Animal Research

This is in response to the column by Betty Ann Kevles (“To Zealots of Animal Lib, Biomed Is a Monster,” Opinion, Feb. 7), in which she inanely delves into the thought processes of people against animal research and their “simplistic logic,” then proceeds to give readers a large dose of it herself. She states as fact that animal sacrifice promotes human life, condoning the notion that imprisonment and deliberately inflicted trauma and illness can somehow be humane, and judging the value of animal species on the basis of their “close intelligence level” to that of human beings. Those are three examples of the most pompous simplistic logic that I have had the pleasure of reading lately.

Here is some more naivete for Kevles and her cronies to mull over. Animal research is nothing but a cover-up for human experimentation. No matter how many animal studies are done on a drug or procedure, the first humans to partake in it are being experimented on for the same reason that veterinary and human medicine are two different fields. Humans and animals have significant differences as the different species of animals have from each other. This means you cannot experiment on one and apply the results to another. Drugs and surgery are dangerous and are admissions of failure; they should only be used as last resorts. Their short- or long-term effect on humans is known only after human experience with them.

I hope readers were not influenced by Kevles’ misinformation and the taunting implications of foolishness she directed at people opposed to animal research. Human health is a matter of caring and respect for life, not of arrogance and blind acceptance of a fraudulent and barbaric traditions such as animal research.

L.J. BARILLARO

Whittier