Perhapsnotmanypsychologistswouldnowproudlystatethat
their work has nothing to do with the human mind.
Neverthelessmanyoftheexperimentsthatareperformedon
ratscanonlybeexplainedbyassumingthattheexperimenters
reallyareinterestedinthebehavioroftheratforitsownsake,
withoutanythoughtoflearninganythingabouthumans. In
thatcase,though,whatpossiblejustificationcantherebefor
theinflictionofsomuchsuffering?Itiscertainlynotforthe
benefit of the rat.
Sotheresearcher’s centraldilemmaexists in an especially
acuteforminpsychology:eithertheanimalisnotlikeus,in
whichcasethereisnoreasonforperformingtheexperiment;
orelsetheanimalislikeus,inwhichcaseweoughtnotto
perform on the animal an experiment that would be
considered outrageous if performed on one of us.
Another major field of experimentation involves the
poisoningofmillionsofanimalsannually.Oftenthistoo is
donefortrivialreasons.InBritainin1988,588,997scientific
procedureswereperformedonanimalstotestdrugsandother
materials;ofthese,281,358werenotrelatedtothetestingof
medical or veterinary products.^48 In the United States no
accurate figures are available,
but if the proportion is similar to Britain the number of
animalsusedintestingmustbeatleastthreemillion.Infactit
isprobablydoubleortriplethatfigure,becausethereisso
muchresearchand developmentin this fieldin theUnited
States and the Food and Drug Administration requires
extensivetestingofnewsubstancesbeforetheyarereleased.
Itmaybe thoughtjustifiabletorequiretests onanimals of
potentiallylife-savingdrugs,butthesamekindsoftestsare
used for products like cosmetics, food coloring, and floor