Poorly targeted campaigns against animal-based research will hurt the wrong people

Animal Aid have published a report describing the use of animal-based research funded by medical research charities such as Alzheimer’s Society, Cancer Research UK, Parkinson’s UK and the British Heart Foundation.  It forms part of their call for a boycott of these charities and they intend to support it with a series of newspaper advertisements and a postcard campaign.

This has been described, quite rightly, as “irresponsible” by Colin Blakemore, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and roundly condemned by the charities named.

One thing that doesn’t seem to have been mentioned so far is the disingenuousness of targeting bodies that fund animal based research.  In doing so Animal Aid is refusing to engage directly with the people whose work they so strongly oppose.  This suggests a close-minded and anti-science attitude, similar to the attitude of anti-vaccinationists and creationists.  Scientists are often accused of arrogance but presenting a list of non-animal-based research techniques and implying that these are superior in all cases to animal-based techniques surely deserves the same label.  This is particularly true when their limitations have been spelled out repeatedly by weary scientists (for instance here).

As a scientist I am tired of reading the same arguments against animal research over and over and over again.  I am tired of being labelled not only cruel but lazy for my use of animal-based techniques.  It would be naïve to say that animal research is perfect or the only way forward but work is carried out with knowledge of the limitations of animal-based techniques, as with any other techniques (see here and here for examples discussion of some issue within my own area).

Implying that people are cruel or lazy without a full understanding of the topic smacks of laziness itself as does targeting charitable organisations in order to make a point about animal research.  It seems, however, that public opinion is in favour of animal-based research so hopefully charities funding vital research will not bear too much of a burden of these poorly aimed and tired attacks.