Let me now collect into one paragraph the contradictions of some of these fallacies (which I have here rather attempted to formulate and classify than to refute, or even fully discuss), and so exhibit in one view the case of the opponents of vivisection. It is briefly this—
That while we do not deny the absolute right of man to end the lives of the lower animals by a painless death, we require good and sufficient cause to be shown for all infliction of pain.
That the prevention of suffering to a human being does not justify the infliction of a greater amount of suffering on an animal.
That the chief evil of the practice of vivisection consists in its effect on the moral character of the operator ; and that this effect is distinctly demoralising and brutalising.
That hard work and the endurance of privations are no proof of an unselfish motive.
That the toleration of one form of an evil is no excuse for tolerating another.
Lastly, that the risk of legislation increasing the evil is not enough to make all legislation undesirable.
The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) (1832-1898), English author, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. “Some Popular Fallacies About Vivisection” serialised on The Grumpy Vegan and available in full at the Animal Rights Library.
