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British physicist Stephen Hawking recently denounced animal rights extremists bent on banning the use of animals in medical experimentation. Hawking author of the best selling A Brief History of Time, attacked the animal rights movement in comments before a meeting of the British Association of Science.
Andrew Blake, director of the UK-based group Seriously Ill for Medical Research, also appeared before the gathering of scientists to denounce animal rights extremists, saying, "Medical progress is being threatened by the extreme tactics of those who are seeking to abolish animal research."
Both men's comments were occasioned by the recent controversy over protests by UK activists against an animal breeding farm in Oxfordshire. The establishment, |Hill Grove| farm, breeds cats specifically to be used for animal experiments. The cats are certified to be free of common feline viruses that might disrupt or distort medical research. British Association of Science president Colin Blakemore, for example, studies the cats to find clues to the development of the cerebral cortex. Blakemore is currently developing a new imaging system for analyzing the brain that he hopes will later be modified for use in human beings, possibly greatly enhancing our understanding of how the brain works.
For his efforts, animal rights activists have rewarded Blakemore with two letter bombs, packages containing razor blades, and assorted threats over the last 11 years. Activists have engaged in an unrelenting campaign of harassment against Hill Grove involving everything from car bombs to rock throwing that has destroyed 80 percent of the glass panes in the house where |Hill Grove|'s proprietors live.
Sources:
UK's Hawking condemns animal rights extremists. Patricia Reaney, Reuters, Sept. 7, 1998.
Hawking defends tests on animals. Daily Telegraph, Sept. 13, 1998.