Thursday, April 9, 1998 | 10:55 a.m.
The Defense Department uses an estimated 320,000 animals per year in experiments that cost more than $100 million annually. The unfortunate dogs, cats, monkeys, goats, sheep, pigs and other animals involved in these tests are irradiated, dosed with nerve gases and biological agents such as anthrax, deliberately burned and bled to death, exposed to deadly infectious diseases such as Ebola virus and forced to suffer a variety of other painful indignities, all in the name of military advancement.
During 1992 congressional hearings, scientists, physicians and former military researchers questioned both the validity and necessity of the Defense Department's animal research. As a result, Congress required greater oversight mechanisms, but the experiments continued unabated.
This year, the U.S. General Accounting Office will embark on an extensive investigation of military animal research. It is time to let our Congress know that torturing animals for this purpose, whether done by Iraq or our own country, is wrong.
Linda Faso
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