by Claire Edwards
Whether you are a researcher or a lay person, pro-research or pro-animal rights—or anywhere in between—Adrian Morrison’s An Odyssey with Animals: A Veterinarian’s Reflections on the Animal Rights & Welfare Debate (2009) will give you much to pause and consider. Despite having been personally harassed by extremists for years, his own lab destroyed by Animal Liberation Front vandals, Morrison has written no polemic. Instead he uses the attacks against him as a jumping off point from which to delve into the issues that surround human use of animals. In doing so, he uncovers layers of nuance in a debate notorious for its polarization.
Morrison brings a multi-faceted perspective to the debate: he grew up on a farm with working animals, studied first to become a veterinarian and then a research scientist, and has even placed himself in the guinea pig’s shoes by volunteering for human clinical research trials. Over the last 15 years, he has made a methodical study of the animal rights issue—its history, its messages, and the many schools of thought within and around it.
In addition to his thorough study of the topic, Morrison’s experiences also provide unique insight. His description of the infamous Silver Spring Monkey case early in the book, for instance, is made all the more fascinating by virtue of his personal involvement. His bucolic childhood gives him a very different perspective on animal use than many members of our increasingly post-agrarian, or what Morrison calls post-domestic, society. The insights from this become clear in chapter 8, when Morrison expands the discussion to include animal uses beyond research.
Morrison offers a strong and convincing case for animal research. He describes his own research into REM sleep to illustrate the complex nature of scientific discovery. He explains the specific role animal research has played in many monumental discoveries, and then he refutes both scientific distortions and philosophical presumptions of the animal rights movement.
He does not, however, let researchers off the hook. He encourages his fellow scientists to avoid dismissing all advocates for animals out of hand, lest they disregard legitimate welfare recommendations as efforts to stymie discovery—a mistake he admits to having made in the past himself. Now, he draws distinctions not only between animal rights and animal welfare, but also between the general term animal rights and the animal rights movement.
Odyssey carries through it a theme of responsibility: responsibility of scientists to keep looking deeper and the responsibility we all have to the animals in our care. Morrison supports the humane use of animals, but only so long as we remember our responsibility.
Inspired by personal experience, Odyssey is written with an easy, personable tone. The author discusses his own struggle with using cats in his research in light of his affection for his pet cat, Buster. He makes his own views clear, along with his reasoning for them, while leaving room for readers to come to their own, likely divergent, decisions. No matter where you eventually fall in the debate yourself, reading An Odyssey with Animals will enrich your understanding of a difficult and complex issue and add depth to whatever conclusions you draw.