More Evidence of UW Lies

In July 2005, evil minions of University of Wisconsin, Madison again attacked those who have spoken out on behalf of the animals – particularly monkeys – being hurt in its labs.

I’ve skewered this propaganda elsewhere.

I recently read a paper that offers additional insight into just how calculating or ignorant the UW spin-doctors actually are. I call your attention to this because when one discusses such unethical behavior with the general public, they frequently imagine that you have twisted the facts or have simply made it all up.

This is from the 2005 UW newsletter:

Scientists subsequently injected rodents and other laboratory animals with MPTP in an attempt to produce the animal model, but they all failed. Researchers were about to give up when scientists, as a last resort, injected the MPTP into monkeys and only these animals developed Parkinsonism. We now know that other animals can be made parkinsonian, but had it not been for the research in monkeys, all the benefits from MPTP research would have been lost.

I've never read such a crap-filled self-serving comment, and I've read more than a few. Before (again) exposing the absolute lie or profound ignorance of these claims, let’s consider the source.

The current web address for the article is: http://www.primate.wisc.edu/wprc/pdfs/park_persp.pdf

In other words, it’s on the Wisconsin Primate Center website. I suspect the author is Erwin B. Montgomery Jr., MD; Professor, Department of Neurology; Affiliate Scientist, National Primate Research Center. Regardless of who the author actually is, the UW cachet gives it an air of authority.

The new paper I referred to above is Modeling Neurodegenerative Diseases in vivo Review. von Bohlen und Halbach, O.; Neurodegenerative Dis 2005;2:313-320, in which the author writes:

At present, the mouse MPTP model provides the most useful animal model of PD to study neuropathological and neurochemical changes, whereas for behavioral tests, the monkey MPTP model appears much more suitable....

The Mouse MPTP Model
In mice, systemic or intracranial application of MPTP can lead to severe damage of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system, including symptoms of motor control disturbances resembling those of human PD, such as akinesia, rigidity, tremor, gait and posture abnormalities

The fallacy, futility, and morality of torturing animals aside, this paper exposes the falseness of the UW author's claims even more fully.

Further evidence of the UW author's lying or ignorance are the approximately 1,450 papers regarding mice and MPTP indexed on PubMed dating back to 1984, essentially the same point in time that MPTP was being injected into monkeys for the first time.