Some of you may remember the minor uproar that occured when the LABBS
announced that they had subscribed to the FML. I had been meaning to
do a followup on it for sometime, and finally got around to it.
Yesterday, I finally found the time to send some mail off to the LABBS
sysop asking for some background information, as well as why they
subscribed to the FML, and to get on a little more comfortable footing.
There were a few concerns flung around at the time (some in private
email) which I thought a little outlandish, but I was still somewhat
uncomfortable with the situation.
I just had a phone call from Ken Boschert, DVM, from St. Louis who was
responsible for getting the FML subscription for LABBS. Indeed, he was
instrumental in setting up LABBS in the first place - being a bit of a
"computer head" too... ;-) We chatted for quite some time. He
appreciated our concerns, felt my questions were legitimate and
understandable, and wanted to help.
[If anyone is interested in the mail message I sent to the LABBS
sysop and was forwarded to Ken for reply, send mail to
[log in to unmask] and I'll forward you a copy.]
My purpose in sending this message is only to let the FML subscribers
know who they are, and why they're here. This message is purely
FYI, and doesn't constitute any sort of policy or practise change in
the FML. Just a clarification of the situation.
Since our chat was by telephone and was somewhat long (and I have a lousy
memory ;-), I can't relate much of it, except for some brief comments.
AALAS is the umbrella association that covers the various
organizations involved with animals in laboratories - and includes such
things as animal care technicians, veterinary associations, research
physicians, administrators etc. It has existed since the early 1950s,
partially as a result of the concerns of a rapidly exploding animal
testing industry after WWII, and predates all of the federal legislation
controlling animal testing.
LABBS is a BBS that he set up to collect information together of
interest to members of the association. This runs a broad range from
specialized professional sources, through pet forums such as our own.
The FML is just one of many "net resources" that he thought may be of
interest to the 800 or so people that use the BBS. And probably isn't
being followed by very many anyways (when asked, he said "somewhere
between zero and I dunno" ;-)...
Dr. Boschert appeared to have the same middle-of-the road views of
animal testing as many of us do. That there is much invalid/useless
testing that should not be performed (and being done less and less),
but some testing is necessary, and that ethical/humane care is
critical. And as he pointed out, many of the LABBS members are pet
owners just like everybody else...
He mentioned that ferrets aren't used that much, but are preferred in some
specialized programmes. Laboratories are tending more and more to concentrate
on rats and mice because they're easier to work with, and their ability
to relate experience with rats and mice to that of humans is becoming far
more sophisticated. He went on to mention that ferrets are easy to
care for, and are enjoyable to work with. I think he also mentioned that
Marshall Farms is the only source of ferrets for labs.
Dr. Boschert has been around on the net for some time - as far back as
1987 (I've been a system admin since 1982), and seems quite knowledgable
about the net, from the Internet thru Compuserve, BBSes and the like.
He's been collecting various types of information, and has collections
of it up for FTP/Gopher and other types of access. He's sent me a copy
of one of his lists, which I'll be scanning to see if there's anything
of interest to the FML.
I firmly believe that having contact between such groups as the FML
and people working in animal research is a benefit both to us, them,
and pet ferrets in the long run. They have experiences, and we have
experiences which can turn out to be of mutual benefit towards such
things as improved medical care for our pets, and a better understanding
of what is happening in veterinary (and indeed, human) medical research.
Having to respond to my mail message, and our phone conversation has
gotten Dr. Boschert interested enough to subscribe directly to the FML.
I would like to welcome Dr. Boschert here, and hope that we can have
the benefit of his perspective and experience from time to time as
I also hope that he'll benefit from ours. I think we all win this way.
I will remind everyone of what I said back when this issue first came
up, that I will terminate any discussions that look as they have, or
are going to, degenerated into pointless noise or flamage. We all have
better things to do, and I don't want the traffic level on the FML to
go much higher for fear of swamping people.
--
Chris Lewis:
Phone: Canada 613 832-0541 Ferret list: [log in to unmask]
Latest psroff: FTP://ftp.uunet.ca/distrib/chris_lewis/psroff3.0pl17/*
Latest hp2pbm: FTP://ftp.uunet.ca/distrib/chris_lewis/hp2pbm/*
[Posted in FML issue 0761]
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