The Case Against the Use of Animals in Science

Abstract

I was very good at my job as an experimental psychologist, Principle Investigator; Chief, Performance Decrement Function; Survivability/Vulnerability Branch; Radiobiology Division, United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine; Brooks Air Force Base, Texas. I received many Outstanding performance ratings, and was promoted rapidly to an administrative position. My office was far removed from the laboratory, from the pain and suffering of non-human animals; I did not have to hear their screams, to see them struggle against the bonds of restraint, to watch them languish in the spotlessly clean stainless steel cages, separated from their fellows as well as from their natural environment. I could order them trained, order their deaths, expect the data print-out sheets which would serve as their death certificates, write a paper and wait for the recognition which would move me another step from the laboratory and another rung up the professional ladder. In the process, I could routinely sign the assurance of compliance with the Animal Welfare Act; just one more signature in a series of bureaucratic procedures. I had no reason to admit to causing the animals pain, so I did not. Who was to know? Who was to care?

Paper presented at the national conference, ‘Animals and Humans: Ethical Perspectives,’ Moorhead State University, Moorhead, MN, April 21–23, 1986.