Noble rats

The Animal Aid website says some 3 million animals are used every year for research, but 900 million animals are farmed and killed for food each year. That's 300 pigs, chickens and cows, often reared in appalling conditions, for every rat or mouse (90% of research animals are small rodents, not cats, dogs or monkeys). If we want a serious debate about the moral justification for breeding and killing animals for human use, surely this is where we should start. After all, no one needs to eat meat, whereas biomedical research can only be carried out with the use of animals - the life of the laboratory rat serves a much more noble purpose than just producing another side of bacon.
Nanna Lüneborg
University College London

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