The Case against Animal Experimentation

Abstract

In this article, the author attempts to supplement Joan Dunayer’s critique of vivisection by first stating and then exploring in some detail “the ideology of biomedical and behavioral science,” which consists of several mindsets that resist the development of noninvasive animal science and science that does not rely on animal research. Other issues examined are animal rights versus animal welfare, the bogus concept of “necessary suffering,” the tendency to deny or minimize animal pain and suffering, and the phenomenon of “compartmentalization” (or psychological distancing). A focused account of all these elements, the author argues, enables understanding of where vivisectionists are coming from and why they are so resistant to radical change in their methods.