before.Thatisbecausetherearemoreaffluentpeopleinthe
worldthaneverbefore,andsatisfyingtheirdemandformeat
hasmeantavastexpansionoffactoryfarming,especiallyin
China.Buttoseethisasanindicationthatanimaladvocates
havemade no progresswould be like saying that because
therearemoreslavesin theworldnowthantherewerein
1800,theantislaverymovementhasachievednothing.With
theworld’spopulation nowmorethanseven timeswhat it
was in 1800, numbers do not tell the whole story.
Therewillalwaysbeperiodsinwhichtheanimalmovement
seems to be struggling to hold its own, or even going
backward. But there canbe no doubt that attitudes about
animalsarecompletelydifferentfromwhattheywereforty
yearsago.JustasIwasdraftingthisintroduction,thefront
pageoftheNewYorkTimescarriedalongarticleheadlined
“U.S. Research Lab Lets Livestock Suffer in Quest for
Profit.”Thearticlereportedtheresultsofalonginvestigation
bya Timesjournalist intotheU.S. MeatAnimal Research
Center in southern Nebraska.^1 At thetime of writingthis
preface, a bipartisangroup ofcongressional representatives
had said that they would move legislation to bring
government institutions like the Meat Animal Research
Center under the Animal Welfare Act, which already
regulates experiments by nongovernment institutions.^2
The experiments described in the Times article obviously
caused great suffering to many animals, but many of the
experiments I describe in chapter two caused even more
suffering,werealsotaxpayerfunded,andcouldnotplausibly
be claimed to have had a more important scientific
justificationortobelikelyto leadtoa greaterbenefitthan
thosecarried outattheMeatAnimalResearchCenter.Yet