Tag: animal rights

Statement on Harvard’s Decision to Close the New England Primate Research Center

Speaking of Research is saddened to learn about Harvard's decision to wind down operations at the New England Primate Research Center (NEPRC) within the next two years. Over the years the Primate Center has contributed important discoveries in many fields, including AIDS, Parkinson's disease, primate retroviruses, addiction, cardiology and stem cells. The University cited difficult … Continue reading Statement on Harvard’s Decision to Close the New England Primate Research Center

Pro-Test Italia in Milan: A silver lining to a grey cloud

In December 2012 we reported that scientists in Italy had founded Pro-Test Italia to counter the rising tide of ignorance and intimidation that threatens the future of science in Italy. Last weekend we heard about a new animal rights outrage in Italy.  As reported in Nature News, activists broke into the Department of Pharmacology in … Continue reading Pro-Test Italia in Milan: A silver lining to a grey cloud

Not All In It Together

In February of this year I got into an argument on the SR blog comments section about whether we should be taking an all or nothing approach to animal use. If we wanted to best support the use of animals in biomedical research, should we also be defending eating animals, hunting animals, cosmetic testing, fur … Continue reading Not All In It Together

Why PETA cannot reconcile Animal Rights and Animal Welfare

PETA have been making the news a lot lately and for once they probably don’t want to be there. The story that PETA euthanises almost 90% of the animals taken in by its shelters had been covered before by us, but was further covered by the immensely popular Mail online website (the most visited newspaper … Continue reading Why PETA cannot reconcile Animal Rights and Animal Welfare

A Public Conversation on Animal Ethics: The good, the bad, and the ugly

The UW-Madison recently hosted a conversation on the ethics of animal research between Rick Marolt, an opponent of animal research, and Robert Streiffer, a bioethicist at the university and member of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). Here are some of my thoughts on this interesting exchange. The good: Above all, it is good … Continue reading A Public Conversation on Animal Ethics: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Raising the bar: What makes an effective public response in the face of animal rights campaigns?

For some scientists and institutions engaged in animal research,  activist campaigns against them are a fact of life.  These campaigns vary in tactics, scope, and longevity. At one end of the scale are the limited scope campaigns, perhaps when a paper reprints, more or less verbatim, an activist press release manufactured from misrepresenting publicly-available records. … Continue reading Raising the bar: What makes an effective public response in the face of animal rights campaigns?

Animal Rights Bill Under Consideration in the Senate

The Great Ape Bill, which would have significant impact on chimpanzee research in the US, is now under consideration in the US Senate.  Over the past year, the legislation has been widely discussed in terms of its aims to: 1) End invasive research with chimpanzees. 2) Move towards retirement of the US chimpanzee research population … Continue reading Animal Rights Bill Under Consideration in the Senate