2026-08-12
5 分钟The Economist.
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It should be a relief when America's Democrats and Republicans find common ground.
But one emerging area of bipartisanship is disturbing.
Members of both parties increasingly oppose scientific research on animals.
If they succeed in stopping it,
they will prevent America from helping advance the welfare of the most valuable animal of all, humans.
Animal welfare may seem a cause for sandal-wearing lefties, but it has long had advocates on the right and far-right.
MAGA has embraced the crusade.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health Secretary, has vowed to end all animal experimentation,
and under him, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is closing its primate laboratory.
The Navy has banned funding for scientific research on cats and dogs.
The federal government is joined in the cause by plenty of Democrats,
whose party otherwise sees itself as differing from Republicans by being committed to enlightened science.
In Oregon, Democratic politicians stand with Donald Trump's appointees in trying to curtail research
and shrink the monkey colony at America's largest federally funded primate research centre.
The surge in opposition to testing partly reflects queasiness about the ethics of experiments on animals,