Kathryn Rogers

About the author: Kathryn Rogers is the religion writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Despite agreement that alternatives to animal experimentation should be examined and tested, advocates for and against the use of animals in research differ on the feasibility of ending all animal experimentation. Those who favor abolishing animal testing state that it is irrelevant and inhumane. Those who see no end to animal testing stipulate that animal models are still the most useful because the complexity of living organisms cannot be replicated by other means.

William J. Longmore and Sammy Shoss represent two sides of a longstanding dispute that shows no sign of resolution. Two decades after the animal rights movement heated up in this country and three decades after the Animal Welfare Act was passed, animal rights activists and medical researchers...