New Book on Animal Rights vs. Animal Welfare
Hot off the press, this book is one you aren’t going to want to miss! I’m ordering my copy right now, and I’m looking forward to a thought provoking read. If you are interested, you can order a copy from the Animal Ag Alliance at a discounted price. Check it out, and happy reading! Can’t wait to discuss it later…
The relationship between animals and humans is more complex today than ever before. In addition to the animals that have served as household pets, and the farm animals that have provided labor and food, countless monkeys, rabbits, rats, and cats have enabled modern scientists to treat and cure humanity’s most devastating illnesses. This aspect of animal-human interaction has engendered a bitter enmity between animal rights activists and the biomedical researchers whose work depends on the use (and oftentimes the killing) of laboratory animals.
In An Odyssey with Animals , veterinarian and sleep researcher Adrian Morrison argues that humane animal use in biomedical research is an indispensable tool of medical science, and that efforts to halt such use constitute a grave threat to human health and wellbeing. The target of repeated acts of intimidation by anonymous animal rights activists because of his own research, Morrison is himself an animal advocate, and this volume is the culmination of his years spent negotiating the treacherous divide between a legitimate concern for animals and the importance of biomedical research. Drawing on the disciplines of philosophy, history, biology, and animal behavior, Morrison crafts a multi-faceted argument in favor of using animals humanely in research, the center of which is his staunch belief that human interests must be the primary concern of science and society. Along the way, Morrison delves into other human uses of animals in domains such as agriculture, hunting, and education, examining each use along with its philosophical, moral, and ecological implications. The result is a thought-provoking, intelligent and fair-minded discussion of a charged subject– of the past and present of animals’ relationships with humans, and how and why we should be able to use them as we do.
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Katie
After nearly half a century of working closely with animals in a resarch setting at the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School, Dr. Adrian Morrison takes some time to reflect over the scientific advances made possible by his research subjects. With tender reflection, Dr. Morrison traces the changing attitutes to animal use, be it research or farming. The book is a summary of a lifetime of thoughts on the subject of animal welfare, and moves from his childhood in the country during a time when many Americans grew up on farms, to the drastic changes we have seen recently where most Americans are so far removed from their food sources, agriculture and basic animal husbandry. Animal welfare is often confused with Animal Rights, and Dr. Morrison shows his readers the important difference between the two concepts, while upholding principles for using animals for research, food, clothing, and companions.
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