Embattled Oxford Animal Research Center Opens
It wasn't easy, a thicket of opposition, sometimes very threatening, from animal rights activists, impeded progress, but the new Oxford animal research center has finally opened. From the story on BBC:
It is defamatory to claim that these animals are being "mutilated" for no good purpose. It is to denigrate people who are really trying to improve the human (and animal) condition by adherents of an explicitly and implictly anti-human ideology that has short-circuited their critical faculties. Animal research may be many things, but "worthless" isn't one of them--as we have repeatedly discussed here at SHS.Four years ago, Cambridge University cancelled plans for a primate research centre, because of concerns over spiralling security costs linked to animal rights. It marked a huge victory for animal rights protestors, who then moved their campaign to Oxford.
The vast majority of protests have been entirely lawful. But the police say a small minority of extremists have carried out acts of arson and vandalism against the university, building contractors and anyone they suspected of being linked to the new laboratory.
In 2004 the contractors pulled out citing intimidation. Shareholders had been sent hoax letters urging them to sell. The government introduced new legislation making "economic sabotage" linked to animal research a crime. Ministers promised to help with the security costs.
After a 16 month delay work resumed, with building workers covering their faces to avoid identification. A court injunction limits protest outside the building to four hours every Thursday afternoon.
Amanda Richards is one of many who turn up each week. She says the SPEAK campaign believes in lawful protest and that it is crucial that someone represents the animals."We are here to highlight that Oxford University are mutilating animals on a daily basis. Our intentions are to continue campaigning to persuade them to change this from an animal torture to a lab which is looking at the alternatives which will drive medicine forward."
SPEAK says animal research is not just immoral, but worthless.
Good for Oxford University for continuing forward with this important project in the face of baseless vituperation and intimidation. May we all benefit from the medical and scientific advances that these animals will help effectuate.
posted by Wesley J. Smith @ 8:54 AM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
I'm quite new to your blog and podcast, though as a pro-life advocate for some 29 years now, I have admired your work almost from its beginning. (I also was pleased to hear that you have entered the Orthodox Church, as did I 11 years ago today.)
In the past few weeks, you several times have talked about animal research. I don't know if you have ever seriously engaged non-extremist arguments against much animal research - and I'm not well enough versed to make such an argument myself. I followed the link from this posting, but found that it led merely to to another utilitarian argument for animal research (an Alzheimer's discovery therefrom).
C.S. Lewis spoke of "vivisection" as a serious moral issue, and I hope I'll not be thought insufficiently enthusiastic about authentic human thriving to suspect that it's still serious and that it is not adequately addressed by pitting PETA proponents of "animal rights" on one side against utilitarian justifications on the other side. Isn't it possible that part of "what it means to be human" is, for instance, to practice husbandry without CAFOs or research without vivisection?
Hi Reader John: Thanks for dropping by.
I think outlawing all animal research would be extreme. It would cause medical research to grind to a halt because it violates human rights to test on humans without first having gone through animal trials. (Nuremberg Code, Helsinki Accords, USA Common Rule). In my forthcoming book my research convinced me that animal use is essential. Computer programs, cell lines, etc. are just not enough.
That being said, I support the Three Rs wholeheartedly, which seek to reduce the number of animals and the need. I think it is an important human duty not to use animals in this way frivolously.
I would also note that animal research protocols have changed dramatically since the time of CS Lewis.
So, we have a choice in this regard at least at some level. Eschew tremendous potential for human good, at the expense of animals admittedly, or forego the human good in order not to use the animals instrumentally.
I think our first--certainly not only--duty is to people. And so, I am a strong supporter of research properly applied.
It is a challenging area, now question, but that is how I see it. Thanks.
The reason animals are used as test cases is no different then when folks fed certain foods to their animals to see if the animal died as a warning that the food is poisonous. Research on animals has led to better health for both humans and the next generation of animals. Not forwarding the medical sciences through such research would deny the human family the ability to see a future for their sick children or for children to grow up with parents that they love. Pretending that such research is of no value diminishes our compassion for the rest of the human family.
Without animal research, there would be no cure for animal disease, either, you know. As long as animals are cared for humanely and are not subject to torture (sadistic pain for the pleasure of the one administering it), then using them responsibly is a great way to ensure that future animal generations grow up healthy and happy, too. I recall a show on Animal Planet that had a lab rat brought in to have its eyes worked on because it was a valuable research animal. The doctor named it (he likes having names to call his patients), which amused the caregivers (they had just given it a number), but they wanted him to know that they appereciated his work, because much research wouldn't be wasted trying to train a new rat.
Very cool. People don't understand how vital animals are to research, and they're not all being subjected to horrible things. Though they hadn't named the rat, the caregivers were very clearly happy to see it being well cared for at the vet's. They also treated it very gently.
Research always gets a bad name. We need to look at what's actually being done, and what the benefits are.
The search for cures begins with compassion despite the hate mongering attitudes of Animal Rights advocates.
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