THE MYTHS OF ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION
Bernhard Rambeck, MDMyth 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / Intro / Next Page
Ninth myth: "Only experts are able to judge the necessity, significance and importance of animal experiments"
The view that the layman, because of his lack of specialist knowledge, cannot discuss animal experimentation explains why experimenters could for decades practise animal research relatively undisturbed. Even today, politicians, lawyers, theologians, philosophers, but above all the average population, have either no idea or a completely wrong one, of the suffering and agony which the animals undergo in the field of animal experimentation. But the barriers of silence have for the last few years been increasingly broken down by the mass media. Furthermore, essential changes have recently been accomplished. Groups for the prevention of cruelty to animals are more and more supported by experts critical of the system, and there are now national and international medical associations which reject animal research.