may not be able to complete their studies. One former
veterinary student wrote to an animal welfare organization:
Mylife-long dreamandambitionto become aveterinarian
dissipatedfollowingseveraltraumaticexperiencesinvolving
standard experimental procedures utilized by the
dispassionate instructorsof thePre-Vet school at my state
university.Theyfeltitwasperfectlyacceptabletoexperiment
with and then terminate the lives of all the animals they
utilized,whichIfoundrevoltinglyunacceptabletomyown
moral code. After numerous confrontations with these
heartless vivisectionists, I painfully decided to pursue a
different career.^101
In1966,whenmoveswerebeingmadetopasslegislationto
protectlaboratoryanimals,theAmericanVeterinaryMedical
Associationtestifiedtocongressionalcommitteesthatwhileit
favoredlegislationtostopthestealingofpetsforsubsequent
sale to laboratories, it was opposed to the licensing and
regulationofresearchfacilities,sincethiscouldinterferewith
research. The basic attitude of the profession was, as an
article in the Journal of the AmericanVeterinary Medical
Association putit, that“the raison d’êtreof theveterinary
profession is the over-all well-being of man—not lower
animals.”^102 Once theimplicationsof thisfine exampleof
speciesismhavebeengrasped,itshouldsurprise nooneto
learnthatveterinarianswerepartoftheexperimentalteams
thatperformedmanyoftheexperimentslistedinthischapter.
Forjustoneexample,lookbacktothedescriptiononp. 27 of
the Primate Equilibrium Platform experiment involving
exposure to the nerve gas agent, soman. Thereport from
whichthisdescription isdrawnstates:“Routinecareofthe