Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
“Beautifully written…a comprehensive view of animal research.”—SCIENCE
A lifelong veterinarian invites us into animal labs—and shares his vision for more compassionate research.
For decades, laboratory veterinarian Larry Carbone has advocated for both animal welfare and medical progress. In The Hidden Lives of Lab Animals, he offers an insider's perspective on the ethics of using animals in scientific research. Recounting both heartening medical triumphs and heartrending stories of animal suffering, Carbone grapples with how to weigh scientific advancement against harms to our fellow sentient creatures—and how some of those harms can and should be avoided.
With a scientist's head and an animal lover's heart, Carbone shows how addressing animals' physical and emotional needs not only enhances their well-being but also leads to more robust scientific research. Authoritative and compassionate, The Hidden Lives of Lab Animals reveals the complex reality of what animals experience under the care of scientists, what humans gain from their involuntary service, and what we owe them moving forward.
"Larry Carbone has spent his entire career thinking about what happens to animals in research labs. As a veterinarian with specialization in lab animal medicine, he has made friends with many caged creatures: monkeys, pythons, mice, shrimp. But he also has a Ph.D. in the history and philosophy of science, which gives him theoretical grounding to consider big ethical questions."
“Thoroughly examines the numerous challenges that both laboratory animal veterinarians and scientists face when deciding which animals to use in their studies and how to ensure the welfare of those animals is both protected and enhanced.”
"This book is beautifully written in an easy-to-read style. It is thought-provoking and provides a comprehensive view of animal research from the point of view of someone with a veterinary background and a passion for treating animals that have nonconsensually given their lives for us. It would prove to be a rewarding read for aspiring lab animal vets, scientists who use animals in their work, and other stakeholders."
"In his semi-autobiographical work, Larry offers a vision for more compassionate research while discussing both heartening medical successes and heartrending stories of animal suffering."
“With clarity, balance, and no compromises , the text addresses in a thorough, transparent, and informative manner the many aspects that affect animal experimentation . Through Carbone's words and testimony, readers will be able to navigate the intersection of science and animal rights, well-being and pain, achievements and mistakes, speciesism and sentience, ethics and politics.”
"Challenges some of the most widely held beliefs and assumptions within the field, particularly about . . . equating animal contributions to research to their necessity for the research; using Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement (the 3Rs) as a framework for animal research ethics; and viewing the provision of enrichment as above the standard of care rather than as part of the standard of care."
“Carbone wishes there weren’t even a role for lab animal veterinarians. He spent his career working to better the lives of animals in labs because, as he writes in his book, the reality is they are there, and he expects they’ll continue to be there for some time.”
Python: From the Zoo to the Lab, What Animals Want
Woodchuck: Fashioning Animals into Models
Marmoset: Scoring the Value of Animal Research
Dog: The Poster Pups of Animal-Research Battles
Rabbit: The Whiskered Face That Launched Animal-Testing Alternatives
Chicken: Animal-Welfare Science for Happier Animals and Better Experiments
Chimpanzee: Richer Lives for Primates . . . and All Animals
Rat: The Pain We Don’t See Still Hurts Them
Mouse: Let Lab Mice Become Animals
Flea: The Ethics of Harming Animals for Human Benefit
Rhesus Monkey: The People and Politics in the Animal House
Gorilla: Back to the Zoo, Searching for a More Humane Future
Acknowledgments
Notes
Works Cited
Index