AND THE BAND-UH PLAYS ON

What a kick to open my mail box and find your magazine with a picture of my husband, Tim Roberts, graduate 1991, on the front cover [spring 2000]. He was a member of the band-uh from 1987 till 1991 and has many tales to tell of their exploits. His band-uh mates were some of the craziest, wackiest, funniest, smartest people I have ever hung out with. Two of my roommates were band-uh members, and if it hadn't been for them, I never would have met and married Tim. Long live the band-uh!

PROJECT HOPE

Just a note on Trina Wood's article "Project Hope--A M.I.N.D. That Matters" (spring 2000). I hope the fathers and others look into the role that childhood vaccinations have on the growing numbers of children with autism. It appears there is a strong link.

Editor's note: The M.I.N.D. Institute is providing funding to a number of researchers studying the biological basis of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, including two groups interested in determining whether there might be a link between the measles vaccine and autism.

Thank you so much for publishing the article on the M.I.N.D. institute. As a parent of an autistic child and a UCD graduate, I appreciate your efforts in bringing attention to this disorder.

THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS

Professor Tannenbaum (Millennial Musings, "The Rights of Animals," spring 2000) conjectures that the current public interest in animal welfare is in part thanks to the greater longevity of pets due to scientific advances. Is this to suggest a person is less likely to develop respect and love for an animal whose life may have been somewhat curtailed for want of a yet-undiscovered cure? If science can be credited, it is far more likely to be due to the fact that scientific advances have too often led to more widespread and more extreme suffering for animals, and improved communications have made the public more aware of the situation than ever before. It is no longer possible to hide the fact that many of the 20 million-40 million animals used annually in experiments suffer for reasons far removed from important medical research, and many of the experiments involve prolonged and/or intense suffering. In the area of farming, medication has facilitated raising of livestock in extreme confinement by continuous ingestion of drugs to counter the inevitable toll of such stressful conditions.

Throughout the ages there have been compassionate individuals who argued for a greater respect for animals, but in the days of ignorance it was easier to dismiss them as sentimental fools. Nowadays scientific experimenters are in a sense digging their own graves by proving time and again that animals experience emotional and physical pain in much the same way as humans. Animals are increasingly used in experiments demonstrating that they experience the anguish of maternal deprivation, peer rejection or stress from overcrowding much as humans do.

The reason for such vigorous resistance to reform in the area of animal welfare is the same as that which perpetuated slavery so long. Animal cruelty is big business.

Thank you for your refreshing words from Sylvia Wright in her interview with veterinary ethicist Jerrold Tannenbaum in the spring 2000 issue of the magazine. Mr. Tannenbaum articulated very clearly the growing confusion among people between animal rights and animal welfare, and how that confusion has developed and how it is being manipulated by protest organizations with dangerous goals.

Too often these days, individuals who have no experience with livestock and working animals criticize the care given by knowledgeable people. Mr. Tannenbaum is absolutely correct that farm animals and ranching will be the next target and so will individuals who keep so-called "companion" animals in a manner that ensures their welfare but does not resemble the coddling of a suburban home.

Your spring 2000 interview "Millennial Musings" reveals opinion fraught with misunderstanding and the presumption of human superiority.

[Jerrold] Tannenbaum suggests that society's increased affection for animals stems from improved veterinary care. Obviously, he truly believes that the tail wags the dog. In a more likely scenario, people have spent increasingly larger sums of money on their companion's health because they care about the well-being of animals. This investment in the animal-care industry has in turn inspired research into more advanced medical care and surgical techniques for pets.

In a challenge to UC Davis, Tannenbaum suggests the university be ready to answer questions when the public begins inquiring about animals suffering in factory farms and research laboratories. I cannot disagree with his assessment that the "finest veterinary school in the world" should be equipped to make suggestions for the improvement of animal welfare. But I can only wonder at the fact that Tannenbaum seems unaware that the public is currently asking questions about animal welfare and about the suffering of animals in laboratories and on factory farms. The industry remains blinded by profits and immune to qualms about animal suffering. The time for UC Davis and animal research advocates to be "ready with answers" has come and gone.

[Tannenbaum] admits that an animal's "quality of life" should be considered when deciding whether extensive medical care should be used to extend that animal's life. Veterinarians, he believes, should apply the same ethical considerations to their patients as human doctors do to their patients. These views would have been unthinkable even two or three decades ago. Such philosophies would not likely have been uttered by the majority of pet guardians, much less professors at universities known for animal research and agriculture, if the animal rights movement had not worked so hard to inform the public about animal welfare issues. Certainly, the animal industry itself has not promoted any such enlightened discussion.

PROFESSORS REMEMBERED

I was saddened to read of the passing of G. Ledyard Stebbins. He was a character, unique and memorable. Rain or shine, I saw him wearing a rumpled suit, riding his rattling bike with his brief-case strapped to a rear basket with a bungee cord. I remember being in a genetics survey course taught by Professor Stebbins in a large lecture room in Hunt Hall late spring quarter of my sophomore year, I think. The room was stuffy and crowded. The professor's understated, soft-spoken lecture style was no match for our drowsy, distracted attitudes. All of a sudden, Professor Stebbins stepped away from the podium raised his voice, struck a dramatic pose and said, "And then my colleagues and I were bounding across the downs with butterfly nets!" Needless to say, he snapped us from our spring-fevered attention spans. Though I recall little else specifically from that particular course, I'll never forget his description of "industrial melanism in moths."

I especially appreciate being kept up-to-date through your magazine about professors I had while I was a student at UC Davis. I enjoyed the article in a recent issue [summer 1999], which included some of Professor Moberg's contributions to research on stress. I was saddened to learn, in your fall 1999 issue, of his untimely death. I took an endocrinology class from him nearly 25 years ago, and that class stands out in my mind as one I particularly enjoyed. Being in his class is one of the many fond memories I have of UC Davis. The university was fortunate to have Professor Moberg on the faculty for as long as it did.

PICNIC DAY PAST

[In the spring 2000 issue] Picnic Day, that time-honored event at Davis, was highlighted and brought some wonderful memories to mind.

Picnic Day 50 years ago was indeed a memorable one for me. My father, who had never been to Davis, came up from Ontario to see where I had been going to school since the fall of '48 and to spend the day with me and Barbara Stoakin, the attractive young lady I was to marry two months later. It was a beautiful spring day, and my father, Barbara and I enjoyed a wonderful picnic on the Quad out in front of South Hall.

Barbara and I were married on June 17, 1950, and memories of Davis are with us every day. We use the tea cups and saucers Dean and Mrs. Knowles Ryerson gave us; the frying pan from Miss Nell U. Branch, the college librarian at the time and for whom I did gardening every weekend; the water pitcher, a gift from Vi McClintock, one of Barbara's South Hall roommates; and the bathroom scales from the Davis City Fire Department are as accurate as they were 50 years ago.

We are retired and live in Northern Virginia where we have been since 1958. Barbara had a very distinguished career with the CIA, and I was the USDA's senior specialist on Soviet agriculture when I retired in 1989.

Our academic connection with Davis continued when our son, Kenneth, got his Ph.D. there in geology. Ken's at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, where he's been for 10 years. He is the director of the Advanced Instrumen-tation Laboratory and does some teaching.

Yes, the spring issue of your magazine brought back lots of memories. Davis has changed a great deal since Barbara and I were students there--she, one of a hundred women, and I, one of a thousand men.