3 June 2006 marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of Peter Singer’s book Animal Liberation, which became the bible of the emerging animal rights movement and ideology. 3 June 2006 is also the date of the second Pro-Test rally in Oxford in support of the biomedical research centre being built by the University. Hundreds are expected to turn out.
A hard-hitting editorial in the current Research Fortnight, the influential research policy newsletter, looks at what animal liberation has achieved 30 years on, and concludes that it has been a miserable failure.
The editorial “Beginning of the End” says that in the last 30 years we have lived with
"a debate about animal experiments and welfare that has revolved around the assertion that no experiment that causes suffering to an animal can be justified. But that debate has been had and the public has sided with the scientists. Almost 90 per cent back experiments that are necessary and minimise pain. Singer’s is an idea whose time has passed."
Referring to the Pro-Test movement and Tony Blair’s decision to sign the People’s Petition (along with 20,000 others) supporting humane animal research, Research Fortnight warms to its theme:
"Blair’s move marks the end of animal experimentation as a subject that is seriously up for debate in the UK. First the public and now the politicians have moved on. The verdict is in, and the animal liberationists have lost."
We may have won the debate, (and we relish public debate, despite what SPEAK would have you believe - they sound increasingly desperate) but that doesn’t mean we can shut up shop. As Research Fortnight warns:
"We still have many practical issues to deal with. The terrorist groupuscules have to be locked up. The hounding of companies and people must be brought to an end. There will continue to be battles fought in the media. All of this could take years."
The liberationists, Research Fortnight concludes, face a depressing dilemma:
"The intellectual momentum has gone and the tide of public opinion has turned. They face in future in which only campaigns of violence offer any hope of short term success, but these only serve to deepen and harden public opposition to their position. A dedicated handful of fanatics may carry on the attacks for years to come. But it will be an increasingly lonely struggle, and, we can now see, ultimately pointless."
If I didn’t find them so unpleasant, aggressive and intellectually bankrupt, I might almost feel sorry for them.
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