I would like to know where Matthew Mongiello got his Neuroscience degree (he must have done extensive research about diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and schizophrenia to know how we should be finding new treatments for them) and when the psychology students at Northern Kentucky University can expect to see our brand new neuroimaging machines, courtesy of PETA? Everyone knows that PETA is great at pointing fingers and throwing paint but pretty useless on follow-through and alternatives.

I am an avid animal lover. I am also a current student in Dr. Mark Bardgett’s lab and it is because of him that I chose a career in neuroscience. I am one of the many students greatly influenced by his work and by his empathy and compassion for the animals in his lab and for the people who will one day benefit from his research. Using Bardgett, of all people, as some kind of pariah is a superb example of the distorted idealism and willful ignorance that PETA so carelessly throws around. Bardgett is the poster boy of humane animal research.

While many labs and many places in the world treat animals with indifference and cruelty, the Neuroscience labs at NKU are not among them.

As far as I am concerned, we can all be honest with ourselves and accept the fact that our medicines (among other things) are possible because of animal research and appreciate it, or we can pretend that the aspirin fairy just dropped off that bottle of tablets and continue braying angrily in all the wrong directions.

L. Fausnacht

Psychology Major

Those cute little lab rats in the photograph that accompanied the article: couldn’t they get a shot of local lab rats?

Those were foreign lab rats, from some place called Illinois. How are we supposed to have a decent Amber Alert for lab rats if we don’t even have a picture of the rats in question?

Professor Mark Bardgett said alternatives to rodent-harming procedures would cost $100,00 per year. Is he implying that a few precious rats aren’t even worth $100,000?!? Oh, the inhumanity, I mean, inrodentity, of it all!

As founder and president of People for the Destructive Treatment of Animals, I want to make it clear that our organization supports the destructive treatment of animals, especially lab rodents.

We would make an exception for Pinky and the Brain because it was always fun to watch them try to take over the world.

Note to PETA: I’m almost certain I saw NKU, or at least one of its employees, trying to kill a fly the other day. Flies have feelings, too, you know. Students at NKU are urged to form a local chapter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Insects in order to address this grave injustice. Please don’t delay – insects are being murdered every day!

Harold N. Orndorff Jr.

Campus Minister for Campus Christian Fellowship