After all, most humans eat animals, and thereby gain nutrition from them; animal experimentation is a significant and vital part of our attempt to discover cures for devastating human disease and to protect humans from the introduction of possibly dangerous commercial products. Doubtless it sometim es ben efits humans to use a nimals in these w ays. But is it genu inely necessary? Not obviously. For example, though most humans do receive some valuab le nutrition by eating animals, there are more than adequate alternatives. One never need eat meat to be extremely healthy. In fact, vegetarian diets may be extrem ely ben eficial; those on vegetarian diets, for instance, have less incidence of certain forms of cancer. Hence, the primary reason people are carnivores rather than vegetarians is that they prefer (or think they prefer) the texture of meat over the alternatives.8 But sure ly having one's tas te buds excited in a certain way is not sufficient reason to inflict substantial pain on animals. To refer back to an earlier case: Jones may derive great pleasure from torturing stray animals, but that doesn't justify his torturing them. Certain ly too, many experiments on an imals are unnecessary. The experiment may be senseless, or continually duplicated. Many e xperiments are doubtle
After all, most humans eat animals, and thereby gain nutrition from them; animal experimentation is a significant and vital part of our attempt to discover cures for devastating human disease and to protect humans from the introduction of possibly dangerous commercial products. Doubtless it sometim es ben efits humans to use a nimals in these w ays. But is it genu inely necessary? Not obviously. For example, though most humans do receive some valuab le nutrition by eating animals, there are more than adequate alternatives. One never need eat meat to be extremely healthy. In fact, vegetarian diets may be extrem ely ben eficial; those on vegetarian diets, for instance, have less incidence of certain forms of cancer. Hence, the primary reason people are carnivores rather than vegetarians is that they prefer (or think they prefer) the texture of meat over the alternatives.8 But sure ly having one's tas te buds excited in a certain way is not sufficient reason to inflict substantial pain on animals. To refer back to an earlier case: Jones may derive great pleasure from torturing stray animals, but that doesn't justify his torturing them. Certain ly too, many experiments on an imals are unnecessary. The experiment may be senseless, or continually duplicated. Many e xperiments are doubtle