The recent animal rights debate in "Animal Advocates Crusade For The Day When Animals Are Freed From Lab Cages," by Christine Jackson, and "The Animal Rights Movement Threatens To Make Scientists An Endangered Species," by Leland C. Clark, Jr. (The Scientist, Sept. 3, 1990, page 11), signaled the need for a new response by the research community. In the past, animal rights spokespersons parroted the same general collection of lies, distortions, and half-truths, and the research community would refute each of these individually. The animal rights groups would then add new allegations once the previous ones were proved false. Consequently, most researchers' efforts were directed toward refuting an endless list of new, false accusations.
Researchers failed to perceive that this was part of a general strategy in which they were being manipulated into wasting energy and media exposure, defining what was obvious to scientists, but not to the general public. ...
