’s why it was so refreshing to read the Collegian’s coverage.
Just to support UMass’ response to a couple of PETA’s more egregious claims, I have two major claims to argue. Firstly, animal-based medical research in this country is heavily regulated and overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institutes of Health and the university’s own Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), whose proceedings I’ve witnessed first-hand and which are not only above-board, professional and competent, but also include a community member who is unaffiliated with the university, as well as a veterinarian whose sole role is to ensure the humane care and treatment of the animals.
Secondly, while we all look forward to a day when non-animal methods can replace live animal models in medical research, we are far, far from that point. Methods such as organs-on-chips or computer simulations are extremely helpful in medical research, but they cannot replicate the complicated and interrelated physiological system of a live animal. This is not just opinion, it’s fact as recently researched and publicized by institutions such as the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM). To suggest otherwise is to deliberately seek to misinform and mislead the public. It is also why federal law requires that before any new drug, medical device or procedure can proceed to a human clinical trial, it must first be tested on two species of animals to ensure safety and efficacy.
Aside from the scientific realities at hand, PETA regularly uses photos and other illustrations of animals that are not part of the institution they are attacking, again as a means of misleading the public. If this wasn’t bad enough, PETA members – perhaps acting on their own, perhaps not – have regularly, personally threatened medical researchers. In the case of Dr. Christine Lattin – whom the article references – the police had to be called in because of personal threats against Dr. Lattin, her husband and young child at their home when she was a postdoctoral researcher at Yale. There’s nothing ‘ethical’ about that.
We have just recently emerged from the deadliest pandemic that any of us has ever experienced in our lifetimes, and the fact that we have done so is due in no small part to biomedical research – much of which is done with animal models, including the research that resulted in the development of COVID-19 vaccines in record time. Animals continue to play a vital role in helping humankind withstand and overcome a host of medical challenges. If you have a loved one who is in remission from cancer, or if you’ve only ever taken an over-the-counter pain medication, you can thank animals for that, as they were able to ensure the safety and efficacy of treatments ranging from insulin to chemotherapy drugs to aspirin.
We often take for granted such amazing medical treatments that are afforded to us, but those only result from talented and dedicated researchers such as Dr. Lacreuse, and from the research they perform that so often must be done with animals.
Sincerely,
James J. O’Reilly, President
Massachusetts Society for Medical Research (MSMR)
