Rex Dalton’s article “Waging War On The Animal Rights Lobby,” The Scientist, February 6; 1989) characterizes animal rights activists as “anti-research.” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is opposed to neither research nor science; we are opposed to animal research and bad science, which go hand in hand.
Whereas many experiments on nonhuman animals have led scientists astray in studies of human disease, human clinical and epidemiological studies—as well as other non-animal methods —have given researchers promising and provocative data that have contributed to our bank of knowledge on how to prevent disease. This type of information will help us keep health care costs down, avoid family tragedies, and, of course, save lives. Prevention is of particular importance in fighting AIDS, for instance, as the search for a vaccine appears less and less hopeful.
It is time for the scientific community to put creativity to work— instead of the ...
