‘Human Souls, Animal Lives’

The metaphysical contradiction that arises out of the horrendous use of living animals as laboratory “tools” was set forth vividly in the Glidden piece .

Fortunately, for academicians, clergy and lay persons who are committed to the cause of animal rights, resolution of this metaphysical impasse came with the publication in 1983 of “The Case for Animal Rights,” by Tom Regan, professor of philosophy at North Carolina State University (University of California Press).

Writing within the same philosophical discipline as Glidden, Regan’s work provided a metaphysical rationale. As a consequence, in the summer of 1984 an international conference followed in London on “Religious Perspectives on the Use of Animals in Science.”

The undersigned was a delegate to this conference of theologians and academicians of the major Western and Eastern faith groups. Readers of Glidden’s article will be enlightened by perusing the proceedings of the London conference, edited by Regan and published this year by Temple University Press under the title, “Animal Sacrifices.”

The growing numbers of advocates of animal rights would endorse Glidden’s strictures against “superfluous furs, clothes, perfumes and foods” made from animals and animal byproducts as well as his appeal “to put limits on hunting and fishing, and on other sports of slaughter . . .”

A consistent vegetarian, I applaud his call “to restrict our carnivorous consumption.” At the same time, I question his assertion that animal rights activists who picket animal research facilities at UCLA, UC Berkeley and elsewhere (may their numbers increase!) have not forsworn the eating of “hamburgers and hot dogs not to mention the Thanksgiving turkey.”

Where Glidden and animal rights advocates part company is in his insistence that animal experimentation is essential to and a necessary evil for human welfare.

SIDNEY J. JACOBS

Culver City

Rabbi Jacobs is a member of the board of the International Network for Religion and Animals.