Confession time: I am a vivisectionist. I am one of those evil scientists, torturing poor defenseless creatures. I’ve even worked very hard to get here; after many years of medical school, I am now working towards a PhD. Whilst I understand the unease many people feel about animal experimentation, I don’t think it’s given a fair hearing.
Clearly, vivisection has an image problem. Kittens are cute! When you read about that story, weren’t you swayed by the picture? If this experiment was conducted on a less attractive animal (a naked mole ratmaybe, or even a pig) would you mind as much? Nobody likes to see an animal in a cage, scientist-sanctioned or otherwise. Understandably, animal testing will always be an emotive topic, but we should take care to not allow this to distract us from the core issue.
The issue is not whether the procedure was, on the face of it, cruel. It was. In and of itself, sewing any animal’s eye shut is cruel. However, it’s whether the benefits gained from doing this outweigh the harm done, and whether these benefits could have been gained through testing on a lower animal, or even without testing on animals full stop. I am confident that almost all animal experiments currently conducted in the UK are necessary.