Abuse of Sheep for Homosexuality "Cure"

pres.office@oregonstate.edu, ed.ray@oregonstate.edu, elizabeth.grubb@oregonstate.edu, Robertjo@ohsu.edu

Dr. Edward Ray, President, Oregon State University
634 Kerr Administration Building
Corvallis, OR 97331-2128

Joseph Robertson Jr., M.D., M.B.A., President-Elect
Oregon Health and Science University
Portland, Oregon 97239-3098


Dear Dr. Ray and Dr. Robertson:

I am so shocked that Oregon State as well as Oregon Health&Science University invest public tax dollars in experiments to modify the hormones of "gay sheep" and influence their sexual preference. That is such a shame for such also here in Germany well-known Universities like yours!

OHSU experimenter Charles Roselli doses fetal sheep with drugs to mutate sex hormones in their brains. He dissects the brains of rams considered "male-oriented" to uncover the hormonal system responsible for homosexual inclination and alter it. OSU's Frederick Stormshak implants estrogen mechanisms into "gay sheep" in a similar attempt to render them heterosexual.

In addition to wasting tax dollars on a study that assumes homosexuality is "curable" these multimillion-dollar experiments are profoundly unscientific and inhumane. I am appalled Oregon State validates them as a means to produce prenatal therapy for diverse sexual orientations.

Please end this homophobic study in which animals needlessly suffer and die. In general, science derived from lab-manipulated animals does not result in predictive extrapolation to humans. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, 52% of animal-tested drugs are recalled or relabeled due to serious adverse effects not detected prior to approval. Animal-to-human inaccuracy is behind the rise in ADRs (adverse drug reactions), the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S.

I urge you to phase out animal experiments. Cost-effective non-animal systems are rapidly replacing old-fashioned animal studies. Options range from cell and tissue cultures, structure-activity relationship models, genetic/protein analysis...to epidemiology, videos and mathematical modeling, virtual organs and 3-D models, clinical research, human brain mapping technologies, autopsy/biopsy studies, advanced MRI imaging, and a multitude of other progressive tools.

The slaughter of sheep to "reverse" homosexuality in humans squanders tax dollars. Moreover, medical professionals have denounced the experiments. Dr. Malgosia Cegielski, a psychologist in Portland, labels them "frivolous" and "frightening."

"I don't see any clinical utility or human benefit with what he's doing... The gene expression and biological differences at a cellular level between nonhuman] animals and humans is so huge. To draw conclusions between animal behavior [and] humans is a joke," Dr. Cegielski says.

Thank you in advance for making the responsible decision to discontinue "gay sheep" experiments.

Yours sincerely,