AIDS group to
act up at animal-rights event:
Issue of research for cure splits longtime allies.
The Washington Times
6/20/1996
AIDS research activists
plan to take on animal-rights advocates today in a clash between groups
that have traditionally attracted support from many of the same people.
AIDS activists,
including ACT UP Washington, are battling People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals over the group's opposition to animal testing for AIDS research.
When PETA and other
animal-rights activists arrive today for five days of World Animal Awareness
Week events, ACT UP plans to be there to greet them.
ACT UP spokesman
Steve Michael said his group will block the entrance at USAir Arena
as animal-rights activists arrive for a morning meeting.
"We're blocking
them like they blocked AIDS research," he said.
World Animal Awareness
Week starts with the World Congress for Animals at USAir Arena today
and ends Monday with a day of lobbying on Capitol Hill. ACT UP members
plan to chant and protest at a celebrity gala and auction Saturday night
at the Renaissance Hotel on Ninth Street NW.
Mr. Michael said
PETA respects animal life more than human life and is standing in the
way of research.
"PETA is doing
damage to things that matter to people," Mr. Michael said. "If
you're for animal rights, you're against AIDS research. You have to
have animal research in order to find a cure for AIDS."
Peter Gerard, executive
director of the National Alliance for Animals, organizers of the week's
events, said AIDS research and animal rights go hand in hand.
"We want a
cure for AIDS just as much as anyone does, we just don't believe using
animals is a necessary part of finding it," he said.
The alliance contends
that ACT UP is "leading people down a blind alley" by saying
animals are required for AIDS research. AIDS patients are willing to
volunteer for experiments, Mr. Gerard said.
"Animal experimentation
doesn't work. Injecting animals with a human disease they will never
get won't work. We need a human and humane solution to a human problem,"
Mr. Gerard said.
"It's through
studies with human patients that will teach us about AIDS," said
Dan Mathews, campaign director for PETA.
The debate is complicated
by the fact that the two sides have traditionally attracted many of
the same patrons.
"Most of PETA's
supporters and volunteers are involved with AIDS," said Mr. Mathews,
who said he actively supports the fight against AIDS. Mr. Michael said
supporters of both causes have to make a choice because it's impossible
to support both. PETA and National Alliance for Animals leaders say
there are plenty of differences among people who fight for animal rights
and there's room for all.
"It's a shame
they're are trying to distract the AIDS community from the real enemies:
the drug companies who want the animals in order to make money. We sympathize
with their anger at the government's treatment of gays and AIDS, but
we're not the enemy," Mr. Mathews said.
There's also division
among ACT UP chapters. ACT UP San Francisco supports the animal-rights
organizations and plans to have representatives at the events this week.
In what may be a
sign of things to come, tensions erupted yesterday when Jeff Getty,
a California man with AIDS who received a bone-marrow transplant from
a baboon in December, held a news conference to criticize PETA.
Larry Carter, an
animal-rights supporter with cerebral palsy, started speaking out against
Mr. Getty when security officers picked him up and took him away.
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