Animal research protested

Dressed as the ghosts of pigs and baboons used in Neurosurgery Professor Thomas Gennarelli's laboratory for head injury research, animal rights activists marched from the Van Pelt Library to the Goddard Research Laboratories on Hamilton Walk last night. Approximately 40 activists, representing seven animal rights organizations, walked through campus carrying signs and chanting slogans criticizing Gennarelli's work. "Your experiments are a crime," they shouted. "You're sicker than Doctor Frankenstein." "Gennarelli: Run and hide. We see what goes on inside," others yelled. Representatives of the Open Expression Committee accompanied the protesters to ensure that they did not break University policies and that their rights to protest would not be infringed on by others. Several spectators on the route to the laboratories appeared confused. Others expressed hostility. One student yelled, "Halloween is tomorrow." "We thought tonight was really fitting to start this series of protests on the eve of Halloween because Tom Gennarelli is probably one of the biggest monsters there is when it comes to animal experiments and he is pulling one of the biggest tricks on the American public that has been perpetrated in terms of animal experimentation," said Dean Smith, outreach director for the American Anti-Vivisection Society. Society member Andy Breslin posed as Gennarelli, who is director of the University's Head Injury Research Center, and read a poem entitled "The Piggy," written "in honor of Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Raven.' " College sophomore Carrie Kramer, president of Penn Society for Animal Rights, explained that this is the first of several protests planned for this year targeting Gennarelli's research. The protesters also represented city, state and national organizations including The New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance, The American Anti-Vivisection Society and the Lehigh Valley Animal Rights Coalition. Last night's protest was not the first series of protests against Gennarelli. On Memorial Day, 1984, members of a group calling itself the Animal Liberation Front broke into and vandalized Gennarelli's laboratory. They stole more than 60 hours of videotapes documenting head injury experiments using baboons. Gennarelli's funding was revoked and his laboratory was shut down in 1985, according to a PETA statement. In April 1991, after external evaluation of a new project using swine, the National Institutes of Health awarded Gennarelli a new grant. Gennarelli has received several awards for his research including the Caveness award from the National Head Injury Foundation for "outstanding contribution to head injury," and the Award of Merit from the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine. University spokeswoman Barbara Beck said the protesters had a right to express themselves last night. "The University respects the opinions of the group concerning the use of animals for experiments in medical research," Beck said. "However, our society also places strong emphasis on improving health care and finding cures for diseases that affect both people and animals including pets and wildlife." While the protesters were standing outside of the laboratories, students yelled from the Quadrangle. "Why don't you shut up?" one student yelled. "I'm trying to do work." Several protesters responded with comments, such as "close your window," "try to learn something," and "It's past your bedtime."

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