鈥淟ARRY will always be in my heart,鈥� says Sally Walshaw. 鈥淚 cried before and after the euthanasia session, but I didn鈥檛 want to upset Larry by crying during the session itself. I spent a lot of time with him on his last day, and gave him lots of treats. Then Larry received a sedative, and about 10 minutes later the euthanasia was administered.鈥�
Larry was a 10-year-old rabbit and one of Walshaw鈥檚 favourite charges in a lab at Michigan State University, where she cared for animals. Larry had become uncontrollably wheezy from a cancer he had developed due to old age following a research programme and it was up to Walshaw to end his suffering.
Every day, in research facilities around the world, specialist staff who care for animals are faced with the same task 鈥� to kill the animals they have looked after for months or years, sometimes with a lethal injection, sometimes by suffocating them with carbon dioxide and sometimes by breaking their necks.
Advertisement
What鈥檚 coming to light for the first time is that euthanasia of their charges triggers feelings of guilt, remorse and grief in many carers but most suffer in silence because the subject is taboo, and they feel they have no way to unburden themselves. Few receive any formal training on how to cope with their feelings, or practical or emotional support, whether from the institutions and scientists they work for, or from colleagues and family members. To add to their distress, lab animal technicians are often portrayed by animal rights extremists as torturers and murderers.
The scale of unease emerged earlier this month in Aviemore at the annual meeting of the UK Institute of Animal Technology (IAT), which represents 2200 lab-animal workers. Keith Davies, operational director of the animal facilities at Cardiff University, presented preliminary results of an investigation into the emotional demands of caring for, and having to kill lab animals.
Last year, Davies held six focus groups on the issue attended by 31 individuals. What emerged was a picture of repressed but deeply felt emotions, empathy for animals and frustration at not feeling able to show grief. They also felt dissatisfied at not being able discuss openly the value of the research or share in credit for medical breakthroughs resulting from it.
鈥淲hat emerged was a picture of repressed but deeply felt emotions and frustration at not feeling able to show grief鈥�
鈥淲e need to feel emotion, but at the moment it鈥檚 below the surface,鈥� says Davies, who plans a further survey to quantify the level of guilt, alienation and coping skills experienced by British animal technicians. 鈥淭here are clearly people who have suffered environmental crises in our industry.鈥�
Delegates at the meeting, attended exclusively by New 杏吧原创, greeted Davies鈥檚 talk with a sense of catharsis, many saying it was their first realisation that others shared their feelings. Most argued that feeling emotion and guilt is positive, not negative. 鈥淚t shows that people who work with animals really care about them,鈥� said Jo Tanner of the UK Coalition for Medical Progress, an alliance supporting animal research.
Davies said that carers faced with carrying out euthanasia could take some heart from the 鈥�12 Concepts鈥� published in 2001 by the US Mazer Guild, an organisation for technicians who put down strays and unwanted pets. The list of concepts is pinned up on the walls of many US animal sanctuaries to help staff cope with the negative public image of their work. They include statements such as: 鈥淚 acknowledge there鈥檚 a substantial difference between the sorrow that I feel and the guilt the public would have me feel, and will not be tricked into confusing the two. My sorrow is not my guilt.鈥�
Marilyn Brown, a delegate from Charles River Laboratories in Wilmington, Massachusetts, said that some companies and institutes in the US, including her own, already run support sessions. 鈥淲e want our staff to care, so we need to provide a mechanism for them to cope with this openly,鈥� she said.
Walshaw, who is now retired, says the key is to accept grief, not fight it. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 get over grief, you integrate it,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e changed for ever, and you come back to a new state of 鈥榥ormal鈥�. Experiencing it is essential to a reasonable life, and if you don鈥檛 do death well, you don鈥檛 do life well either.鈥�
Walshaw also pointed out that although some animals undergo painful procedures, it is a small minority. 鈥淲e try to give them a good life and a peaceful death, and that鈥檚 a lot more than many people get,鈥� she says.
Other possibilities to ease or share remorse include regular memorial services 鈥� perhaps once a year 鈥� to commemorate animals that have died and pay tribute to their part in research projects. In Japan, researchers already do this as part of the Shinto and Buddhist traditions.
Animal carers would also benefit from reflecting on the good that comes out of the research, both for humans and for animals, in the case of veterinary science. But some delegates at the Aviemore meeting complained they receive little or no feedback from researchers on the purpose and progress of their work.
Barbara Davies of the Research Development Society, a UK organisation backing animal research, agrees. 鈥淣ot everyone in universities knows what goes on in animal research, and there need to be internal debates to educate staff about what goes on, the fact that animals are well looked after, and for good medical purposes.鈥�
Some carers felt they deserved more recognition for their part in medical success stories, rather than being permanently muzzled to avoid negative publicity. 鈥淭hey should be able to feel part of a moral good, not a 鈥榥ecessary evil鈥�,鈥� said Fiona McEwan of the Institute of Psychiatry in London.
Another positive ploy is to invite families of carers for tours of facilities, so that they can see for themselves the conditions animals are kept in. 鈥淭hese have worked exceptionally well,鈥� says Mark Gardiner of the UK Medical Research Council鈥檚 Mary Lyon Centre in Didcot, Oxfordshire. Afterwards, staff said that at last, they could discuss what they did 鈥渙ver the dinner table鈥�.
Until Davies has completed his extended survey, the full scale of the problem and how to solve it will be unclear. In the meantime, the most powerful weapons the carers have are their empathy for animals and the realisation that feeling remorse is not a bad thing. 鈥淭he day it stops bothering you is the day you need to go work in human resources,鈥� says Jas Barley of the IAT.
Mental Health 鈥� Discover the latest research in our continuously updated special report.
Researchers under attack
On 5 February, animal liberationists tried to set fire to Edythe London鈥檚 home in California with a Molotov cocktail-style incendiary device. Last October, they poked a hose through a broken window and flooded her house. London was the subject of their wrath because she used animals to study nicotine addiction at the University of California, Los Angeles. Last month, the Biomedical Research Institute at Hasselt University in Belgium was set on fire.
The attacks fits a pattern that originated in the UK and has now spread to the US and to mainland Europe following a heavy clampdown on UK activism in 2005. 鈥淭he US escalation seems to be mainly in personal attacks, as opposed to attacks against institutions,鈥� says Frankie Trull of the Foundation for Biomedical Research in Washington DC.
In July 2005 the UK government introduced the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, which made it an offence for someone to threaten companies that do business with animal research organisations either directly or indirectly. The law also criminalised acts of intimidation and harassment, such as threatening letters and demonstrations outside people鈥檚 homes. It coincided with a huge and concerted crackdown by police on activists, culminating in May 2007 with 鈥淥peration Achilles鈥�, which saw the arrest of 30 activists around the country, some of whom face trial later this year.
The act has contributed to a slump in such violent activism, although the number of legal protests has stayed steady. 鈥淚t stops illegal intimidation but not the democratic right of people to make their views known,鈥� says a spokesman for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, which has compiled data since 2002 on UK animal rights activism (see Graph).FIG-mg26493701.jpg
The big question now is whether violent activism will continue to escalate elsewhere. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to happen here what happened in the UK,鈥� says Trull. She says that at present, US universities and companies are failing to take the threat seriously. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not on their radar yet. The mentality is that it will happen to someone else.鈥�
