After the docu-drama Animals went out on More4 on Monday 12th December we gave you the chance to put your questions to Dr Simon Festing (Head of the Research Defence Society) and John Curtin (animal rights activist) in a live webchat.
It was good to be able to read the transcript for those who missed it. But it exposed the brevity of the debate which was a mere half hour, not nearly enough to cover the complex issues relating to vivisection. It also exposed the blatant lies of pro-vivisectionists, one example was the mention of Thalidomide which I believe Simon Festing lied about. The format of the chat did not allow him to be cross examined on it. The evidence in "Sacred Cows and Golden Geese" proves him wrong. He claimed that the drug was not tested on pregnant animals but the book shows that it was extensively tested on many (at least 54) species of animals without producing teratogenesis (i.e. chemical induction of birth defects). The facts in the book are too long to recite here, but after reading it I was convinced that the authors were right in concluding that "no amount of animal testing could have prevented the Thalidomide disaster." And further, the lack of side effects in animals allowed it (thalidomide)to make it to market in the first place and then stay there in the face of human studies.There are many other examples in the book of the unreliability of testing on animals. One example is penicillin, of which Fleming said "How fortunate we didn't have these animal tests in the 1940's, for penicillin would probably never have been granted a licenec, and possible the whole field of antibiotics might never have been realised".
I'm glad you mentioned that book, Lifesaver. I had not heard of it. I will probably buy a copy. I just did a search for it on the internet and came across a reply that the Greeks made to Mr. Festing's review of their book. Mr. Festing said that he had found inaccuracies. The Greek's reply to these false accusations are at:
Originally posted by C4 Ed: After the docu-drama Animals went out on More4 on Monday 12th December we gave you the chance to put your questions to Dr Simon Festing (Head of the Research Defence Society) and John Curtin (animal rights activist) in a live webchat.
Dr Alfred Vella CMath, CEng alfred_vella@hotmail.com
[Formerly Visiting Professor then Head of Computing then Head of Computing and Information Systems then Associate Dean, Computing Research and Development, The University of Luton, UK]
Originally posted by C4 Ed: After the docu-drama Animals went out on More4 on Monday 12th December we gave you the chance to put your questions to Dr Simon Festing (Head of the Research Defence Society) and John Curtin (animal rights activist) in a live webchat.
I have never understood why docudramas do not use real footage when it is available. The program was good but I feel that it sided with the ‘establishment’ more than with the animal rights group. It is about time we had an honest unbiased debate on these issues. How about the rights people giving up their filming inside the labs in exchange for unannounced free access being given to reporters? I wonder if the firms would agree to this. Assuming that they have nothing to hide or is this naïve?
I believe it was George Bernard Shaw who said that if all abbatoirs were made of glass and situated in the centre of cities we would all be vegetarian. Ditto research labs. - would we all be anti-vivisection?
