"Spinal taps can be dangerous. Bleeding around the brain, infection, and even painful death are potential outcomes. In any event, all cats used in this experiment will eventually be killed, some 6 months after the experiment has begun, others after 12 months. For some cats, this gruesome experiment will last two years."

Dr. Mandell also asks, "Also well know is that cats do not break down and eliminate drugs similar to humans. Some human drugs can poison cats or cause unusual reactions. So how can a researcher even consider that these 'experiments' will be relevant to HIV disease in people?"

OSU is slated to receive 1.68 billion dollars for this study.

Dr. Mandell has sent a letter to OSU's Board of Trustees expressing her opposition to Podell's study. In that letter, Mandell wrote, "The feline AIDS model will yield results of questionable validity that will be difficult to interpret and extremely difficult to extrapolate to HIV disease. Frankly I'm surprised and concerned that this protocol was approved by the Animal Care Committee at the Ohio State University...any scientific data from such a study would be, at worst, useless, and at best, of dubious validity."

Professor Podell says, "There's direct benefit to (human) patients." He claims that the benefit of the experiment is to gain knowledge "allowing earlier and more effective treatments for drug users who contract HIV." He fails to point out that at the cellular level, where the real action takes place, HIV and FIV work in significantly different ways. As do the human and feline immune systems. He also makes no mention of the failed track record of animal-based AIDS research.

There is still no vaccine and no cure for AIDS. Some of the blame for this has to rest with the animal researchers who have funnelled billions of dollars of research money - a lot of it funded by you - into dead ends. Professor Podell and OSU are continuing in that fine tradition. But it is only a matter of time before the hollowness of their promises and their self-serving justifications for their experiments are rejected by society. Already some AIDS activist groups have rejected animal experimentation. They are frustrated and angry at profiteers who are exploiting their plight. In December 1995, ACT UP San Francisco agreed by consensus to support a ban on animal experimentation. More recently, Julio Abreu, a spokesman for AIDS Action, spoke out against the Podell experiment, as chronicled in Franny's earlier article. (See Sidebar Link)

This Podell experiment is a disgrace on several counts:

• It uses FIV, a poor model for HIV
• It ignores the myriad differences between human and feline immune systems
• It ignores the different ways that humans and cats respond to doses of methamphetamines
• It ignores the fact that AIDS activists and other scientists have condemned the research (and similar research)
• Its findings will almost certainly not help to find a cure for AIDS
• It uses up money - your money - that could be used for research methods that have proven to be much more productive.

In vitro research, computer modeling, and clinical trials using humans are what have produced all the AIDS understanding and treatment advances. But testing on cats is easier. Cats are relatively cheap to breed, they stay locked in their cages, and they don't talk back. And it's relatively easy to get a research paper out of animal experiment. The animal experimenter can take some already known concept, modify a variable, and publish the results in one of the approximately 100,000 research journals out there. One cynic has quipped, "a rat is an animal which, injected, produces a paper."

These cats will be destroyed in vain.

A Proposal

Professor Podell has said that he is willing to debate the experiment on scientific grounds. That sounds good to me. I'd like to make it interesting. If I could get Professor Podell to agree on ground rules for voting on the winner of the debate, I'd like to propose the following:

I even have an opponent in mind (no, not me!)

EPILOGUE
Last week, I sent my proposal for a debate to OSU. For some reason, I haven't heard back from them yet.

	HOSTGary Forums Host

• For additional information on the experiment, and the protests and petitions against it, visit http://home.att.net/~PoetWill/kitty.htm.
• The Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicince at OSU is Glen F. Hoffsis. His email is hoffsis.1@osu.edu.
• The president of OSU is William E. Kirwan. His email is kirwan.1@osu.edu.
• The online petition to stop the experiment is at www.PetitionOnline.com

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