Palmer College of Chiropractic

Chiropractic Research

Understanding Research at Palmer

Research, including animal research, is vital to the understanding of and enhancement of human health. Recently, representatives of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have been questioning Palmer’s work with animal research and using emotional tactics and even fabrications of the truth to slander Palmer’s good name.

• Palmer’s Correspondence with PETA
• Q & A on Animal Research at the Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research
• In the News: PETA’s Ethics Come into Question
• Animal Research Links
• Palmer Research Director Defends Animal Experiments
• PETA Manipulates Photos

Palmer Research Director Defends Animal Experiments

The director of the Palmer Center for Chiropractic Research in Davenport, Iowa, today denied a claim from a militant animal rights group that Palmer scientists were "torturing animals," stating that stringent federal regulations and frequent monitoring by outside agencies make any alleged torturing virtually impossible.

William C. Meeker, D.C., Vice President for Research for the Palmer Chiropractic University System, characterized the accusation launched in the media Wednesday from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) as "typical of the emotional tactics they have used to attack scientific research in university settings for decades."

Dr. Meeker said Palmer has been conducting ethical, legal and humane research using animals and humans for more than 15 years. Thanks to federal support for an extensive renovation of the chiropractic research center in Davenport, which was dedicated just last August, scientists have been able to move some projects formerly done at the University of Iowa to the new facility. "The overarching goal of all this research is to improve the public's health, not to defend the practice of chiropractic," Dr. Meeker said. "In doing this research the individual scientists and this institution itself adhere to the letter and the spirit of all federal and state laws, regulations and ethical norms concerning human and animal research. The federal rules and regulations are incredibly exacting, and we meet them all. We are intensely focused on preventing suffering and distress in laboratory animals when animals are part of investigations," he said.

Research projects currently underway involving laboratory animals are funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, the premier scientific funding agency of the federal government. The NIH requires adherence to strict regulations for research using laboratory animals. All research protocols proposing use of laboratory animals are reviewed by at least two independent groups of scientific and ethical experts. These groups include: Palmer's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, which functions independently of the Palmer Chiropractic University System and is approved by the federal government; and a Study Section convened by the National Institutes of Health prior to its making a decision to fund a project. The federal Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare conducts additional oversight of Palmer's research.

Laboratory rats, bred and purchased from reputable, federally licensed suppliers, are used in an ongoing, NIH-funded research project to develop a reversible model of the chiropractic subluxation. During a surgical procedure in a sterile operating room, specific segments of the rats' spines are fixated using small, metal implants. During specific time periods, the effects of these vertebral fixations are observed and recorded. Dr. Meeker said a PETA assertion that Palmer would extend the same research experiments to cats was inaccurate. Current research using cats, a different NIH-supported project, involves studying the effects of certain stimuli (including a chiropractic adjustment) on the cat's nervous system. The animals in both projects are thoroughly anesthetized using humane, standardized protocols, Dr. Meeker said.

"The mere fact of the federal government's support, which involves a rigorous application process to attain, argues that the experiments are considered well worth doing," he said. "There is simply no way to adequately test the central hypothesis of chiropractic other than through the use of animal models. For years society has been clamoring for more basic science research to show why and how chiropractic benefits its millions of patients. Now, thanks to help and direction from the federal government, Palmer and other universities and colleges are able to provide invaluable information to benefit both human and animal healthcare practices."
 

PETA Manipulates Photos

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has put pictures of cats on its Web site and has run newspaper ads with the same pictures, suggesting that Palmer’s proposed scientific research would resemble those photos, which is does not.

PETA claims that Palmer's research is unnecessary and a waste of animal lives and tax money. PETA's is a distortion of values, a narrow perspective based ultimately on an emotional response to the abuse of animals.

PETA has distorted its description of Palmer research from the beginning. PETA characterized Palmer’s scientific research as torturing animals even before they asked for a description of the specific scientific protocols. Clearly, PETA doesn’t care about the facts. They care only about their philosophical/political agenda, which goes beyond the commitment to animal welfare of most citizens (including Palmer scientists) to the radical notion promoted by environmental terrorists that animals have civil rights equal to humans.

If you look closely, you’ll see in tiny type PETA’s admission that the images of cats in the ads and the PETA Web site are really file photos from unknown sources. They don’t represent anything close to Palmer’s proposed humane protocols.

“Palmer does not take issue with animal welfare,” said Palmer representative Randy Heuston. “The problem with PETA's means to their ends is that they prey on people's emotions and arouse those emotions to the point that people are not able to discriminate between humane use of animals and abuse of animals. When a single mother, a black woman who has overcome both a disability and racism, is threatened with death because she teaches chiropractic (and is not personally involved in chiropractic research), then clearly the ends do not justify the means.”

All Palmer’s research is subject to exceedingly detailed review by several independent regulatory bodies overseen by the federal government. These include the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Institutes of Health, and the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare.

Palmer, on behalf of current and future chiropractic patients, is engaging in sound science in the pursuit of public health, an effort that society has demanded of the chiropractic profession since its inception, and for which Palmer has shouldered heavy responsibility. Palmer’s research using humans and laboratory animals bred solely for laboratory use has improved understanding of spinal anatomy, degenerative spine disease and the intricate functioning of the nervous system. This knowledge is most certainly applicable to human health; otherwise the prestigious U.S. National Institutes of Health would not have approved it.

Palmer is for the scientifically appropriate, ethical, and legal treatment of all laboratory animals. It is a shame that PETA, because of its unprofessional stance and ethically questionable tactics, is giving legitimate efforts to improve animal welfare a bad name.

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