English Resource Booklet 2 - Animal Aid

Lesson 5: Stop Press!Resource 18bSummarising the storiesBoth the articles about animal experimentation have a message for the reader, but one is much stronger andeasier to identify than the other. The writer of Article 1 is against the use of animal experimentation whereas thewriter of Article 2 has distanced himself slightly from the debate.1. Look again at Article 1 and pick out 3 reasons why Jerome Burne claims it is pointless toexperiment on animals:a. ..............................................................................................................................................................................................b. ..............................................................................................................................................................................................c. ..............................................................................................................................................................................................2. Explain what each of the following extracts from Article 2 suggests about the writer’sattitudes towards animal testing. The first one has been done for you.Quotation from Article 2‘More than 500 leading UK specialists and doctorshave pledged their support for animal testing inmedical research but acknowledged that, wherepossible, such experiments should be replaced bymethods that do not use animals.’What this suggests to me about thewriter’s attitudeThe writer refers to ‘leading UK scientists and doctors’so he is not actually giving his own opinions. He refersto scientists and doctors as ‘leading’ which makesthem seem important. The word ‘pledged’ suggestsdoctors and scientists are committed to the statementbut the argument is tempered by the phrase ‘butacknowledged that …’ hinting at the feeling that noteverything is currently right about what they do.‘Signed by three Nobel prize winners and 190 fellowsof the Royal Society, the new declaration states thata ‘small but vital’ part of medical research involvesanimals. It says researchers should gain the medicaland scientific benefits that animal experiments canprovide, while pointing out that they should makeevery effort to safeguard animal welfare andminimise suffering.’‘Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the MedicalResearch Council … said, ‘… It is as important now asit was then to show that scientists and doctors arefully aware of the importance of animal research toscience and medicine. Of course animals must becared for properly and never used unless absolutelynecessary. This is how we do research and it wouldbe illegal to do it any other way.’’‘Adolfo Sansolini, chief executive of the BritishUnion for the Abolition of Vivisection, said, ‘We areconcerned that … doctors and scientists still appearcommitted to the unethical and potentially dangeroususe of animals for medical research … All the publicgets to see are short summaries of licences writtenby the scientists themselves.’’This is part of the last paragraph of the article.Why do you think the writer has put this at the end?38