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"Animal Research at University of Wisconsin-Madison" states that students, faculty and scientists engaged in animal experimentation believe their work is ethical when executed under "strict regulation, in situations where practical alternatives do not exist." I respectfully submit a practical alternative to UW's maternal deprivation tests: Permanently end them. Here is why: -- They are profoundly cruel. Fear is not a byproduct, but the very goal of adverse-rearing deprivation tests during brain development. Infant monkeys are taken from mothers within 24 hours of birth. Twenty young monkeys are exposed to a live snake. Monkeys are isolated with a cloth-draped item (surrogate peer) for as long as six weeks, before joined with another similarly isolated infant. Human intruder enactments are performed to traumatize them. All monkeys are killed to dissect their brains. -- They are redundant and without scientific merit. UW states that animal research is essential for human disease/disability treatments and promotion of health/safety for animals, people and environment. A decade-long National Institutes of Health study concluded that isolated infant monkeys self-mutilate. Adverse response to maternal separation is already documented. Re-proving the same basic paradigm does not advance health/safety treatments. -- Taxpayer dollars spent on the neurobiology of fear in primates waste money and time. Among mammals, primate infants are unusually dependent upon mothers for psychological health. One need only look to young monkeys at a primate sanctuary (rescued from real, not staged, adverse conditions) to gain insight. Yet UW's Chair of the Psychiatry, Dr. Ned H. Kalin, hopes to top $5,075,798 spent (in 10 years alone) to note variations between dissected brains of mother-less monkeys versus mother-reared monkeys. [National Institutes of Health. Grant R01MH046729. Development and Regulation of Emotion in Primates.] -- Any perceived need for more data is overshadowed by the unethical character of the tests. Institutional Animal Care & Use Committees (IACUCs) assess research protocols for adherence to the Animal Welfare Act. AWA amendments in 1985, along with Institute For Laboratory Animal Research guidelines from 1998, call for the "psychological well-being of captive nonhuman primates." The crux of maternal deprivation is to withhold these very requirements: "Appropriate social companionship; positive interactions with personnel that are not a source of unnecessary stress; freedom from unnecessary pain and distress." One presumes UW ACUCs have overwhelming incentive to seek exemption. Yet requested records reveal no compelling justification. The public sees only that ACUC personnel failed to reject controversial protocols known to inflict severe suffering. When Harry Harlow subjected infant monkeys to his "Well of Despair" a half century ago, he disgraced the University of Wisconsin. Harlow's tests even helped prompt AWA amendments in 1985. Comparable studies humiliate UW once again, and frankly, defy logic. I strongly encourage review committees to do their job, rather than grant consent for every animal study put forth for consideration. Please support the most practical alternative available: Permanently end maternal deprivation studies. Thank you,

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