Members of Oberlin Animal Rights (OAR) are protesting introductory neuroscience labs in which holes are drilled in the skulls of anesthisized rats. Protests began before Thanksgiving and will continue as long as labs of this type are held.
At a protest Nov. 19, the group of protestors, numbering just over a dozen people, plastered the door to the lab with anti-vivisection posters and anti-animal experimentation slogans such as "kill vivisection" and "rats have rights." Vivisection is experimentation on live animals. A protestor dressed as a scientist holding a bloody syringe stood above another protestor pretending to be a rat.
OAR also hung a banner from King before Thanksgiving that reads "Stop Vivisection at Oberlin."
Junior Aaron Simmons, OAR liaison, said that although the protests take place at vivisection labs, the group is against animal experimentation in general at Oberlin College.
The labs are taught by Professor of Neuroscience Dennison Smith and Visiting Assistant Professor of Neuroscience Albert Borroni.
When the group asked Borroni for permission to read their statement of protest to the students in the lab, Borroni agreed to let Simmons read the statement, saying "[The neuroscience students] have to decide for themselves and be able to justify their own actions."
The statement, while stating that the protestors "understand the importance of scientific research and endeavors," also states that "no end can ever justify the abuse and nonconcensual termination of a living being."
According to sophomore Josh Raisler Cohn, no attempt was made to enter the laboratory because "there was a good chance we'd be suspended."
Smith, who refused entrance to protestors during last Tuesday's lab, said, "Last year you [animal rights protestors] came in here and disrupted my class. Initiate a dialogue in another context and we'll talk."
"It's not a place for a discussion," Borroni agreed, "although discussion is a good thing to happen ... I think if you have something to say you should get a forum to address it."
According to junior Kim DeFeo, a member of OAR, the group will try to bring about a place for such a forum in classes where animal research may be encountered. "We're going to try to set up a bioethics discussion in each neuroscience and biology course," said DeFeo.
Randy Bartlett, a first-year enrolled in the lab, diasgreed with the methods used by the protestors. "I think it was a non-effective protest. We have to take the class. They are in the hallway. It just makes my life harder."
Bartlett said he too had questioned the use of vivisection. "I don't think it's the most wonderful idea," Barlett said. "I've had my own soul-searching."
"They all come for the rats," Bartlett said. "Nobody protests cockroaches. They don't care about the cockroaches."
A protestor who overheard Bartlett's assesment disagreed. "I care about cockroaches," she said. "I can't kill a mosquito."
First-year Nicki Atkinson, one of the protestors, summarized the demonstration. "We may not have changed anybody's opinions but at least we got our foot in the door."
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