Animal Rights

US to curtail chimpanzee research after report

Michael Cook | 17 December 2011

Given that chimpanzees are so closely related to us, American researchers should allow them to be used in biomedical research only under stringent conditions, says a report from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. These include the absence of any other suitable model and inability to ethically perform the research on people.

Chimpanzee hepatitis C research in the firing line

Jared Yee | 18 November 2011

Experiments on chimpanzees have often horrified animal rights advocates and worried the medical community.

South Korean scientists make glow-in-the-dark dog

Jared Yee | 03 August 2011

South Korean scientists have genetically engineered a dog which glows in the dark.

Approach Frankenstein experiments gingerly, says UK report

Michael Cook | 23 July 2011

Mixing human and animal material should be approached with great caution, says the UK Academy of Medical Sciences in a report issued yesterday. But it recommends that some highly controversial experiments should be allowed to proceed, including modifying an animal’s brain to make it more human-like and the generation or propagation of functional human germ cells in animals.

Academics claim that calling animals ‘pets’ is insulting

Jared Yee | 07 May 2011

In what may seem a slightly hysterical semantic move, leading academics have claimed that animal lovers should stop calling their domestic animals ‘pets’, because the term is insulting.

US legislators seek ban on chimp experiments

Jared Yee | 28 April 2011

Three US senators have called for medical research on chimpanzees to be banned. The US is the last major industrialised country which still uses the apes for experiments.

Animal rights gains ground in US legal system

Michael Cook | 02 April 2011

Researchers are beginning to feel threatened by the rapid development of laws favourable to animals, according to a wide-ranging feature in Science.

Kill the carnivores, says animal rights philosopher

Michael Cook | 25 September 2010

They cause too much suffering

US pets get better shot at treatment than people

Jared Yee | 07 August 2010

Stem cells for dogs?

Swiss decide their animals don’t need lawyers

Michael Cook | 08 March 2010

Overwhelmingly rejected in referendum

Practical problems of ape personhood

Michael Cook | 06 March 2010

Who will police them?

Animals may get their own lawyers in Switzerland

Michael Cook | 16 February 2010

But what about children?

Are dolphins persons?

Michael Cook | 07 January 2010

Call for interspecies ethic

Human dignity under fire again in leading bioethics journal

Michael Cook | 07 December 2009

Animal rights theorist calls for an "undignified bioethics"