RAISING THE PROFILE OF WELFARE - SCIENTISTS AND THEIR USE OF ANIMALS

This paper looks at the attitudes that scientists hold toward their us e of animals, and at some implications for the welfare of laboratory a nimals. The framework for this analysis is recent changes in the law r egulating the use of animals in British science. We note how ambivalen t many scientists are about the way they perceive the animals they use , and the moral dilemmas such use poses. We argue, however, that the l egislation itself cannot mediate improvements in animal welfare, as it is inevitably policed by the scientific community itself and thus dep endent upon values and social relationships within science. We also ar gue that debates about the promotion of lab animals' welfare tend to u se the distancing stance of science; they focus on scientific studies of welfare and behavior, but ignore the context. An important part of that contact is the relationships between humans and animals in the la b, which should be taken into account more fully if animals are to ben efit.