About the campaign

SUNY Cortland and Cornell University have received a million-dollar fund from the National Science Foundation to experiment on sheep. The purpose of these experiments is to test whether or not a rise in the lipid ceramide can spike insulin resistance and increase milk production and increase the nutrient density in milk. The proposed benefits are to increase efficiency in milk production. The study is headed by the Associate Professor of Dairy Cattle Biology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, Joseph McFadden, as well as the Assistant Director of Biological Sciences at SUNY Cortland, Amanda Davis. The first round of experiments have already occurred during the summer of '22. Our goal as a campaign is to stop these experiments from continuing by either pressuring the investigators to stop or pressuring the National Science Foundation to drop their funding.

Below are our three main issues with this study.

1. Animal Cruelty/Exploitation: While we currently don't have much detail about the study, and most direct inquiry has failed, there is some information we have been able to collect. A preliminary study was conducted, and while the details of the study are unknown to us, we do know that the sheep were killed at the end of the study in order for tissue samples to be collected. In terms of the research plan, biopsies of the semitendinosus (one of the hamstring) skeletal muscles are to be taken, which at least requires a needle to remove cells from the area. There are also to be catheters (thin medical tubes) inserted into the jugulars, and it is unknown if either the biopsies or catheters are preceded with pain relievers, and the investigators have shown a willingness to kill the sheep if helpful to the study. The study also uses pregnant sheep which are often impregnated artificially. Cornell also has a recent history of not following federal animal welfare guidelines, resulting in the deaths and suffering of animals in their care. Even without these actions, the sheep don't have the ability to consent to these experiments, and they are not done with the sheep's interests in mind. The study contributes to the idea that animals are just things for us to use and not individuals, and it also promotes the dairy industry which has horrific standard practices such as forced insemination, separation of mothers and their children, and the slaughter of "used up" cows.
2. Conflict of Interest: Joseph McFadden is the lead investigator of the study at hand, which is touting itself as a pursuit for environmental and food security benefits. The truth of the matter is that McFadden is a member of multiple organizations that are committed to the continuation of the dairy industry and its profits
3. Environment and Food Security: If these investigators truly cared about the environment, they would instead propose plant based options which are far better for the environment than dairy. Eating plants also allows us to be far more efficient with our food production. A simple trophic system will tell you that eating animals that eat plants is less efficient than directly eating plants, and replacing the US's current animal agricultural system with plant based foods could feed hundreds of millions more people, and that's in the US alone.