Animal Experimentation: Cruelty or Science? (Issues in Focus)

Book by Day, Nancy

Grade 6 Up?Day offers a history of animal experimentation, and why it was done, along with examples. She follows this with a chapter stating the case against such experimentation, and another propounding scientific reasons for it. She includes a discussion on human experimentation, including the notorious Tuskegee experiment on syphilitics, which was conducted by the federal government with a cold disregard for the people involved. Explaining some of the new technologies currently under development, the author offers some possible alternatives, the least techological of all being simply stopping. She avoids using the more lurid pictures of animals under experimentation, but does indicate that some procedures cause more fear and pain than experimenters may like to admit. Calmly, almost stolidly, Day attempts to present both sides in a dispassionate text, leaving it up to readers to make their own determination using their own standards. Many of the more recent books on animal rights treat experimentation as just one phase of the unthinking abuse of animals by humans, such as Charles Patterson's Animal Rights (Enslow, 1993) and Laurence Pringle's The Animal Rights Controversy (Harcourt, 1989). This book has a tighter focus. Food for uncomfortable thought.?Patricia Manning, Eastchester Public Library, NY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Taking on what was a chapter or two in recent books about animal rights, Daniel Cohen's Animal Rights: A Handbook for Young Adults (1993) and Marna Owen's Animal Rights: Yes or No? (1993), Day manages to create detective thriller out of the dilemmas. While stating attempts at balance were ``impeded by wild claims, questionable photographs, unlikely explanations,'' she nevertheless manages to tread on the seesaw, capturing, on one hand, the intense passion of protesters trained to break into buildings and disable police cars and presenting, on the other, some of the valid criticisms and suggestions of the animal rights movement. Likewise, she deftly handles shortcomings of the pro- experimentation camp, as well as the pluses and minuses of others on the continuum, e.g., the animal welfarist who shuns suffering and might use computer or cell-culture models. Unique features include a history of animal experimentation over 2,000 years and a challenging chapter about experimentation on humans, detailing Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary's recent expos‚s of involuntary radiation. Readers will have to make up their own minds, as Day suggests: Is animal experimentation an environmental issue? Are we all equal? List of abbreviations; glossary; notes; bibliography; index. (Nonfiction. 12+) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 7-12. Are laboratory experiments on animals a cruel and unnecessary procedure, or a vital part of medical research? This Issues in Focus title tackles a thorny question. Day describes the typical uses for experiments: basic research about biological systems; training for surgeons; and testing for new drugs and other products. "Virtually every advance in medical science in the 20th century . . . has been achieved . . . through the use of animals in laboratory experiments," an AMA White Paper notes. Animal-rights and animal-welfare activists disagree, holding that animal suffering is unconscionable and that many of the experiments can be replaced by other tests. Day offers a wealth of information both pro and con experimentation. Chapters on the history of experimentation, human medical experiments, and some possible alternatives to animal testing--including cell culture research and computer programs that simulate biological processes--round out the book nicely. Black-and-white photos accompany the generally smooth, although sometimes repetitive, text. Students interested in the subject and those needing information for reports will find the book useful. Glossary; notes; bibliography. Anne O'Malley