Oct06
Vivisector of the Month Presents the Frankenscience Award
Posted at 09:29 AM | Permalink
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Comments (28)
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Michael B. Hennessy, a psychology professor at Wright State University, spends his time tormenting baby guinea pigs. With help from over $350 thousand in funding from taxpayer dollars, Hennessy has learned a lot about sickness and stress in laboratory animals, but he himself isn't confident that the results can be safely extrapolated to humans.
Hennessy takes guinea pigs from their mothers when the newborns are less than 1 month old to observe the resulting "stress-induced sickness behavior." To worsen things, the babies are injected with a behavior-altering substance to see how it affects them. They are forced to endure invasive surgeries, including having their heads cut open, tubes stuck inside, and various chemicals and agents injected into them—including E. Coli bacteria!
To make matters worse, even Hennessy himself sees the obvious problem with his methods—the fact that guinea pigs aren't people. In a recent paper, he concludes that "caution is required in generalizing from studies of sickness in laboratory animals to depression in humans."
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Floody starts with healthy female hamsters, carves into their skulls, damages their brains, and then examines how this affects their sexual behavior. To assess this, he drops them in a box with a male hamster or "manually stimulates" them (you don't want to know). At the end of this bizarre ordeal, the animals are killed and their brains are dissected.
Floody even gets his students involved in these experiments, allowing undergraduate students in his physiological psychology course to help with this torture. PETA has already expressed its concerns to Bucknell, and you can chime in to help end these experiments by clicking here.
What'll it be? The Wright State professor who grasps the underlying problem with vivisection but does it anyway? Or the Bucknell professor who "manually stimulates" then kills female hamsters? Leave a comment to let me know!
Posted by Sean Conner
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If Hennessy is really a thinking man, maybe he can answer this question: why is it okay to torture infant guinea pigs, but it's not okay to torture human infants?
He obviously thinks there's enough of a "psychological" similarity to compare suffering in the two. Why is it moral to torture one instead of the other?
Maybe he just can't torture human babies because the law won't let him. Some psychologist. Both are hideous, but I'll vote for him.
Posted by: Maya, CVT | October 6, 2008 10:56 AM
Floody—they are both pervs though. They're not interested in real science, but just biding their time with pretend experiments until they get their nice fat retirement pension. Nice gig (not) if you can get it, though how do you live with yourself?
Posted by: Mike Quinoa | October 6, 2008 11:26 AM
Owen, the idiot moron!
Posted by: 4 the Animals | October 6, 2008 11:27 AM
Definetly Owen Floody - just looking at his picture gives me the creeps!
Michael B. Hennessy sounds pretty bad as well; but I think Floody is the winner. He has that scary animal experimenter look that most vivisectors have, or maybe its just me.
Posted by: Aneliese | October 6, 2008 11:46 AM
Evil is Evil. Greed is Greed. So they both win! My heart goes out to those poor little animals!
Posted by: SASHA | October 6, 2008 11:53 AM
Sounds as though '' Floody,'' has serious sexual repressed behaviour. Perhaps his co-animal abuser Hennessy, should disect his brain some. On a serious note though, he should be on a charge of animal beastial activity.
Posted by: keith | October 6, 2008 12:08 PM
Psychology professors??? Soo this is what you do now post-degree?? I know!! Both your services are no longer rendered favorable to the human-race so you have to take out you're "dumb as a stump" "I'm no longer a productive human-being" attitude so I must lie, cheat and make as many lives as I can miseriable as possible and call it science!?? You both are nut bars and should have your degrees thrown!! Mr. Bloody, I mean Floody has my vote... 30 gull darn years??? Sicko!!!
Posted by: Carla | October 6, 2008 12:25 PM
Both sickos definitely deserve the award but that Floody guy is at the cutting edge of weirdo freaky torture! !
Posted by: Maureen | October 6, 2008 01:14 PM
i am disgusted by this the first guy is the worst one because the other guy is just a pervert and he is just creul
Posted by: hjalmer koski | October 6, 2008 02:50 PM
experiments like this make no sense to me. hamsters, guinea pigs, dogs, cats, pigs, monkeys, etc, etc are not people and exhibit different behaivors than people not even counting that face that its cruel. also i dont understand what they are trying to learn? that babies need their mothers? i think anyone can come to that conclusion without any torture involved. and the sexual drive of brain damaged hamsters.....is he trying to see if people with brain damage have a sex drive? ok why? i dont understand what this knowledge could provide. besides humans are the only animals that have sex purely for pleasure, animals have sex to further their species. i just find these tests not only barbaric but pointless.
Posted by: katy | October 6, 2008 04:24 PM
Floody looks like the "creepy" neighbor that tries to give your kids candy.
Posted by: Siobhan | October 6, 2008 06:30 PM
What Mike Quinoa said. Again i refuse to vote. Both are sickos and both are perverts, publically funded of course. It's hard to choose.
Posted by: vegancoin | October 6, 2008 06:40 PM
These two yahoos are clearly, psychopaths. Don't know what qualifies as one? You just read about two right here. Lack of empathy, is a small part of it. These guys are the type that pulled legs off of frogs in childhood, in private of course, and got a thrill from it ( or other cruel acts on animals). They are sick; ridiculous; and I'm continually outraged that I work for a living to support this nonsense. I vote for both for being unbelievably beyond sick. Evil. May they be the receipients of their own experiements one day. That's justice if there is any to help these innocent creatures. STOP THIS. PLEASE.
Posted by: Kate Wilder | October 6, 2008 07:18 PM
Hennessy! they are both f**king morrons but the whole idea of doing something so horrible and them saying that in the end, there is no conclusion cause they are not humans (which peta has been saying for years) makes me sick! I bet he just enjoys making them feel pain and then uses science as an excuse!! PEACE TO ALL ANIMALS!
Posted by: RORY | October 6, 2008 11:51 PM
Vivisectors are all the same cruel insane bastards - suffering from megalomania and having a heart of stone!
Posted by: THE MASK | October 7, 2008 10:06 AM
they are both sick...
too difficult to decide :\
Posted by: Clare | October 7, 2008 10:40 AM
If you had to decide between saving your hamsters life and saving your daughters life, which would you choose?
Don't answer this question, i'm afraid of what some people might say.
Posted by: Blake | October 7, 2008 03:45 PM
Check your facts people... as a REAL scientist I do know the facts and you are making false claims about research that you have no idea about. Review all the scientific literature as well as the strict protocols required in the scientific community then you can make a valid argument. Until then, continue to lay false claims on people who really care to make a difference in this world.
Posted by: Anne | October 7, 2008 08:56 PM
Saving a hamster or my daughter? Who told you one has to be exclusive of the other? Did you know we are in the 21st century and non-animal methods of experimentation are widely available?
Actually, my daughter would have a better chance of surviving from science based on non-animal methods since we all know by now (or at least most of us) that animal tests are archaic and inaccurate. That is why I don't ever give money to research groups such as The Canadian cancer Society or the Terry Fox Foundation which are still trying to find the cure for cancer by experimenting on animals. Basically they are wasting the money that people raise with so much hope.
In my story, both my daughter and the hamsters survive and, in the meantime, my daughter learns the important lesson of COMPASSION.
Michael Hennessy's, Owan Floody's and Clare's brains need to be dissected.
Posted by: NT | October 7, 2008 10:57 PM
They're both beyond help in that their evil souls are forever corrupted. Someone needs to stop them, no matter what it takes.
Posted by: Mikael | October 8, 2008 02:50 AM
Anne,
Since you are a scientist, can you please explain what exactly is the purpose of the above research?
You also are aware, I'm sure, that many scientists oppose vivisection purely from a scientific basis.
Posted by: Mike Quinoa | October 8, 2008 10:07 AM
we live in a cruel world. its a shame but there you are. its never going to change, just keeps going round and round. same old same old, pleasure/ pain principle. theres the good guys and the bad guys. thing is each one thinks their on the right side. so what can you do. just keep arguing i guess.
Posted by: Dee | October 8, 2008 10:19 AM
These two men are mental and spiritual midgets. And in my oppinion, just plain perverted. Brain damage and sex? Mmm lets see. I think, but I don't know, maybe I might have to do an experiment to figure it out, there are people who have brain damage who would be more qualified to answer that question then a hampster. Is this society so far removed from sexual experience that we have to relie on the sex drives of hamsters to cue us in. I am deeply concerned about the future of this nation. There are people who don't have their heads and their gentials in the sand that will give of themselves to make love too and/or have sex with the mentally ill. Myself included. I took time to work with and yes have sex and make love to a man who spent most of his life institutionized. His diagnoses; schizophrenia. It was the most humbling experience of my life. No it wasn't just about the sex, I worked with him on many levels; art, prayer, explaining stuff (endlessly) and yes showing him how to make love to a women. I can tell you that "the sex" just as sure as I am sitting here helped that man recover some of his senses. Is that so difficult to understand?
My dear friend is now, what is known as a success story, living a life that no doctor or social worker or shrink ever thought possible.
But my vote goes to the real lunatic, the first guy, opening up the skulls of guinee pigs. What I could do to that man, even PETA won't print. So I'll just leave it at that.
VENGENCE BELONGS TO GOD.
Posted by: Saucy | October 8, 2008 01:19 PM
Yay! It annoys me no end when people like this get awards, honours for things like these, so now something which can tell the world what monsters they are.
They're both evil - I don't think I can decide.
Posted by: Fiona | October 8, 2008 02:14 PM
Mike,
Agreed, there are many scientist who are against animal testing and that is great. The scientific community and animal use and care committees need ALL voices & opinions on the matter. No one should ever be 'forced' into performing any experiment if they are not comfortable. Dr. Henessey's work has a rationale behind it and can be accessed through a scholarly journal search under his name. Funding for animal studies have very strict guidelines and regulations. The funding process is very competitive so to have the honor of being funded by the government is a true testament to the level of research performed by that individual. People do not go into animal research to be cruel, they believe and have support that their research truly is making a positive difference. PETA is blowing the story our of proportion and distorting the facts. The animal research community is always going to be criticized. These are the individuals who come up with life saving drugs, treatments & immunizations that we all take for granted. I feel that people are attacking these educated individuals based on hearsay and should really be doing their own research on the subject and finding out WHY and HOW they rationalize their research rather than criticize them for something they read on a website.
Posted by: Anne | October 8, 2008 06:58 PM
Anne,
If Dr. Hennessey's work has a rationale behind it, would you mind just briefly summarizing it for me? And since you didn't mention him, what about Owen Floody—do you feel stimulating female hamsters sexually has no merit?
Misleading animal drug trials have been the cause of countless human deaths and suffering:
"Although some adverse drug reactions (ADR) are not very serious, others cause the death, hospitalization, or serious injury of more than 2 million people in the United States each year, including more than 100,000 fatalities. In fact, adverse drug reactions are one of the leading causes of death in the United States." (Lazarou J, Pomeranz BH, Corey PN. Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: A meta-analysis of prospective studies. Journal of the American Medical Association Apr 15, 1998; 279: 1200 - 1205.)
These are all drugs that have passed animal testing with flying colors.
"According to the Food and Drug Administration, 92 percent of all drugs that pass preclinical testing on animals fail in human clinical trials. Of the eight percent that receive FDA approval, half are later withdrawn from the market or have significant side effects that were not identified during animal experimentation."
And what about the potentially human-benefiting drugs that have been abandoned due to unpromising animal trials?
Posted by: Mike Quinoa | October 9, 2008 03:12 PM
"Check your facts people... as a REAL scientist I do know the facts and you are making false claims about research that you have no idea about."
Wrong. As a real compassionate human being it is only a matter of commonsense and unbaised realworld observation, to know that this is pure unadulterated pseudoscience. And that the ghastly and horrific experiments performed are nothing more than unthinkable cruel and brutal torture of innocent lab animals. They are involuntary test subjects. In a word sick and unnecessary.
Posted by: vegancoin | October 9, 2008 09:27 PM
I couldn't bear to be in the presence of either of these animal abusers in lab coats. What injustice to the animals who have no choice!
My vote goes to Hennessy.
Posted by: lynda downie | October 27, 2008 01:46 AM