Lobbying against compassion: speciesist discourse in the vivisection industrial complex

Abstract

The entire span of animal research from captivity to death causes immense suffering for hundreds of millions of nonhuman animals every year. Their suffering also disturbs the public, which is increasingly aware—due to animal advocacy, scientists’ testaments, and growing direct evidence—that animals’ use in biomedical research is more a matter of tradition than any proven superiority of vivisection over other modes of experimentation. Yet in response, the vivisection industrial complex lobbies against animal welfare regulation and animal rights activism. This article discusses how the political economy of the vivisection industry supports the speciesist business of animal testing by mimicking the language of animal welfare to increasingly obstruct the public’s compassion.