Panel 3
Descartes (1596-1650), the pioneer of modernism, established a radical difference between mankind and animals; the latter, for him, being simply objects, things.
Animals, according to Descartes, are machines, automatic things incapable of thinking or feeling.
Practical consequences: it was considered acceptable to nail down a living dog and without anaesthetic, to open it and study its nervous system. We were not supposed to hear their cries of pain: machines, in fact, make noises but do not feel sensations.
350 years have passed, but for many "scientists" moved by a certain faith in progress, those years have passed in vain.
11. Biomedical research laboratory or Auschwitz?
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12. Guinea pigs used in experiments for skin irritation at Biosearch Labs.
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13. Rabbit subjected to Draize skin test for a cosmetic in the laboratories of the Mennen Company.
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14. After the arteries have been severed in the groin of the rat, its skull is opened to conduct experiments on migraine. (Copyright Brian Gunn / IAAPEA)
15. Rat whose D.N.A. was genetically modified so that the skin is covered with wrinkles. It is used to test anti-ageing cosmetics.
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16. The frustration caused by prolonged imprisonment in small cages forces animals to adopt psychotic behaviour such as eating their own excrement.
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