A click of the mouse on the link to the CRISP (Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects) website confirmed that Ohio State University was back to killing cats.

Lawrence E. Mathes, Ph.D., College of Veterinary Medicine, and Maria Hadjiconstantinou-Neff, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry and Pharmacology, in September 2002, received $331,782, from the National Institute On Drug Abuse (NIDA) under the Michael Podell grant number, 5R01DA13815.

In an effort to distort the aim of the experiment, the project name changes from, Feline Model of Neuroaids and Drug Abuse, to Psychostimulants and Lentiviral Infection of Neural Cell. However, the objective of the experiment remains the same. From the Mathes/Neff NIDA grant abstract,

“Thus, the overall objective of this study is to evaluate the synergistic effects of FIV infection and chronic METH with acute 'binges' on immune function and viral interaction, neurobehavior and neurophysiology, and neurodegeneration.”

Our efforts to halt this restarted experiment will continue. News reporting tells the story of our latest protest. Their stories also illustrate The Ohio State University's attempts to distort the procedures, aims, and goals of this project. The experimental goals show no development for a vaccine against FIV yet OSU continues to mention that they developed the first vaccine against feline leukemia.

When an e-mail clearly states a reason to continue this work is "so it doesn't look like animal rights protestors won on this issue", OSU says it's taken out of context. Well you can decide for yourself. Click here to read the e-mail.

And OSU has done everything to change the issue; including saying no cats will be used. Well, they say no cats are being used now. Yet again, the Mathes/Neff NIDA grant abstract clearly says cats will be used over a two year period.

Here are the stories generated from our October 29 Press Release.

The Columbus Dispatch, October 30.

From the Associated Press we learn that last year OSU used 54,000 animals in experiments, with 47,582 of them being rats and mice. We also learn that not all research animals are killed. Well our monitoring of the monthly ILACUC (Animal Care and Use) meetings, where the projects are approved, indicates that atleast 96% of the animals are killed, including 100% of the rats and mice.

October 30 and OSU sends out their own press release on the experiment.

The morning of our November 1 protest articles appear in the Dispatch and The Lantern.

From the Dispatch, Mathes indicates that he would not have pursued the original objectives of Podell's grant. So Podell's work never should have been approved? What does Mathes mean?

Mathes and Neff both say, "their research already points at new treatments for AIDS." And the treatments are ........

Reading from The Lantern, Holland said the research no longer involves the testing of animals. Well, Podell never was testing anything. He was infecting cats and binging them on speed. And if Mathes/Neff are not going to use any more cats then their abstract/grant application should change and let's hear OSU say, "NO MORE CATS!"

POET Press Release for November 1 demonstration.

Lantern for November 4.

What I found to be a good synopsis and status of the OSU experiment. From the November 7, Alive newspaper.

The OSU newspaper, On Campus, runs the October 30 OSU press release in their November 7 issue. We learn from C. Bradley Moore, VP for research, that the "Cats-On-Meth" experiment "has strong, direct implications for the health of Ohioans and the nation."

to continue......... Where we are almost two years later September 2004 Update: More cats and more money.

SIDENOTE: A study conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University ranked Ohio at 35 out of 50 states and the District of Columbia in drug treatment funding. The Ohio expenditure equates to $3.74 per resident. The national average is $11.09.

For the history of this experiment click here.

Mathes had previously worked and published papers with Podell, but we wondered what does Maria Neff do with the other animals that she uses for experimentation? Swimming for their lives.