The Liberation Of Britches

"What type of mind could have conceived of this and, perhaps more importantly, could have carried it out?"

Britches, a Stump-tailed Macaque monkey born into a breeding colony at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in March 1985, was removed from his mother at birth, had his eyelids sewn shut, and had an electronic sonar device attached to his head as part of a 3-year sensory-deprivation study involving 24 infant monkeys.

Acting on a tip from a student, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) removed Britches from the UCR laboratory on April 20, 1985, when he was 5 weeks old — along with 467 mice, cats, opossums, pigeons, rabbits, and rats — during a raid upon the laboratory. The ALF took footage of the raid and of Britches' condition when they found him, passing it anonymously to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), who used it as the basis of their film, Britches. A similar film was released by PETA a year earlier titled Unnecessary Fuss.

According to Science Magazine reporting on the Riverside raid, PETA was a "mouthpiece for the unidentified liberationists". As a result of the ensuing publicity, 8 of the 17 studies interrupted by the raid were not restarted, and the university stopped allowing baby monkeys' eyes to be sewn shut. The NIH conducted an 8-month long investigation of the animal care program at UC-Riverside and concluded it was an "appropriate animal care program" and that no corrective action was necessary.

A spokesman for the university criticised the ALF, saying that claims of animal mistreatment were "absolutely false" and that there would be long-term damage to some of the research projects, including those aimed at developing treatment for blind people. Researchers alleged that activists had applied black Mascara or paint to the monkey's eyelids to make the sutures look larger than they were, and that damage to the eyelids reported by pediatrician Bettina Flavioli on behalf of the ALF had, in fact, been caused by the pediatrician herself.

The Study: Conducted by PSYCHOlogist David H. Warren. And the reason for this experiment? To determine the effect of blindness on children.

According to PETA's president, based on papers found in the lab by the ALF, the UCR researchers wrote that performing this study by artificially blinding the monkeys was necessary because "sufficient numbers of blind human infants [to study] were not within driving distance" of Riverside, California, and because the experimenters did not wish to be inconvenienced by the normal household routines if forced to work with blind children living at home.

The Raid: The ALF was alerted to the laboratory's work by a student who had reported the Britches' situation to an animal protection group, Last Chance for Animals. An ALF contact volunteering there heard the complaint, and approached the student for more information.

On April 20, 1985, ALF activists broke into the laboratory and removed Britches along with 467 other animals, taking footage of the raid, which they handed anonymously to PETA. Activists found Britches alone in a cage clinging to a device covered in towelling that had two fake nipples attached, apparently intended to serve as a surrogate mother. Britches' eyes were bandaged and a sonar device was attached to his head, which emitted a high-pitched screech every few minutes. Britches was driven to Utah and examined by a retired pediatrician, Bettina Flavioli, who recorded her report on video.

Medical Report: Dr. Ned Buyukmihci, a doctor of veterinarian medicine, specializing in veterinary ophthalmology, and founder of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, examined Britches after he was removed from the lab. He stated that the sutures used were too large and that the monkey's eye pads were filthy. He said: "There is no possible justification for this sloppy, painful experiment."

Britches After The Raid: According to Ingrid Newkirk, Bettina Flavioli contacted a primatologist about Britches's future, and was referred to a sanctuary in Mexico that would take him. If not raised with other monkeys, the primatologist advised that Britches would grow to be aggressive and unmanageable. Following Flavioli's advice, the monkey was socialized by a number of handlers, to avoid his becoming too attached to any one of them. When he was five months old, Bettina Flavioli paid for the ALF to fly Britches to a sanctuary to be raised by a female macaque.

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[CHIPMANFEUL]

you tree hugging bastards kill me!! SAVE THE ANIMALS you say, What about the people of this planet?animals are nothing, people are what matters!!

[unnecessaryfuss]

@CHIPMANFEUL, animals are nothing, eh? You are an animal, and clearly not a very intelligent one.

[zestyguy87]

oh my god, we are capable of some of the most horrific things as humans.

[unnecessaryfuss]

Indeed, zestyguy, the human animal is the most savage of all beasts.

[joshuaoha]

@Sallyallie89 It isn't a matter of personal opinion. The fact is that scientific medical research on animals has saved the lives of millions of humans (maybe even your own) and animals over the past hundred years. Testing of cosmetics on animals, like you seem to be talking about, is probably a different issue.

[joshuaoha]

@sarahmash101065 Good point. Medical ethics and the evils exemplified by Mengle should make us cautious.

[sarahmash101065]

@joshuaoha yes but at the cost of becoming similar to 'Joseph Mengle" and condoneing such behavior. That is real evil shit.

[sarahmash101065]

@endanimalabuse4ever  i agree totally

[Sallyallie89]

@CHIPMANFEUL Um, you're an animal smart one. What if I sewed your eyes shut for an experiment and said that you're just a "stupid animal" anyway? Hmm? ... Quit being so selfish and learn that there is more to life than just humans. Besides, if human beings were the only thing in existence we'd all die because the ecosystem would be thrown off balance.

[Sallyallie89]

@joshuaoha I disagree. For one, animals are different from us humans, so testing a product on rats may not harm them but they could harm us humans. Secondly, there are alternatives to animal testing that have been proven to be more accurate. Thirdly, I just don't feel we should test on animals period. In fact, there are plenty of companies out there that say "not tested on animals" on every product. I like that and I never fear buying their products.

[endanimalabuse4ever]

Soon we will regard vivisectionists as what they truly are:

Morally and ethically corrupt, egocentric, parasites who posses brain activity, but no heart, nor soul, nor conscience. That is why these subhuman individuals are capable of committing the most atrocious acts of sadistic brutality upon our closest relatives and companions in the animal kindgdom.

[endanimalabuse4ever]

"Before the bar of human justice, vivisection stands condemned on three main counts: cruelty to animals, uselessness to Man, and obstruction on the path of true knowledge." -Dr. M. Beddow Baily, M.D., IRCP, Member Royal College of Surgeons

[endanimalabuse4ever]

"... But vivisection certainly has to be described and branded as unscientific; for it has conjured up the most gross errors, it has produced the most calamitous fallacies! Vivisection has never served the purpose of true science, but in fact only the contemptible purpose of self-advancement, ambition and personal gain."

--Dr. M. Beddow Baily, M.D., IRCP, Member Royal College of Surgeons

[joshuaoha]

There have indeed been unethical practices with animal experiments. This seems to be an example of the dark side of animal testing. Yet I believe testing on animals has been an essential part of the progress that has come from modern medicine. Animal testing has clearly improved both human and veterinary sciences.