A veterinarian offers an insider's perspective on the ethics of using animals in scientific research.

Carbone grapples with how to weigh scientific advancement against harms to our fellow sentient creatures.

He urges young people not to turn away from science—improve it!

Better welfare produces better data.

Countless millions of nonhuman animals (animals) of all sorts are used in a diverse array of laboratory research. Their treatment varies from being unspeakably inhumanely abused to being treated with kindness, depending on the questions at hand and the values and attitudes of the researchers themselves. The lives of these animals truly are hidden, and most people are incredulous when they learn that laboratory rats and mice still are not considered "animals" under the current federal Animal Welfare Act. The ways in which these intelligent sentient beings are used in invasive experiments demands deep reflection.

Lifelong veterinarian Larry Carbone has seen it all; for this and other reasons, I was excited to learn about his new book The Hidden Lives of Lab Animals: A Vet's Vision for a More Humane Future. In his semi-autobiographical work, Larry offers a vision for more compassionate research while discussing both heartening medical successes and heartrending stories of animal suffering. The book's description nicely summarizes what this important book is all about: "Authoritative and compassionate, The Hidden Lives of Lab Animals reveals the complex reality of what animals experience under the care of scientists, what humans gain from their involuntary service, and what we owe them moving forward."Marc Bekoff: Why did you write The Hidden Lives of Lab Animals?Larry Carbone: I’ve spent my life as a veterinarian in animal research labs, caring for mice, monkeys, dogs, and many others. People hear wildly different things about animal research—some say it’s cruel and useless, others say it’s essential and humane—but few know what actually happens inside. I want to give readers an insider’s look at how scientists use animals and how veterinarians, regulators, activists, and researchers try (and sadly, often fail) to improve their welfare. I describe and advocate for moving toward ending our dependence on them, but despite amazing progress, there is still a role for them. People deserve a trustworthy voice—a vet who’s been there—to help them understand both the value and moral cost of animal testing, and envision how we can better honor and protect animals’ lives.

MB: Who do you hope to reach?LC: This book is for everyone—from scientists to animal advocates to readers undecided about animal testing but seeking insight from someone—a vet who has worked behind the scenes—to help them sort through competing claims in this polarized topic.

Scientists and advocates should find common ground here, as replacing animals and caring for those still used requires many hands.

Most of all, I want to reach young people. Don’t turn away from science—improve it. Become the generation that ends animal experimentation not by halting discovery, but by inventing the alternatives that will replace it. Future scientist or not, ferret out what you can about animals at your school and push for their better care.

MB: What are some of the topics you consider, and your major messages?

LC: Each chapter bears an animal name—Python, Marmoset, Woodchuck, Mouse—reminding readers that these are not abstractions, but living beings, many of them my own patients, with needs, desires, and experiences.In Marmoset, I describe monkeys whose suffering in research helped lead to treatments for multiple sclerosis. Marmosets’ stories raise hard questions: When does animal research truly deliver on its promises, and who decides whether benefits outweigh costs? As non-animal methods advance, scientists must constantly reassess what experiments remain justified.Humans wield near-total control of animals on farms, in labs, and in homes. Between dismissing animal feelings as insignificant and assuming they think exactly like us, I show in Chicken how welfare scientists ask animals what they want and tailor care accordingly. Beyond the ethics, better welfare—larger cages, enrichment, pain relief—means better science. Stressed animals produce unreliable data. Compassion and good research go hand in hand.

Rhesus Monkey shows how our welfare laws sometimes help animals, but need to go further. Mice are actually excluded from the Animal Welfare Act as “not animals.” Animals get no voice at the table; animal ethics committees rule on their use, behind closed doors, dominated by researchers whose interests outweigh animal welfare. Let’s open that process to critics, citizens, animal caregivers, and students.

My central message is simple: We will end laboratory animal suffering only when we end laboratory animal use. Until then, animals deserve more humane treatment, rigorous ethical review, and public accountability.MB: How does your work differ from others concerned with similar topics?LC: Several excellent writers—anthropologists, journalists, ethicists—have explored the moral complexity of animal research. But most are outsiders, observers with fresh eyes, but with limited time inside the labs. I’ve spent more than 40 years in the trenches as a vet responsible for the animals’ health and welfare.

That experience allows me to say not just what I’ve witnessed, but how these institutions function from the inside: How scientists treat the animals they use, how ethics committees operate, and how often good intentions collide with pressure to produce results. The Hidden Lives of Lab Animals depends on the real, live animals I’ve treated and the moral lessons they taught me.MB: Are you hopeful that, as people learn more about how these animals are treated “in the name of science,” they will treat them with more respect and dignity?LC: Yes! All of us have benefited from medical advances in which animals played a crucial part. Gratitude should lead to responsibility: If we continue to use animals, we must care for them as best we can.

In my own life, fascination led to compassion and a desire to know all I could about animals’ inner feelings. With guidance from my book, readers can watch squirrels in a park or animals in a zoo. How do they decide how to spend their time? What makes them happy or stressed? Scientists, too, should take the time to really observe their labs’ mice or dogs or monkeys and learn about them as individuals, not just data points.

Scientists who read my book should reflect on their duty to the animals in their hands, understanding that better welfare also produces better data. Veterinarians must speak up for animals even when that slows science. Activists can make change not only through protest but by joining policy discussions, ethics boards, and animal care programs.

Ultimately, animal experiments are both more useful than animal rights activists claim and more harmful than scientists often admit. Progress means holding both truths at once. I know animals will remain in labs longer than I wish, and that they deserve so much more from us humans who depend so mightily on them.

In conversation with Dr. Larry Carbone, a veterinarian with 40 years of experience caring for animals in laboratories. With one foot in the humanities and one in veterinary science, Larry is uniquely poised to examine the policy and ethical ramifications of emerging information in animal welfare science.

1) The Animal Welfare Act Claims Rats and Mice Are Not Animals; Animal Welfare Fails Many Millions of Sentient Individuals; Lab Mice: Deep Reflections on Their Use in Invasive Research; Mice Share Each Other's Feelings of Pain, Fear, and Relief; Mice, and Perhaps Canines and Other Animals, Can Track Time; Rats Share Food More Generously When They Smell Hunger; Sentient Rats: Their Cognitive, Emotional, and Moral Lives; Rats Cut Deals and Trade Different Favors With One Another; Empathic and Fun-Loving Rats also Dream of a Better Future; Empathic Rats Save Drowning Pals Rather than Eat Chocolate; "Rat Trap": Why Animal Models of Human Disease Must Be Replaced.

© Psychology Today