“Tin Man,” monkeys to search for UBC’s heart among crowds at Granville, Yaletown

 

On Saturday, February 12 from 4-9 PM, Stop UBC Animal Research will be combing Granville Street and Yaletown in search of UBC’s heart. Animal advocates, dressed as the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz and UBC monkeys, will be roaming through the crowds at Granville Street’s  “Olympic Glory Relived” and “Illuminate Yaletown” to educate the public about UBC’s animal experimentation and asking bystanders to help the group find UBC’s heart. The animal advocacy organization will also urge those attending the outdoor festivities to sign large Valentine’s cards that will be hand delivered to UBC.

 

Stop UBC Animal Research recently discovered that four monkeys are being used in Parkinson’s research at UBC and are scheduled to be killed in the coming months. Stop UBC Animal Research has offered to buy the monkeys so they can be placed in a primate sanctuary. To date, UBC has refused their offer.

WHEN/WHERE TO MEET STOP UBC ANIMAL RESEARCH FOR GRANVILLE STREET’S “OLYMPIC GLORY RELIVED” EVENT: 4PM, Saturday, February 12. Media can meet Stop UBC Animal Research at 4PM at the corner of Granville and Robson near the Lennox Pub. We will then walk among the event crowds to educate the public about UBC’s animal research. Click here for directions.

 

WHEN/WHERE TO MEET STOP UBC ANIMAL RESEARCH  FOR “ILLUMINATE YALETOWN” EVENT: 6:30PM, Saturday, February 12. Media can meet Stop UBC Animal Research at 6:30PM in front of the Roundhouse Community Centre at the corner of Davie and Pacific in Yaletown. We will then walk among the event crowds to educate the public about UBC’s animal research. Click here for directions.

 

VISUALS:

*Animal advocates dressed as the Wizard of Oz’s Tin Man and as UBC monkeys

*Large Valentine’s cards for the crowds to sign

*Animal advocates wearing Stop UBC Animal Research T-shirts

*Signs that read: “UBC, Have a Heart – End Animal Research,” “End all animal exploitation,” “Don’t have a tin ear, UBC. Listen to the public. Free the monkeys,” “If UBC had a heart it would end animal experiments.”

 

WHY: Every year, UBC conducts thousands of experiments on cats, mice, pigs, rabbits, monkeys, and other animals. After a months’-long investigation, Stop UBC Animal Research has discovered that UBC has been injecting toxins into monkeys’ brains to simulate “parkinsonism.” A UBC report obtained by Stop UBC Animal Research states that one researcher is using non-human primates to create in the animals “a new, progressively degenerative ‘model’ of Parkinson’s Disease.” According to the document, the UBC researcher’s experiment “uses rhesus monkeys which are receiving injections of proteasomal inhibitors into their brains. Head-holding devices have been surgically implanted into the monkeys’ brains, and protrude from the top of the monkeys’ heads, to be hooked up to frames when the researchers want to totally immobilize the animals presumably for injection of drugs and for scans at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months.  The monkeys have been scanned after implantation but before injection, for baseline (or starting point) information. Some animals are to be killed at 6 months, some at 12 months.” According to an April 12, 2010 progress report published by TRIUMF, Canada’s National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics, UBC’s Parkinson’s experiment is active and ongoing. It is anticipated the monkeys will be killed by April, when federal funding for the project ends. Stop UBC Animal Research has offered to buy the monkeys so they can be placed in a primate sanctuary.

 

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