1987,Trans-SpeciesUnlimited,aPennsylvania-basedanimal
rights group, compiled all the available information they
couldfindabouttheexperimentsandbegantocampaignto
stopthem.Forfourmonths, concernedpeoplepicketedthe
laboratoryatwhichthecatstudieswerebeingconductedand
wroteletterstothefundingagencies,thepress,theuniversity,
and legislators.After defendingtheexperimentsfor along
time, late in 1988 Cornell and Michiko Okamoto, the
researchercarryingouttheexperiments,wrotetothefunding
body,theNationalInstituteonDrugAbuse,tosaytheywould
forfeitanew$530,000researchgrantthatwouldhavepaid
for three more years of experiments.^97
Howcanthesethingshappen?Howcanpeoplewhoarenot
sadists spend their working days driving monkeys into
lifelongdepression,heatingdogstodeath,orturningcatsinto
drugaddicts?How cantheythenremovetheirwhitecoats,
washtheirhands,andgohometodinnerwiththeirfamilies?
Howcantaxpayersallowtheirmoneytobeusedtosupport
theseexperiments?Howdidstudentscarryonprotestsagainst
injustice, discrimination, and oppression of all kinds, no
matterhowfarfromhome,whileignoringthecrueltiesthat
were—and still are—being carried out on their own
campuses?
The answer to these questions lies in the unquestioned
acceptanceofspeciesism.Wetoleratecrueltiesinflicted on
membersofotherspeciesthatwouldoutrageusifperformed
on members of our own species. Speciesism allows
researcherstoregardtheanimalstheyexperimentonasitems
of equipment,laboratory tools rather thanliving, suffering
creatures. In fact, on grant applications to government