By Joe Bauman
Deseret Morning News

      Jeremy Beckham wants to know what experiments are performed on baboons and macaque monkeys at the University of Utah. But the U. won't tell the 18-year-old freshman.
      Beckham called a news conference in the university's Little Theater on Tuesday to voice his grievances with the school's administration. He has filed formal requests under the Utah Government Records Access and Management Act, seeking to review primate experiments.
      He received some information but not the protocols that would spell out details of ongoing experiments. A formal hearing on his request is to take place Thursday at the university, with each side promising to appeal if it loses.
      Beckham said he represented a small group, including himself and friends, called the Utah Primate Freedom Project. He wore a "primate freedom tag" representing a particular animal used in experiments, and displayed a sweatshirt printed with a slogan about U. primate experimentation. Printed on the shirt was a slogan that included, "Help us stop this bloodshed."
      Backdrop to the press conference were photos of baboons and macaques in cages, some held in uncomfortable positions or otherwise distressed. Beckham said the views were taken within the past few years at the U.
      Denouncing the university's refusal to give information, he said, "We need all the data in front of us before we can make informed decisions." He called for a public debate with researchers about the morality and scientific need for primate experimentation.
      "I think that there is no way to have a primate in a laboratory setting that's free of suffering," he said. The animals are used in experiments because they're similar to humans, yet if they are so much alike they should not be subjected to experiments, he added.
      Primates held in some labs suffer so much mentally that "they're missing fingers and toes" from chewing off their own digits, he said.
      Beckham distributed a letter signed by Phyllis J. Vetter, associate general counsel at the U., which detailed reasons for refusing to turn over information about experiments: concern about security of U. personnel and interest in protecting the secrecy of research before it is published.
      Vetter wrote about "recent news coverage of domestic terrorism for which animal-rights activists have claimed credit."
      Beckham said he would be glad to get documents in which names of researchers were blacked out.
      "I don't care about any of that," he said. "This isn't some elaborate scheme I thought up to get their home addresses."
      Beckham said he is concerned about suffering by animals with minds and feelings. "There's no denying that they have the mind of a child. . . . The case for primate rights is so solid."
      "He's making a lot of assumptions," said Coralie A. Alder, the university's director of public relations. "He doesn't know what kind of research has been taking place."
      Meeting with the Deseret Morning News shortly after the press conference, she said animal experiments at the U. are strictly controlled and regulated.
      It would be difficult to develop new medical treatment without using animals, Alder added. Such research is crucial to advances against heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, AIDS and other disorders.
      All animal research at the U. and other universities is carried out with review of federal and local agencies, she added. Information about experiments is available once the research is published.
      Alder said research is conducted humanely and carried out only when there are no alternatives to such experiments.
      "Federal laws such as the Animal Welfare Act and the Public Health Service Regulation Act" regulate issues about animal pain and care. A veterinary staff keeps tabs on the animals, Alder said, and the U. "strictly adheres" to the rules.