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THE ANIMAL RESEARCH WAR
edited by P. Michael Conn and James V. Parker, 199 pp., Palgrave MacMillan, 2008, $35
When I was in third grade, our class heard a presentation on biomedical research. At the end of the class, I asked the teacher, “Why do we have to do research on animals?” She politely replied, “Well, would you rather they try out a new drug on your grandmother?” I said, “No.” She said, “Well, most people agree with you on that.” Ever since that day, I have understood the role of animals in research. Not everyone agrees with me on this. Unfortunately, some of the individuals who disagree utilize threats and even terrorism to emphasize those views. That is the topic of The Animal Research War by Drs. P. Michael Conn and James V. Parker. I will outline the facts contained in it, which were eye-opening for me, and demonstrate the gravity of the issues.
The authors draw upon their own personal experiences as targets of animal rightist attacks, and discuss similar activities that have occurred around the country and elsewhere in the world. The referencing is detailed, allowing the reader to confirm their sources. The authors start with a series of definitions important to the subsequent context of the book, followed by descriptions of several animal rights activists, as they evolved from benign activities to increasingly aggressive tactics. The philosophical tenets of early authors opposed to animal research are then critiqued, including one of the earliest activist authors who proposed that we should only use animals for research if we would also be ready to use “marginal infants”—those who are …
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