Alex Pacheco (activist)
Encyclopedia
Alexander Fernando Pacheco (born August 1958) is an American animal rights
activist. He is the co-founder and former chairman of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
(PETA). He is a member of the advisory board of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
, and founder of Adopt-a-Pet and 600 Million Stray Dogs Need You.
Pacheco came to public attention in 1981 for his role, along with Ingrid Newkirk
, in what became known as the Silver Spring monkeys
case, a campaign to release 17 crab-eating macaque
s who were undergoing experiments in the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. Oliver Stone
writes that the political campaign to save the monkeys gave birth to the animal rights movement in the United States. Pacheco subsequently was the chairman of PETA for 20 years.
, Illinois
, but moved to Mexico with his family when he was very young, where he was raised near the ocean with his siblings, Jimmy and Mary, by his Mexican father, a physician, and his mother, an American nurse.
Kathy Snow Guillermo writes in Monkey Business that Pacheco's early life was filled with animals. Bats lived in the rubber trees in his front yard, snakes slept behind nearby rocks, and fishermen regularly dragged dolphins out of the water onto the beach. Instead of animals being killed for food in slaughterhouse
s, pigs, oxen, chickens, and turkeys were frequently killed in front of him.
The family left Mexico when Pacheco was in junior high, and moved between Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. His interest in animals continued, and he would often buy turtles and birds from pet stores, and even a baby crab-eating macaque
, whom he called Chi Chi and who took to perching on his shoulder as he walked around the house.
He attended Catholic university in Ohio, intending to enter the priesthood
. He resided in a home with 7 brothers and 3 priests. During a visit to Canada in his first year at university, he visited a friend who worked at a meat-packing plant. Despite his early exposure in Mexico to animals being killed for food, he was shocked by the sight of two men throwing a newborn calf, cut from the uterus of its slaughtered mother, into a dumpster. Later in the week, a friend gave him a copy of Peter Singer
's Animal Liberation
, and he returned to Ohio as a vegetarian. His heart was no longer in becoming a priest, and he decided to attend Ohio State University
instead, and to devote himself to helping what he called "other-than-human beings."
pigs and cattle without anesthetic
. As Ohio is an agricultural state, his activism met with stiff opposition and the occasional anonymous telephone call threatening to blow his head off.
In 1979, he attended a talk in Columbus, Ohio by Cleveland Amory
of the Saturday Review, who was also the founder of the Fund for Animals, which ran the anti-whaling
vessel, the Sea Shepherd
. He sought Amory out after the talk and begged to be allowed to volunteer. Pacheco first crewed with Captain Paul Watson
on the ship for the summer in 1979 (and again in 2003), in the engine room and as a deckhand. He was present as it famously rammed and sank the Portuguese whaling ship, the Sierra in the Atlantic. Both the Sea Shepherd and the Sierra were sunk after being seized by the Portuguese authorities.
The case began when Pacheco took a job as a volunteer in the summer of 1981 inside the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland to learn more about animal research. Edward Taub, a psychologist, was cutting sensory ganglia
that supplied nerves to the fingers, hands, arms, and legs of 17 macaque monkeys—a process known as "deafferentation"—so that the monkeys could not feel them. Some of the monkeys had had their entire spinal columns deafferented. Taub then used restraint, electric shock, and withholding of food and water to force them to use the parts of their bodies they could not feel. The research led in part to the discovery of neuroplasticity
within the primate motor system and a new and successful therapy for stroke victims called constraint-induced movement therapy
. As a result of this technique, stroke victims who had been seriously disabled for many years regained the use of limbs that had been almost completely paralyzed.
Pacheco had access to the lab and, it is contended, staged several of the photos. He reported Taub for violations of animal cruelty laws based on the monkeys' living conditions. Police raided the lab, seized the monkeys (which they then handed over to PETA—a move which resulted in their subsequent disappearance), and charged Taub with 119 counts of animal cruelty and failure to provide adequate veterinary care, the first such charges to be brought in the U.S. against a research scientist. 113 charges were dismissed immediately at the first hearing. He was convicted on six misdemeanor counts of failure to provide adequate veterinary care. Five of these counts were dismissed after a second trial, and the final conviction was overturned on appeal when the court ruled that Maryland's Prevention of Cruelty to Animals law did not apply to researchers.
PETA's removal of the monkeys, which was described by a critic as "theft of court evidence" resulted in a legal battle for custody of the monkeys, which reached the United States Supreme Court, the first animal-rights case to do so, generating a large amount of publicity for PETA, and transforming it from what Ingrid Newkirk
called "five people in a basement" into a national movement. As a result of the case, the House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Science, Research and Technology held hearings that led to the 1985 Animal Welfare Act, and in 1986, changes in United States Public Health Service
guidelines for animals used in animal research
included a requirement that each institution seeking federal funding have an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
whose job it is to oversee how laboratory animals within that institution are cared for. The Peace Abbey, of Sherborn, MA, awarded Alex Pacheco with the Courage of Conscience award March 20, 1995.
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
activist. He is the co-founder and former chairman of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. A non-profit corporation with 300 employees and two million members and supporters, it claims to be the largest animal rights...
(PETA). He is a member of the advisory board of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Sea Shepherd
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a non-profit, marine conservation organization based in Friday Harbor, Washington in the United States. The group uses direct action tactics to protect sealife...
, and founder of Adopt-a-Pet and 600 Million Stray Dogs Need You.
Pacheco came to public attention in 1981 for his role, along with Ingrid Newkirk
Ingrid Newkirk
Ingrid Newkirk is a British-born animal rights activist and president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals , the world's largest animal rights organization...
, in what became known as the Silver Spring monkeys
Silver Spring monkeys
The Silver Spring monkeys were 17 wild-born macaque monkeys from the Philippines who lived inside the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland...
case, a campaign to release 17 crab-eating macaque
Crab-eating Macaque
The Crab-eating macaque is a cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. It is also called the "long-tailed macaque", and is referred to as the "cynomolgus monkey" in laboratories.-Etymology:...
s who were undergoing experiments in the Institute of Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
writes that the political campaign to save the monkeys gave birth to the animal rights movement in the United States. Pacheco subsequently was the chairman of PETA for 20 years.
Early life
Pacheco was born in JolietJoliet, Illinois
Joliet is a city in Will and Kendall Counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, located southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. As of the 2010 census, the city was the fourth-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 147,433. It continues to be Illinois' fastest growing...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, but moved to Mexico with his family when he was very young, where he was raised near the ocean with his siblings, Jimmy and Mary, by his Mexican father, a physician, and his mother, an American nurse.
Kathy Snow Guillermo writes in Monkey Business that Pacheco's early life was filled with animals. Bats lived in the rubber trees in his front yard, snakes slept behind nearby rocks, and fishermen regularly dragged dolphins out of the water onto the beach. Instead of animals being killed for food in slaughterhouse
Slaughterhouse
A slaughterhouse or abattoir is a facility where animals are killed for consumption as food products.Approximately 45-50% of the animal can be turned into edible products...
s, pigs, oxen, chickens, and turkeys were frequently killed in front of him.
The family left Mexico when Pacheco was in junior high, and moved between Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. His interest in animals continued, and he would often buy turtles and birds from pet stores, and even a baby crab-eating macaque
Crab-eating Macaque
The Crab-eating macaque is a cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. It is also called the "long-tailed macaque", and is referred to as the "cynomolgus monkey" in laboratories.-Etymology:...
, whom he called Chi Chi and who took to perching on his shoulder as he walked around the house.
He attended Catholic university in Ohio, intending to enter the priesthood
Priesthood (Catholic Church)
The ministerial orders of the Catholic Church include the orders of bishops, deacons and presbyters, which in Latin is sacerdos. The ordained priesthood and common priesthood are different in function and essence....
. He resided in a home with 7 brothers and 3 priests. During a visit to Canada in his first year at university, he visited a friend who worked at a meat-packing plant. Despite his early exposure in Mexico to animals being killed for food, he was shocked by the sight of two men throwing a newborn calf, cut from the uterus of its slaughtered mother, into a dumpster. Later in the week, a friend gave him a copy of Peter Singer
Peter Singer
Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian philosopher who is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne...
's Animal Liberation
Animal Liberation (book)
Animal Liberation is a book by Australian philosopher Peter Singer, published in 1975.The book is widely considered within the animal liberation movement to be the founding philosophical statement of its ideas...
, and he returned to Ohio as a vegetarian. His heart was no longer in becoming a priest, and he decided to attend Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
instead, and to devote himself to helping what he called "other-than-human beings."
Early activism
At university, Pacheco organized campaigns against the use of leghold traps and castratingCastration
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testicles or a female loses the functions of the ovaries.-Humans:...
pigs and cattle without anesthetic
Anesthesia
Anesthesia, or anaesthesia , traditionally meant the condition of having sensation blocked or temporarily taken away...
. As Ohio is an agricultural state, his activism met with stiff opposition and the occasional anonymous telephone call threatening to blow his head off.
In 1979, he attended a talk in Columbus, Ohio by Cleveland Amory
Cleveland Amory
Cleveland Amory was an American author who devoted his life to promoting animal rights. He was perhaps best known for his books about his cat, named Polar Bear, whom he saved from the Manhattan streets on Christmas Eve 1977...
of the Saturday Review, who was also the founder of the Fund for Animals, which ran the anti-whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
vessel, the Sea Shepherd
Sea Shepherd
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a non-profit, marine conservation organization based in Friday Harbor, Washington in the United States. The group uses direct action tactics to protect sealife...
. He sought Amory out after the talk and begged to be allowed to volunteer. Pacheco first crewed with Captain Paul Watson
Paul Watson
Paul Watson is a Canadian animal rights and environmental activist, who founded and is president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a direct action group devoted to marine conservation....
on the ship for the summer in 1979 (and again in 2003), in the engine room and as a deckhand. He was present as it famously rammed and sank the Portuguese whaling ship, the Sierra in the Atlantic. Both the Sea Shepherd and the Sierra were sunk after being seized by the Portuguese authorities.
Silver spring monkeys case
Dorsal root ganglion
In anatomy and neuroscience, a dorsal root ganglion is a nodule on a dorsal root that contains cell bodies of neurons in afferent spinal nerves.-Unique unipolar structure:...
that supplied nerves to the fingers, hands, arms, and legs of 17 macaque monkeys—a process known as "deafferentation"—so that the monkeys could not feel them. Some of the monkeys had had their entire spinal columns deafferented. Taub then used restraint, electric shock, and withholding of food and water to force them to use the parts of their bodies they could not feel. The research led in part to the discovery of neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity is a non-specific neuroscience term referring to the ability of the brain and nervous system in all species to change structurally and functionally as a result of input from the environment. Plasticity occurs on a variety of levels, ranging from cellular changes involved in...
within the primate motor system and a new and successful therapy for stroke victims called constraint-induced movement therapy
Constraint-induced movement therapy
Constraint-induced movement therapy is a form of rehabilitation therapy that improves upper extremity function in stroke and other Central Nervous System damage victims by increasing the use of their affected upper limb....
. As a result of this technique, stroke victims who had been seriously disabled for many years regained the use of limbs that had been almost completely paralyzed.
Pacheco had access to the lab and, it is contended, staged several of the photos. He reported Taub for violations of animal cruelty laws based on the monkeys' living conditions. Police raided the lab, seized the monkeys (which they then handed over to PETA—a move which resulted in their subsequent disappearance), and charged Taub with 119 counts of animal cruelty and failure to provide adequate veterinary care, the first such charges to be brought in the U.S. against a research scientist. 113 charges were dismissed immediately at the first hearing. He was convicted on six misdemeanor counts of failure to provide adequate veterinary care. Five of these counts were dismissed after a second trial, and the final conviction was overturned on appeal when the court ruled that Maryland's Prevention of Cruelty to Animals law did not apply to researchers.
PETA's removal of the monkeys, which was described by a critic as "theft of court evidence" resulted in a legal battle for custody of the monkeys, which reached the United States Supreme Court, the first animal-rights case to do so, generating a large amount of publicity for PETA, and transforming it from what Ingrid Newkirk
Ingrid Newkirk
Ingrid Newkirk is a British-born animal rights activist and president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals , the world's largest animal rights organization...
called "five people in a basement" into a national movement. As a result of the case, the House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Subcommittee on Science, Research and Technology held hearings that led to the 1985 Animal Welfare Act, and in 1986, changes in United States Public Health Service
United States Public Health Service
The Public Health Service Act of 1944 structured the United States Public Health Service as the primary division of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare , which later became the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The PHS comprises all Agency Divisions of Health and...
guidelines for animals used in animal research
Animal testing
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. Worldwide it is estimated that the number of vertebrate animals—from zebrafish to non-human primates—ranges from the tens of millions to more than 100 million...
included a requirement that each institution seeking federal funding have an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees are of central importance to the application of laws to animal research in the United States. Most research involving laboratory animals is funded by the United States National Institutes of Health or other federal agencies...
whose job it is to oversee how laboratory animals within that institution are cared for. The Peace Abbey, of Sherborn, MA, awarded Alex Pacheco with the Courage of Conscience award March 20, 1995.
Further reading
- Pacheco, Alex. "Video testimony on the Silver Spring monkeys case", U.S. House Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Technology, PETA, accessed July 1, 2010.
- Pacheco, Alex and Francione, Anna. "The Silver Spring Monkeys" in Singer, Peter. In Defense of Animals. New York: Basil Blackwell, 1985, pp. 135–147.
- Pacheco, Alex. Address to the 2007 Animal Rights Conference, YouTube, retrieved February 16, 2008.
- Sideris, Lisa et al. "Roots of Concern with Nonhuman Animals in Biomedical Ethics", Institute for Laboratory Animal Research Journal, volume 4, issue 1, 1999.
See also
- Unnecessary FussUnnecessary FussUnnecessary Fuss is a film produced by Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals , showing footage shot inside the University of Pennsylvania's Head Injury Clinic in Philadelphia....