WHEN I was five, my brother gave me a present — adoption of a wild humpback whale called ‘Cat’s Paw’.
Funny name for a lady the size of a bus but for the five white dots on her jet-black left tail fluke in the shape of a cat’s pads.
This supercharged my fascination with whales which has lasted over 30 years and Cat’s Paw, last seen in 2021, is now a mother to seven calves.
I got updates, photos, books and trivia and I got very, very angry.
With those updates had come other causes, accompanied by graphic images of human carelessness and cruelty.
At under 10 I’d plot submarine expeditions with my friends to can-open whalers and sabotage bulldozers, crack open labs and free all the animals.
Moving into science, my rage tapered down with the understanding that, until something better came along, some medical experiments were necessary but only under the strictest sanctions.
Despite this, the saying “all models are wrong but some are useful” has remained true with even the most advanced animal models sometimes throwing up strange and contradictory results, sometimes hamstringing vital medicines.
Now, however, with ‘organ on a chip’ (microchips with grafted cells and miniscule plumbing to mimic an organ) advanced AI modelling through which scenarios can be run repeatedly to increase medication safety and ‘bioprinted’ tissues, the need for animal models of disease may be rapidly coming to an end.
My hope is the £75 million pledged will bring forward new methods of research which are free of suffering, training the next generation of researchers and enabling the UK to become a global leader in development of these new models.
Whilst they doubtless have their issues, they may save more lives than ever before and they don’t make the boy in me cry.
Our columnist Will Trewarman MRCVS is a senior veterinary surgeon at Vale Vets which is based in Kidderminster and Stourport.
Share