Six animal rights
activists are on trial in New Jersey on criminal charges of conspiracy, interstate
stalking and harassment against a company that performs tests on live animals.
The trial is the latest skirmish in the explosive battle over using animals
in medical research - which is required by law for pharmaceuticals and which
many say is crucial to finding treatments and cures for AIDS, cancer and more.
Thousands of scientists, veterinarians, doctors, lawyers are animal advocates
are engaged in the debate, which ranges from efforts to eliminate animal testing
altogether to reducing the use of animals and treating those used more humanely.
The expanding battle is playing out in courtrooms, legislatures, research labs
and communities across the country. Ethics and religious beliefs are central
to all sides of the debate.
What's new:
• The
activists on trial in New Jersey were charged under a 2002 law that protects
companies that use animals in research. The U.S. government accused the six
of using their web site to incite a "campaign of thuggery" that intimidated
and harassed employees of a company that performs tests on live animals. (Read
a Feb.
19, 2006, Associated Press story posted by Newsday.)
• The
activists are at the extreme of a 30-year effort to persuade government and
scientists to abandon - or, in the interim, reduce - the use of animals in research.
The pressure through the years has resulted in what scientists call the 3 R's
- efforts to refine the way animals are used in research to treat them more
humanely, reduce the number of animals used and, when possible, to replace them
with alternate forms of testing. Millions of animals are used and killed annually,
most of them birds, rodents and fish.
• The
FBI has labeled extremists who want an immediate end to all animal testing,
along with eco-terrorists, the nation's No. 1 domestic terrorist threat. (See
2002
statement.) Some use arson and bombs on research labs. Others have damaged
labs, harassed workers or covertly gotten jobs in research labs in order to
videotape the treatment of animals. In October 2005, animal rights activist
Dr. Jerry Vlasak told a U.S. Senate committee that murder of animal researchers
would be a "morally justified solution." (See news
release posted by the Center for Consumer Freedom.)
• Scientists,
researchers and companies say the campaign for animal rights has had positive
effects with the implementation of the 3 R's. They also say that they have a
moral and ethical obligation to consumers to provide safe products and that
sometimes the only way to do that is to test them on animals. Many companies
now post their policies on animal experimentation on their web sites, and most
have increased security because of activists' willingness to commit crimes.
• Research
to find alternatives to animal testing is expanding, as is funding. Some centers,
such as the Center for Alternatives
to Animal Testing at Johns Hopkins University, specialize in it.
• People
on all sides of the debate site ethics and religious beliefs as a motivation
for their actions. Scholars are exploring the theological aspect of humans'
relationship with animals in all religions. The American Academy of Religion
created an Animals and Religion Consultation in 2003.
• Law schools
have become another field in the battle, with law students joining animal rights
groups with competing agendas. Animal case law is expanding, with large numbers
of lawsuits, advocacy organizations, web sites and more. (See Legal
sources.)
Why it matters
How people view
animals - and the appropriateness of using them for scientific and medical research
- is rooted in their belief system, which is usually determined by religion.
Questions for
reporters
Companies that
use animals for experiments generally post their policies on their web sites
and can answer questions about them. Ask how their use of animals has changed
in the last decade.
For different perspectives
in the debate, contact high school science teachers and religious youth groups
in addition to local animal rights groups, companies and research labs. Suggested
questions In the eyes of God, are animals of equal or lesser worth than human
beings? Do they have souls? How is "dominion" interpreted in the book
of Genesis? When is it right and when is it wrong to use animals for research?
At a few public
and private labs, ceremonies memorialize animals’ contributions. Another
aim of the ceremonies is to comfort lab technicians who must feed the animals,
take blood and ultimately kill them. Are these ceremonies conducted locally?
Activists say they
have observed, through monitoring scientific journals, that younger scientists
are increasingly unwilling to participate in animal experimentation. What do
scientists locally say?
GOVERNMENT • The
Office
of Laboratory Animal Welfare is part of the National Institutes of Health.
The site includes articles, commentary, laws and policies on research animal
care, use and euthanasia. To reach individuals in the OLAW, contact NIH press
officer Don Ralbovsky, 301-496-5787, dr18F@nih.gov.
• The
Animal Welfare Act, a federal law, requires registration of mammals used in
testing. University committees overseeing research proposals are meant to keep
animal use at a minimum. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal
Welfare Information Center oversees the enforcement of the law and of animal
care and use in research, teaching and testing. The center's site includes legislation
and regulations governing animal research and links to numerous related
governmental organizations. Find a contact at a regional
office of the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, division of animal
care, where inspectors and regulators work. Contact the national
office with questions regulations about how the laws are enforced: 301-734-7833.
• Chimp
Haven, Inc. is a private, non-profit sanctuary providing lifetime care for chimpanzees
retired from service as lab animals in Shreveport, La. Chimp Haven houses 75
animals and is funded by a contract from the National Institutes of Health.
No invasive research is permitted there. Contact Rick Delahaya, 318-425-0002.
SUPPORTERS
OF RESEARCH •
The Foundation
for Biomedical Research (FBR) is the nation's oldest and largest organization
devoted to promoting public understanding, respect and support for humane and
responsible animal research, which advances human and animal health. Contact
George Goodno, communications director: 202-457-0654, info@fbresearch.org.
• Frankie Trull is president of the National
Association for Biomedical Research, based in Washington, D.C. It is the
only national, nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating public policy
supporting the vital role of humane animal use in biomedical research, higher
education and product safety testing. NABR provides the unified voice for the
scientific community on legislative and regulatory matters affecting laboratory
animal research. Contact through George Goodno, communications director, 202-857-0540,
info@nabr.org.
• Jacquie Calnan is president of Americans
for Medical Progress promotes nurturing public understanding of and support
for the humane, necessary and valuable use of animals in medicine. It is a charity
supported by the nation's top universities, private research facilities, research-related
businesses, scientific and professional societies and foundation grants. Its
site lists groups
that support animal research. Contact 703-836-9595 ext. 100, amp@amprogress.org.
• Henry
Childers is president of the American Veterinary Medical Association, representing
73,000 veterinarians and based in Schaumburg, Ill. It issued a 2005
statement saying it "cannot endorse the philosophical views and personal
values of animal rights advocates when they are incompatible with the responsible
use of animals for human purposes, such as companionship, food, fiber, and research
conducted for the benefit of both humans and animals." Contact 847-925-8070.
• The American
Association for Laboratory Animal Science promotes "responsible laboratory
animal care and use to benefit people." It's based in Memphis, Tenn., with branches
around the country. Contact: Ann Turner, executive director: 901-754-8620, info@aalas.org.
• New Jersey-based Covance
Co. is one of the world's largest drug development services companies, with
2003 revenues of $940 million, operations in 18 countries, and about 6,500 employees
around the world, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. Covance has filed
a lawsuit in Fairfax County, Va., accusing People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals and one of its activists of fraud, conspiring to harm its business
and violating a nondisclosure agreement. A PETA activist has acknowledged infiltrating
and secretly videotaping a Covance lab. Read a June 6, 2005, Associated Press
article, "Covance
sues PETA and spy who alleged monkey abuse" on the PhillyBurbs.com site.
See PETA’s coverage.
Covance says it takes seriously its regulatory and ethical responsibilities
toward research animals and treats them with care and respect. Contact Covance
spokeswoman Laurene Isip, 609-419-2060, Laurene.Isip@covance.com.
CRITICS
OF RESEARCH •
People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the strongest national voice against
animal research. Its campaigns, using celebrities and provocative tactics, have
focused public attention on animals. PETA urges scientists to abandon animal-poisoning
tests (for drug toxicity) in favor of methods that do not use animals. See PETA's
page
on animal experimentation. Contact Bruce Friedrich, spokesman for the Norfolk,
Va.-based organization. Friedrich says his active Roman Catholic faith led him
to animal rights work. He goes so far as to call animal laboratories are "satanic"
and says they must be rejected by thinking Christians because they deny animals
the lives, families and freedom intended for them by God. Contact 757-962-8342,
brucef@peta.org.
• Norm
Phelps is program coordinator for the Humane
Society of the United States. A section of its web site is devoted to animal
research. He works to encourage faith communities of all traditions to include
animals in their ministries. He wrote The Great Compassion: Buddhism and
Animal Rights (Lantern Books, 2004) and The Dominion of Love: Animal
Rights According to the Bible (Lantern Books, 2002). He says he considers
himself a Tibetan Buddhist and a Unitarian Universalist. Contact n.phelps@myactv.net.
• Stephen
Wells is executive director of the Animal
Legal Defense Fund, which pushes the U.S. legal system to end the suffering
of animals. Its web site lists student
chapters of the organization at law schools around the country. Contact
707-795-2533.
ACADEMICS •
Alan
Goldberg is president of the Center
for Alternatives to Animal Testing at Johns Hopkins University, which supports
research that refine help refine existing animal tests by minimizing animal
distress, reduce animal usage, or replacing whole animal tests. Based in Baltimore,
Md., it sponsors Altweb,
the Alternatives to Animal Testing Web Site, a "gateway to alternative news,
information, and resources on the Internet and beyond." Contact 410-223-1692,
goldberg@jhsph.edu.
• Peter
Singer is Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the Princeton University
Center for Human Values. Singer was the founding president of the International
Association of Bioethics, and with Helga Kuhse, he founded the journal Bioethics.
His Animal Liberation (Ecco Press, republished in 2001) launched the
animal rights movement in 1976. Contact 609-258-2202.
• Bernard
Rollin is University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State
University. He pioneered the area of veterinary ethics and is the author and
editor of numerous books. He edited the two-volume The Experimental Animal
in Biomedical Research: Care, Husbandry, and Well-Being - An Overview by Species
(CRC-Press: two volumes, 1989 and 1995). Contact 970-491-6885, Bernard.rollin@colostate.edu.
• Paul
F. Waldau directs the Center
for Animals and Public Policy at Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary
Medicine in North Grafton, Mass. Waldau, an assistant professor, works in two
fields, religion and animals, and law and animals. He wrote The Specter of
Speciesism: Buddhist and Christian Views of Animals (Oxford University Press,
2001) and co-edited A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science
and Ethics (Columbia University Press, early 2006). He founded and chairs
the animals and religion group of the American Academy of Religion. Contact
508-887-4671, paul.waldau@tufts.edu.
• Hank
Davis, professor of psychology at the University of Guelph (Ontario), began
the growing practice of memorializing the lives of animals used in research.
He teaches workshops internationally on the subject for laboratories. He says
animal research is necessary but that it should be done with great care, conservation
and appreciation for the sacrifice of the animals involved. Contact 519-824-4120
ext. 53504, davis@psy.uoguelph.ca.
• Donna
Yarri, assistant professor of theology at Alvernia College in Reading, Pa.,
wrote her dissertation (at Southern Methodist University) on "The Ethics
of Animal Experimentation: A Critical Analysis and Constructive Christian Proposal,"
and she remains interested in the ethics of animal experimentation. Contact
610-796-8479, donna.yarri@alvernia.edu.
LEGAL •
Barbara
J. Gislason heads the Animal
Law Committee of the American Bar Association's Tort Trial and Insurance
Practice Section. See a list
of other committee members and their bios. Contact gislasonbj@aol.com.
• Professor
David Favre is editor in chief of the Animal
Legal & Historical Web Center at Michigan State University College of Law.
The four-year-old site lists federal and state law and court cases, as well
as articles on animal rights aimed at nonlawyers. Contact Editor@animallaw.info.
• Michelle
Hodkin is editor in chief of the Journal
of Animal Law, a student-run publication at Michigan State University
College of Law. It seeks to explore the legal and public policy issues surrounding
animals at all levels of government.
Contact michelle.hodkin@gmail.com.
• Laura
Ireland Moore is founder and executive director of the National
Center for Animal Law, which trains and supports those who choose to practice
animal law in order to further that field of law and promote legal protections
for animals. It is based at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore., and
sponsors an annual animal
law conference. Contact 503-768-6849, lireland@lclark.edu.
• Geoff
Evans is editor of the Animal
Law Review, a student publication at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland,
Ore. Its goal is to provide a forum for scholarly discussion of legal issues
related to animals. Contact gevans@lclark.edu.
• For
a list of state bar animal law sections and committees, see a listing
on the web site of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, which opposes research.
• AnimalLaw.com
lists laws and legislation pertaining to the rights and welfare of animals.
It lists current national and state laws and important court decisions. It is
sponsored by the International Institute for Animal Law, based in Chicago, which
advocates for laws protecting animals. See its board
of directors. Contact 312-917-8850.
RELIGIOUS
CHRISTIAN •
Robert
M. Grant, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School, wrote
Early Christians and Animals (Routledge, 1999). Contact 773-702-8200,
rmgrant@uchicago.edu.
• Stephen
Webb is a professor of religion and philosophy at Wabash College in Crawfordsville,
Ind., and a member of the American Academy of Religion's group on animals and
religion. He wrote On God and Dogs: A Christian Theology of Compassion for
Animals (Oxford University Press, 2002). Contact 765-361-6264 or 317-858-0624,
webbs@wabash.edu.
MUSLIM
• The
Muslim Health Professional
Society can help reporters find Muslim health-care professionals to discuss
how Islam balances the stewardship of animals and the needs of science. Contact:
Naser Alotaibi, otnaser@hotmail.com
or Essam J. Alyamani, ejalyama@texaschildrenshospital.org
or consult the society's list
of contacts.
• Ingrid
Mattson is an expert in Islamic law and can discuss animal rights and Islam.
She is Director of Islamic Chaplaincy and professor at the Macdonald Center
for Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Hartford,
Conn. Contact 860-509-9531, imattson@hartsem.edu.
• Aminah
Beverly McCloud is a professor of religious studies at DePaul University in
Chicago and can discuss the place of animals in the Muslim world. The notion
of animal rights is a new one for Muslim societies, she says. Contact 773-325-1290,
amccloud@depaul.edu.
JEWISH
• Rabbi
Steven Kushner has chaired the kashrut task force for the Central Conference
of American Rabbis. He is the rabbi at Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, N.J.
Contact 973-338-1500.
• Aaron
S. Gross is a Jew, a scholar and animal activist. He holds a Masters of Theological
Studies degree from Harvard University and is pursuing a PhD in Religious Studies
at University of California, Santa Barbara, focused on religious ethics. Gross
helped found and served as the first head of PETA India (Mumbai) in 2000. He
points to the Jewish Law "tsaar ba-alei chaim," which he translates as saying,
"It is forbidden, according to the Law of the Holy Torah, to inflict pain upon
any living creatures. On the contrary, it is our duty to relieve the pain of
any creatures."
• Judaism
values humans above animals and so can be construed as supporting animal experimentation.
At the same time, Judaism holds compassion for animals on a high level and has,
it can be argued, a more robust legal and theological tradition of protection
for animals than Christianity. Jewish opponents of animal research point to
Jewish law forbidding anyone to cause suffering to any living creature, says
Aaron S. Gross, a scholar, a Jew and animal activist. Gross holds a Masters
of Theological Studies degree from Harvard University and is a Rowny Fellow
at University of California Santa Barbara, where he is a graduate student in
religious studies. He also consults for PETA on religious issues. He can discuss
Jewish values with regard to animals and the Torah’s proscription, called
tzaar baalei hayim, against inflicting pain on any creature. Contact 805-636-9182,
aarongross@post.harvard.edu.
BUDDHIST • Professor
Christopher Key Chapple teaches in the theological studies department at Loyola
Marymount University in Los Angeles. He has written about nonviolence toward
animals in the Asian traditions. Contact 310-338-2846, cchapple@lmu.edu.
• Kevin M. Trainor is associate professor of religion at the University
of Vermont, Burlington. He can discuss attitudes toward animals in Buddhism.
Contact 802-656-0799, Kevin.Trainor@uvm.edu.
HINDU • Professor
Vasudha Narayanan teaches Hinduism in India and the diaspora in the religion
department at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Contact 352-392-1625,
vasu@ufl.edu.
NATIVE AMERICAN While each tradition varies, Native American religious traditions commonly
share a respect for animals. Native traditions that use animals for food understand
that the animals sacrifice themselves for the benefit of the people. Prayers
are said and tobacco or sage burned to express appreciation to the spirit of
the animal. Pamela Jean Owens, assistant professor of religion at the University
of Nebraska, Omaha, says that perspective can be construed as supportive of
medical research on animals if they are treated with respect and care and if
their sacrifice is appreciated. The frivolous use of animal sacrifice –
for developing cosmetics, for instance - would be abhorred, Owens says. Contact
402-554-3929, powens@mail.unomaha.edu.
JAIN • Professor
James F. Lewis wrote the chapter "The Jain Religion in Modern India"
in Religion in Modern India (Manohar Publishers, 1998). He teaches biblical
and theological studies at Bethel University in St. Paul. Contact 651-638-6349,
j-lewis@bethel.edu.
Background
DEFINITIONS •
Vivisection
means performing surgery for scientific purposes on a live animal.
• Generally,
animal rights activists hold that nonhuman lives are as important as humans'.
Some Muslims and conservative Christians disagree with them for precisely that
reason, says Paul F. Waldau directs the Center
for Animals and Public Policy at Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary
Medicine in North Grafton, Mass.
• Animal
welfare proponents vary in their philosophies. For example, Christian animal
welfare proponent Stephen Webb, a religion and philosophy professor, opposes
vivisection out of the belief that animals are not equal to humans and that
humans have a responsibility to care for them as stewards of God's creation.
On the other hand, psychologist Hank Davis, a University of Guelph (Ontario)
professor who works vigorously for humane treatment of research animals on his
campus and originated memorials for research animals, also calls himself an
animal welfare advocate but he supports animal research as a difficult necessity.
The human benefits alone would not be enough, he says, but since much of the
gains from animal research flow to veterinary science, he concludes that benefits
to both humans and animals outweigh the losses.
POLLS
• Read
key
findings from a poll conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, April
15-18, 2005, for the Foundation for Biomedical Research about public attitudes
toward animal research.
ARTICLES
• Read
a Feb.
19, 2006, Associated Press story about the animal rights activists’
trial in New Jersey. It’s posted by Newsday.
• Read
"Bismillah:
Eating in the name of God," by Hartford Seminary Prof. Ingrid Mattson for
a sense of the responsibilities of humans toward animals in Islam.
• Read "Bought
to Be Sold: A new documentary investigates a dealer’s maltreatment of dogs
intended for medical research." The Feb. 17, 2006, Newsweek article,
at MSNBC.com, outlines the trade in animals sold to research labs by holders
of U.S. Agriculture Department class B licensed dealers.
• The January
2006 Scientific Americanhas an article about increasingly
more sophisticated alternatives to animal testing.
• Read "Animal
Rights Leader Dr. Jerry Vlasak Endorses Murder Of Scientists In U.S. Senate
Testimony," a Oct. 27, 2005 press release by The Center for Consumer Freedom,
a nonprofit coalition supported by restaurants, food companies, and consumers.
Read the U.S.
Senate transcript.
• Read "Villified
as 'terrorists,' eco-activists face new offensive by business," an in-depth
New Standard News article
at the InfoShop news site. The article ascribes the new emphasis by the federal
government on stopping radical environmental and animal-rights activists in
part to pressure from businesses and industry.
• Read "Animal
Personhood: A Threat to Research?", published in December 2004 on the site
of The American Physiological Society, a group of scientists committed to the
humane use of animals in research. The article outlines recent progress of legal
arguments against animal research.
• Read "Animal
rights 'terror' rattles biotechs' cage," a Feb. 6, 2004, article in the
San Francisco Business Times describing the effects of strident and violent
animal rights activism on the biotech industry.
• Read "Animal
Liberation at 30," Peter Singer's assessment of the movement in the May
15, 2003, New York Review of Books.
• Read "The
church and the animal movement," an article in the September 2002 Witness,
the progressive Anglican magazine.
• Read the Feb.
12, 2002, testimony of James F. Jarboe, Domestic Terrorism Section Chief,
Counterterrorism Division, FBI, before the House Resources Committee's Subcommittee
on Forests and Forest Health on "The Threat of Eco-Terrorism." In his discussion
of the some animal rights activism as domestic terrorism, Jaroe says that estimates
of damage and destruction in the United States claimed by the Animal Liberation
Front (from 1992 to 2002) put losses to the fur industry and medical research
losses at more than $45 million dollars. "The ALF is considered a terrorist
group, whose purpose is to bring about social and political change through the
use of force and violence," Jarboe said.
• Read "The
Case for Animal Rights" by Tom Regan, excerpted from Animals Rights and
Human Obligations, edited by Regan and Peter Singer (Prentice Hall, 1989).
It is published on Webster University's (St. Louis, Mo.) Web page.
Regional sources
IN
THE NORTHEAST
• Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus is a professor of religion at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. He can discuss
Jewish approaches to the treatment and rights of animals. Contact 508-286-3694, jkraus@wheatoncollege.edu.
• Steven
Wise, an animal rights attorney, is president of AnimalConcerns.org's Center
for the Expansion of Fundamental Rights in Needham, Mass. The organization
seeks to lay the legal foundation for achieving fundamental legal rights for
at least some nonhuman animals. Wise has taught animal rights law at Harvard
Law School, Vermont Law School, John Marshall Law School and St. Thomas Law
School. He is the author of several books, including Drawing the Line: Science and the
Case for Animal Rights (Perseus Publishing, 2003) and Rattling the Cage:
Toward Legal Rights for Animals (Perseus, 2001). Contact 954-648-9864, wiseboston@aol.com.
• Valerie
Stanley is an adjunct professor teaching animal law at the University of Maryland
School of Law in Baltimore and Georgetown School of Law in Washington, D.C.
Contact valeriejstanley@yahoo.com.
IN
THE EAST • F. Barbara Orlans is a senior research fellow at Georgetown University's
Kennedy Institute of Ethics. She can discuss ethical decision-making about animal
experiments. She wrote In the Name of Science: Issues in Responsible Animal
Experimentation (Oxford University Press; reprint edition, 1996). Contact
202-687-6756.
• Charles Robert Pinches, professor of theology and religious studies at
the University of Scranton, has written about Christian approaches to animal
well-being. Contact 570-941-4302, pinchesc1@uofs.edu.
• Dr. Hamada Hamid is a New York physician serving a hospital residency
in neurology and psychiatry. He can discuss biothethics in Islam, although he
is not an expert. He can also discuss animal rights from the point of view of
a physician who relies on pharmaceuticals that are tested on animals. Contact
917-974-6138, hamadahamid@gmail.com.
• Joan
Schaffner is an associate professor of law at George Washington University School
of Law in Washington, D.C., where she serves as faculty adviser to the Animal
Law Litigation Project. The project, a joint venture between the law school
and the Humane Society of the United States, works to improve enforcement of
animal protection laws by giving students clinical experience representing animals'
interests in the courts. She is also co-founder and co-director of the Animal
Welfare Project at the school. Contact 202-994-7040, jschaf@law.gwu.edu.
IN
THE SOUTHEAST •
Jace
Garrett Weaver is an associate professor of American
and religious studies and law at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. He can
discuss the relationship of Native American religions to animals and the state
of animal rights/welfare movement within Native American communities. Contact
203-432-0713, jace.weaver@yale.edu.
• Gary
Lynn Comstock is a philosophy professor and director of the Research Ethics
Initiative at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. He has written about
ethics and the humane treatment of animals. Contact 919-513-5151, gcomstock@ncsu.edu.
• Tom
Regan is emeritus professor of philosophy at North Carolina State University
in Raleigh, N.C. His book The Case for Animal Rights (University of California,
2004) is considered a classic in the area. Contact 919-515-2011.
IN
THE SOUTH
• Nathan Nobis is
a philosopher specializing in animal rights and bioethics at Morehouse College in Atlanta. He
can discuss and outline the debate over the treatment of laboratory animals.
Contact 585-748-5987, nnobis@morehouse.edu.
• Hugh
LaFollette, professor of philosophy at East Tennessee State University in Johnson
City, co-authored Brute Science: Dilemmas of Animal Experimentation (Routledge,
1997). Contact 423-439-6625, hughlafollette@comcast.net.
• Jay
McDaniel, professor of religion at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., mentors
students in a doctor of ministry program at the United Theological Seminary
in Dayton, Ohio, on spirituality, sustainability and interreligious dialogue,
part of which focuses on bonds between humans and animals. He wrote Of God
and Pelicans: A Theology of Reverence for Life (Westminster John Knox Press,
1989). Contact 501-450-1366, mcdaniel@hendrix.edu.
IN
THE MIDWEST
• R.
G. Frey teaches moral, political and legal philosophy at Bowling Green State
University in Ohio. He has written on the moral issues involved with animal
research in medicine, including Interests and Rights: The Case Against Animals
(Clarendon Press, 1980). Contact 419-372-8394, rfrey@bgnet.bgsu.edu.
• David
H. Smith, recently retired from the religious studies department of Indiana
University, Bloomington, has written about religion and the use of animals in
research. A religious and medical ethicist, he directed the Poynter Center for
the Study of Ethics and American Institutions for 20 years. Smith has been the
Friedricks Distinguished Visiting Professor of Ethics at DePauw University this
year. Contact Smithd@indiana.edu.
• James
P. Sterba is a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
He has written about animal rights and environmental ethics. Contact 574-631-5231,
sterba.1@nd.edu.
• Cleveland
physician Steve Kaufman founded the national Christian Vegetarian Association
and has long served on the medical modernization committee at the hospital where
he is on staff. Contact Kaufman by calling the association, 216-283-6702.
• Mitch
Head is a spokesman for United Egg Producers, a national trade organization,
which is at odds with Mercy for Animals over the treatment of commercial laying
hens in Ohio, 404-367-2744.
IN
THE SOUTHWEST
• William
Greenway is associate professor of philosophical theology at the Austin Presbyterian
Theological Seminary. He is a member of the Christian
Vegetarian Association. Contact 512-472-6736 ext. 256, drbillg@attglobal.net.
• John P. Gluck is a
professor emeritus of psychology at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
Originally a comparative psychologist specializing in learning ability of nonhuman
primates, he now studies the ethical justification of animal research. Contact
505-277-3420, jgluck@unm.edu.
• Carol
J. Adams is an independent scholar based in Dallas. She writes and lectures
widely. She can discuss the varying interpretations of "dominion"
in Genesis. She says people have resisted a broad concern for all animals out
of fear that caring and grieving on such a large scale could overwhelm them.
Contact 972-680-3042, cja@caroljadams.com.
• Laura
Hobgood-Oster is assistant professor of religion and philosophy at Southwestern
University in Georgetown, Texas. She teaches courses on religion and animals
and is a member of the American Academy of Religion's animals and religion
group. She says many theologians are thinking deeply about whether only humans
have souls and go to heaven. Contact 512-863-1669, hoboster@southwest.edu.
IN
THE WEST/NORTHWEST • Matthew
Scully is the author of Dominion: The Power of Man, The Suffering of Animals,
and the Call to Mercy (St. Martin's Press, 2002), which argues not for animal
"rights" but for decent treatment of animals from various points of
view, including religious. Scully, who lives in Los Angeles, is a journalist
and a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush. Contact DominionLetters@aol.com.
• Nancy
L Haigwood is director of the viral vaccines program at Seattle Biomedical Research
Institute. She has written about how the use of primates has advanced HIV research.
She has been president of the board of trustees of the Washington Association
for Biomedical Research, the nonprofit educational organization for advancing
biomedical research using animal subjects. Contact 206-256-7200.
• Laurelee
Blanchard is the campaign consultant for Farm Sanctuary's "Sentient Beings
Campaign," which seeks basic rights for animals. The group plans outreach
to religious groups and people because, she says, people who practice religion
are likely to be more open to extending compassion beyond humans. Contact 808-575-7694,
laurelee@hawaii.rr.com.
