One thing we enjoy doing is exposing the animal rights groups who masquerade as medical or scientific organisations in a bid to sound respectable. The worst offender here is Europeans for Medical Progress (EMP), which even claims to be a ‘patient safety organisation’, see our earlier blogs highlighting its misinformation.
EMP’s sister organisation in the USA is the so-called Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), an organisation which is heavily funded by the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. One of those engaged by PCRM is John Pippin, who calls himself ‘Senior Medical and Research Advisor’. Since PCRM does not carry out any medical research, it is not clear why it needs an adviser, except to sound credible in its campaigns against the use of animals in research.
In a recent letter to The Scientist magazine, John Pippin claims he wants to ‘counter the absurd publicity stunt by Simon Festing and RDS, in the article Scientists call for retractions’.
Pippin writes:
Unwilling or unable to rebut Dr. Bailey’s scholarship, they have resorted to personal attacks. When I read Dr. Festing’s feeble accusations of extremism against Dr. Bailey, I was reminded that character assassination is the last cowardly refuge of those unable to engage in the debate. [our emphasis]
In fact the article contains no accusation of extremism by our Director against Bailey. But we are fascinated by John Pippin’s remarks. A recent email he sent (around what he thought was a private animal rights network) said the following:
The Research Defense Society (RDS) is a shameless shill for the animal research industry in the UK. It is funded by animal killers such as research institutions, business interests, drug and device manufacturers, etc.
The CEL (Chief Executive Liar) for RDS is Simon Festing, a professional sycophant without other identifiable skills, who will say anything to earn his salary. It is our good fortune that he is demonstrably robotic and shallow.
Now what were you saying about character assassination earlier, John? Remind us please, just for the record!
