The academic scholarship on the novel shifts descriptors (SF, fantasy, etc) depending on the perspective and purposes of the scholar. Of course, animal experiments have been involved in the development of many drugs, but that does not mean they were useful. It is stunning to ponder that the magazine I’ve only known for giving middle-aged women sex and makeup tips once published a gruesome discussion of animal labs and slaughterhouses, with an unabashed animal liberation viewpoint. A lion patient to Gizelle, Ben’s gazelle office secretary: “Your lot put up the population, which is good for the economy, and our lot bring it down, which is good for the environment. A parallel plot line, told through short stories about various animals, involves a gathering of all the world's animals.

The book’s author suggested that she could be a candidate for a board, but when she spoke to the committee chair, and said she had some reservations about the use of animals, she was told that she was not the right sort of person. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. But more disturbing are the descriptions of actual experimental practices which, whether we want to think about it or not, are probably going on in laboratories every day.Enveloping this factual-to-symbolic continuum, the author alludes to the existence of a greater something - an undefined yet pervasive awareness shared by all in the animal kingdom - oh. Once again, a wild animal has been scapegoated as a conservation villain and blamed for a problem created by humans. Los Angeles Times A bloodcurdling novel in the spirit of ANIMAL FARM and 1984, DOCTOR RAT is a trip through a laboratory worthy of a Nazi mad doctor, except this doctor is a wisecracking rodent who could have been played by Groucho Marx. He won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel for Doctor Rat in 1977, and has also won the National Magazine Award for fiction.

Few people, even professed animal lovers, wish to consider vivisection, and legislation and cultural changes have succeeded in keeping the vast majority of it hidden entirely from public view.This is easy to overlook, though, as the novel reads more like cautionary parable than doomsday prophecy.

At the end of 2022, the USA’s FDA Modernization Act became law, which allows non-animal approaches to be used to develop drugs and to investigate their safety and effectiveness. I would also go out of my way to identify specific characters to avoid any doubt – they were usually highlighted with their name and a big arrow! One of Ben’s regular patients, who has become a good friend, is Flopsy Jaegermond, a wolf therian who feels that he is a rabbit. Tristemente (para él) dentro del laboratorio se ha iniciado la Revolución de las Ratas, que buscan a toda costa la venganza contra el ser humano y todos sus acólitos.After a fraught and adventurous romance, he married Daniella Hood, his tae kwon do instructor and dentist.

A poor condition book can still make a good reading copy but is generally not collectible unless the item is very scarce. Still, I could see this book being enjoyed today by animal lovers of all kinds--so long as they can get past some of the painstakingly vivid descriptions of torture and slaughter that befall many of the animals. Castrated at birth, Doctor Rat spends his days amongst the various other animals in the laboratory, ranting about the absolute necessity of the experiments being performed here. Whe other animals decide that they no onger wish to be subservient to humans, he is forced to take sides.Kotzwinkle… has an eloquent sense of timing and brevity, and his quisling rodent proves to be an ingenious device, one that cleverly wisecracks us into a gut-churning realization of just how self-oriented and inhumane our species really is. The reason I didn’t explore that angle further in the review was fear that it would overshadow the well-crafted and manic intensity of the reading experience. On some levels this works well for the novel, keeping the reader guessing and glued to the progression of the tale.