Rat Trap: The capture of medicine by animal research – and how to break free, Pandora Pound, Troubador Publishing, 2023, 304 pp.

With devastating logic and clarity, Dr. Pandora Pound, Research Director at the Safer Medicines Trust, comprehensively dismantles the case for animal research. Focusing on the scientific arguments rather than animal suffering, she provides a riveting account of how the practice became so well established, before proceeding to painstakingly reveal the futility and shockingly poor quality of most animal studies.

Medical progress is being thwarted by an obsolete and harmful practice, but Pound showcases the awe-inspiring technologies, both old and new, that would revolutionise medicine if only it could escape the stranglehold of animal research. Rat Trap slays the many myths about animal research and shows that, far from being a necessary evil, it is one of the most important and urgent scientific issues of our time.

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Animal Testing – Sortons les animaux des labos! Audrey Jougla, Ed. Autrement, 2023, 352 p.

“Animal experimentation doesn’t exist: the trick of the industries that use it is to have made it disappear.”
Every year, in Europe, around 12 million animals undergo tests: a figure that has been rising steadily for the past twenty years, despite growing public opposition and a scientific discourse that praises the reduction of experiments.
Rodents, fish, cats, dogs or monkeys are used in laboratories, and sometimes for reasons far removed from health. What do these animals really go through? Why is change so slow? What can we do about it?
By setting up the Animal Testing association, Audrey Jougla was able to gather previously unpublished information and testimonials. Years of fieldwork punctuated by disappointments and victories: the author delivers an uncompromising panorama, as clear as it is edifying.

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L’expérimentation animale en question – Accélérer la transition vers une recherche sans animaux, Roland Cash, Ed. Matériologiques, 2022, 294 p.

There are countless examples of the undignified exploitation of animals and the denial of their sensitivity and intelligence. Animal experimentation is a case in point; there are still a large number of procedures that can be counted among the worst abuses inflicted on animals by man. Many associations consider it a cruel practice, while many researchers see it as a “necessary evil” for the advancement of biomedical research.

In this book, we attempt to overcome the opposition between these points of view, which mobilize divergent ethical principles. While the use of animals in research may sometimes be justified, it is not always; and just because it was in the past doesn’t mean it will continue to be in the future. In line with societal demand, it would seem possible to speed up the transition to animal-free research, in stages, by taking action on regulations and their application, the resources deployed to develop alternative methods, the organization of project evaluation, and the transparency of information on procedures and their results, in the spirit conveyed by the 2010 European directive.

Such a change requires an evolution of the bioethical framework in which animal experimentation takes place.

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Animal experimentation: Working towards a paradigm change: Collective work, editors: Kathrin Herrmann, Kimberley Jayne, Leiden, Boston, Brill, 2019

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“Six decades after Russell and Burch published their then-progressive ideas on how to make science humane and rigorous in the book Principles of Humane Experimental Technique, the time has come when it’s impossible to ignore the facts: the flaws and shortcomings of the animal research industry are obvious, and the continued use of animal models is ethically and scientifically less justifiable than ever.”

“We all operate in the same way”: The use of animals at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Rick Bogle, Virginia Smith Books, 2017, 614 p.

Rick Bogle’s book is a real achievement, with a broad historical perspective on the practices of a major public university and an in-depth sourced analysis of the practices and arguments of that university and its representatives.

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