Neuroscientist Stops Primate Experiments After Protests
A prominent neuroscientist who became the target of animal-right activists over the last several months will stop using primates in his research, according to multiple reports.
Nikos Logothetis, the director of the Physiology of Cognitive Processes department at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tubingen, Germany, came under scrutiny after undercover activists took video footage inside the laboratory.
The video was shown on German television in September – and the footage of a primate tearing at a head wound has since prompted multiple investigations and protests of increasing intensity, according to Science magazine.
Logothetis said in a recent letter that he was abandoning his work with rhesus macaques, which involved implanting electrode probes in their brains.
The video, made between a collaboration between British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection and the German animal-rights organization SOKO, showed an emergency event that was not representative of the work of the laboratory, Logothetis wrote.
“It is my opinion that the activities of animal extremists have now reached the point where all science-promoting organizations, as well as the government itself in each country, must take a strong stand in defense of research,” Logothetis wrote, in a letter dated today. “A failure to do so could jeopardize basic research worldwide.”
The Max Planck lab in question focused on basic neuroscientific research, to understand perception, recognition, learning, memory and other fundamental brain operations.
The video shows a macaque tearing at its head wound, causing bleeding, according to the letter.
The conditions were called a “living nightmare” by the animal rights groups, who organized the protests and petitions – and also apparently distributed the video to the German television network.
Investigations by the Max Planck Society, animal protection authorities turned up no wrongdoing. However, local police raided the laboratory in question in January – and that investigation is ongoing, according to Science magazine.
Logothetis reportedly said the animal-rights activists were not appropriately opposed by the scientific community. However, the Max Planck Society said in a May 1 statement it regretted the neuroscientist’s decision to stop working with apes.
“The Society will continue to conduct research involving nonhuman primates, as it believes that this is still the only way to develop therapeutic approaches for neurological brain disorders such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease, and psychiatric disorders as schizophrenia,” they announced. Animal experiments have to maintain a place in scientific advancement, said Logothetis.
“Animal experiments are irreplaceable if we want a health society, and animal experiments do have risks and certain discomfort, both of which must be objectively weighed against the benefits of research,” he said in his letter. “What society can ignore human suffering to promote the welfare of mice?”
Logothetis will continue to work with rodents, according to Science.
