Fresno State animal testing not as dark as imagined

Facing his painful memories opened up new understanding of something he loathes

By Nick Berman

This column is the second half of Nick Berman’s column on Animal testing. In the first part (Wed. Nov. 19), Berman recounts an encounter with test animals at Fresno State while in high school. Berman said the encounter caused him considerable mental strain, and has been haunted by the images until he decided to face his fears…

While taking notes in my class in the science building, I was mentally cornered by the rats that I have seen and still see in their anguish and disfigurement. The innocent creatures that became something morbid through the work of scientists, animals that had their skin peeled off and stapled back into place to see if it would reattach. It was more than I could stand.

I had to speak with someone in the science department—a person who might be able to assure me experiments are not normally done like that—a person who could aid in removing these mental shrouds that had pervaded my mind for so long.

Marching into the office of the dean, I asked to make an appointment with whoever is in charge of the animal testing on campus, and was granted an appointment with Dr. David Grubbs.

When I arrived at my appointment, I was thrown off kilter from what I had visualized this man to be like. I had figured I would encounter a man callused to the needs and pains of animals—an overzealous scientist who cared much more about results than life. I found none of these things.

Dr. Grubbs is a man very much concerned with the welfare of the test subjects—not the evil man I had pictured who laughed at people like myself who care very deeply for animals. He was very polite and very open to discuss the testing done on campus and all the procedures that accompany its process. The evil Fresno State official that allowed the rats to become frankensteined was not evil at all.

Each experiment that requires the use of animals must apply to use them, and must have a valid reason for the experiment and why it must involve live elements. He did not know in-depth about the experiment I had witnessed, perhaps due to span of time between then and now. I asked if my recollections were incorrect, he told me that they are not, but that there are always reasons for experiments, but he did not know the reason for the program I had viewed.

I had pictured a confrontation between myself and the animal testing supervisor that would end in a screaming match and a very dramatic scene, yet I found this wasn’t going to happen. Dr. Grubbs was very intelligent and understanding of my concerns, and though the experiments continue today, even with the same high school program I participated in, he stood by his assertions that they were and still are necessary to advance medical research and is done with as little pain as possible, despite the accuracy of my observations.

When I left, I expected to have venomous thoughts for him—I was still disturbed at the testing on this campus—but if it has to occur, I was slightly relieved that a man like him was the overseer.

My journey to ease my conscience had been realized and I had spoken to the man I had waited for these many years, only to be surprised and slightly stupefied. Though the gravity of those rats’ death still weighs on my mind, and I would like to see animal testing abolished at Fresno State, we must settle for small victories in Fresno or we will not have any at all.

My small victory was meeting Dr. Grubbs, a concerned person in a sea of apathetic bureaucracy. Not that I will not work to oust his curriculum, but my crusade to end animal testing will be based upon principles, and not on displaced hate for one man.

— This columnist can be reached at collegian@csufresno.edu