Of Mice, Models, and Men

A Critical Evaluation of Animal Research

By Andrew N. Rowan

Subjects: Animal Rights
Paperback : 9780873957779, 323 pages, June 1984
Hardcover : 9780873957762, 323 pages, June 1984

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Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword

1. Introduction

I. THE BACKGROUND

 

2. What is Biomedical Science?
3. Attitudes and Assumptions
4. Historical Notes on Animal Research and Antivivisection
5. Laboratory Animal Ecology: The Numbers Puzzle
6. Pain and Suffering in Laboratory Animals

 

II. THE ISSUES

 

7. The Use of Animals in Education: A Failure to Deal with Contradictory Values
8. Primate Research: Monkey Puzzle or Creative Sciences
9. Animal Behavior and Psychology Research
10. The "Pound" Animal Battle
11. Animal Research: An Animal Welfare Case File
12. A Case for the Defense

 

III. TOXICITY TESTING IN SAFETY EVALUATION

 

13. Toxicology Testing and the Use of Laboratory Animals
14. The LD50 Test
15. The Draize Test
16. Chronic Toxicity Tests
17. Toxicity Testing: Proposals from an Animal Welfare Perspective

 

IV. THE MORAL QUESTION, ALTERNATIVES, AND SUGGESTIONS

 

18. The Moral Status of Laboratory Animals
19. Alternatives: A Meeting Ground for Science and Animal Welfare
20. Suggestions for the Future

 

Bibliography

Index

Description

Too much emotion and insufficient fact. This paradox has long characterized the controversy surrounding animal research.

Of Mice, Models, and Men is the first exhaustive treatment of all areas—empirical and conceptual—relevant to the use of animals in research. It is also the first study to combine regard for the welfare of laboratory animals with a knowledgeable acceptance of the continuing need for research involving animals.

The book has another rare quality. It is virtually devoid of any of the emotional and exaggerated attacks that have characterized many of the other publications in this area. Instead, it presents, in a manner accessible to both sides, all the relevant historical, social, and scientific information required to form an opinion on the subject. The book thus achieves a most difficult goal—that of bridging the gap between researchers using animals and animal welfare advocates, while pointing out the need for a more active program to promote laboratory animal welfare.

Andrew N. Rowan is Assistant Dean for New Programs, Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts.