Editor:

In your Jan. 8 article about treatment of laboratory animals at the Salk Institute, you said, “”While the federal Animal Welfare Act would protect primates from the treatment alleged by the source, there are currently no laws that protect rodents.””

I don’t understand what you meant by the statement, “”there are currently no laws that protect rodents.”” I do not do animal research, but anyone who has ever taken a course in scientific ethics (as virtually everyone who does any kind of research involving human or animal subjects must, at some point, under National Institute of Health regulations), there are plenty of laws protecting all vertebrate laboratory animals.

Some of the principles governing animal research can be found at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/references/phspol.htm. Information specific to rodents can be found at http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/labrats.

I believe strongly that allegations of mistreatment of laboratory animals must be investigated and I commend you for the article; with the exception of the error above, I felt it was well written.

– Laura Kemmer

Department of Cognitive Science

Conservatives too are subjects of stereotypes