Members of the Primate Freedom Project held an educational session on animal rights for students, faculty and community members at the UW-Madison Law School Wednesday.
Rick Bogle, founder of PFP and member of the board of the Alliance for Animals, was the keynote speaker for the event. Lynn Pauly, director of the Alliance for Animals introduced Bogle as an active participant in research and protests against animal testing.
Science is telling us there are a lot of things in common between us [and animals],"" Bogle said. ""My question is always '¦ at what point do those similarities become so similar to us that '¦ we need to recognize the rights as [we] would recognize the rights of another person.""
Bogle discussed animal rights, history of primate research and the UW-Madison primate labs in the session. He also analyzed animal torture in research by explaining the procedures of animal testing.
According to Bogle, in the past the UW-Madison Harry Harlow research lab used cruel methods of testing. Bogle gave recent examples of these procedures, including violations of agreed commitments by institutions like Covance and the UW-Madison primate research center.
One such example, according to Bogle, includes the university violating agreements with the Vilas Zoo and destroying 628 videotapes of experimental procedure when asked to release them for public inspection.
""We have been asking for a single tape over and over again, it turns out they destroyed [the tapes] within the span of 15 years of research and different researchers,"" Bogle said.
Leslie Hamilton, co-founder of the Animal Law Association, discussed several court cases involving the mistreatment of animals.
""The problem with going into court lawsuits on behalf of animals is you are not actually arguing the animal's rights, but you are arguing your right to enjoy the animal,"" she said.
UW-Madison student Cassie Jurenci, one of the few students who attended, said she believes in the issues being discussed.
""I came because I am very interested in animal rights and I feel like having animal experimentation is a great degradation to what our university stands for,"" she said.
