KINGSTON - An anticipated debate on the use of animals in medical research became a lecture when an advocate favoring scientific experiments (on animals, pardon the oxymoron) chose not to attend and gave the stage to an opponent who came with well-defined arguments.

Dr. Ray Greek of the California-based organization In Defense of Animals, noted he anticipated that Michael Hayre, director of Laboratory Animal Research Center at Rockefeller University, would not appear based on similar previous experiences.

He said the absence of Hayre was related to facts and statistics that show the greatest medical advances did not require animals and have sometimes been hindered by the practice.  Discussing some of the medical disasters due to animal research, Greek said an eye operation called radical keratotomy initially blinded human patients due to incorrect data gathered from experiments on rabbits.

"Very, very small ... differences between dogs and humans, or cats and humans, or rats (and) humans, make for very, very, large differences involving medical technology and medical care," he said.

While discussing antibiotics, Greek said the discovery of penicillin to fight human infections came despite ineffective tests in rabbits and the discovery that drug could kill guinea pigs.  He noted similar delays could be taking  place in the search for a cancer cure because animals do not react the same as humans to various substances.

"One study (reviewed) 20 compounds that were known not to cause cancer in humans, chemicals we ingest on a daily basis, 19 of them caused cancer in animals," he said.

"They reversed the situation and studied 10 compounds which were known carcinogens in human beings and only seven of those caused cancer in rats and mice," Greek said.

Support for continued use of animals in medical experiments is based on the funding provided by drug companies to research facilities, according to Greek, who told the audience of about 30 people that advancements would increase if based on knowledge of human physiology.

"In terms of diseases that are prevalent in our society - cancer, AIDS, heart disease - there is no lack of human tissue upon which to experiment," Greek said.  "Human studies are really the bread and butter of human clinical medicine.  The coronary artery bypass surgery that is so common today was based on human clinical observation."

Greek noted while techology has improved to work with illnesses, the premises of using animals to determine human physiology is a misconception begun hundreds of years ago.

"Animals were actually used in research in the (middle) ages because of the church's prohibition against human dissection or autopsies," he said. "During that time, history has shown us that many errors were made in how scientists and physicians thought a human being worked because the research was based on pigs, apes (and) mice."