Last night’s documentary ‘Rats and Mice and Me’—based around animal research at Oxford University—was excellent in virtually every way.

We have long said that what happens to animals used for research should be put in the context of the benefits to people. Many animal rights activists appear to have little understanding of what happens to patients in hospitals. Hence what might seem gruesome , such as carrying out brain surgery on an animal, is far more understandable when you see the equivalent brain surgery in a human.

We might have a few minor quibbles. It’s a shame that once again the main focus is on primate research—which only accounts for a tiny fraction of all animal research. On the other hand we have to accept that there are profound ethical issues involved in the use of monkeys in research, and that this type of work needs to be properly justified and understood.

But without a doubt the most enjoyable experience was sitting through a whole hour’s documentary without a single quote from the pseudoscientific quacks of the animal rights movement who claim that animal research doesn’t work. What a relief.

100 years ago, in evidence to the 1906 Royal Commission on Vivisection, the antivivisectionists made exactly the same claims—that animal research was of no benefit to people. Since then we have had the discovery of insulin for diabetics, the polio vaccine, heart transplants and many other major medical advance of the last century at least partially dependent on the results of animal research. The antivivisectionists who deny this are simply wrong. It was good to see the real facts come out at last.