Pasadena Research Company Faces Wrath of Animal Rights Activists
A Pasadena research company is under fire from animal rights activists for its current animal testing project.
ChromoLogic, a private diagnostic technology research company, is developing a machine to test humans for radiation poisoning. Following Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster after the TÅhoku earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, the project aims to test humans after a nuclear radiological event, reports Pasadena-Star News.
ChromoLogic - with the aid of $8 million in federal funding - will test 32 Rhesus monkeys during development. The animal testing did not sit well with Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! (SAEN), an animal rights group that will protest the ChromoLogic Pasadena office today at 2pm.
Julia MacKenzie, SAEN's L.A. representative, told Pasadena-Star News, "I object to them using animals in research and wasting taxpayers' money." In defense of the project, ChromoLogic's CEO Naresh Menon said the testing was commissioned by the federal government, would be an important technology for determining medical treatment and that all animal testing is conducted - not at the Pasadena site - but in Canada.
Menon told Pasadena-Star News, "We are looking at people who are receiving potentially lethal doses of radiation, and non-human primates are the only model available to test it on."
