As most of you probably know by now, the NCVA is sponsoring the Ottawa premiere of Maximum Tolerated Dose, a new documentary by Karol Orzechowski.

When I first heard that this film was going to be made, I was very excited. You see, Karol used to host Animal Voices, and it was his interview with Dr. John Pippin that provided me with the first really new insight into the world of animal testing that I have had in a very long time.

Until that interview, I had a rather naive view of the debate between animal advocates and vivisectors: the animal advocates thought animal testing was wrong and/or bad science, while the vivisectors thought animal testing constituted good science that justified animal use. In other words, vivisectors really believed they were working for the betterment of humanity.

When Dr. Pippin said that his work vivisecting beagles was really more about furthering his own career in an academic climate of “publish or perish”, I was gobsmacked.

I was gobsmacked because I couldn’t believe I hadn’t realized that before. I myself have a PhD and have been in research all my life. I’ve seen first hand how research of dubious quality and usefulness is churned out in the literally thousands of academic journals that now constitute professors’ single most important means of securing a job and gaining tenure.

Thing is, I’m in social research. For whatever reason, it had just never occurred to me that the same thing was going on in biological research. I guess because, when social scientists build their careers on not-so-enlightening statistical models of social phenomena (which could fill the grand canyon twice over!), no one really gets hurt. When a vivisector wants to pad his “Curriculum Vitae”, however, rows of confined, violated, and even tortured animals pay the price.

So this is reason number one why I regard Maximum Tolerated Dose as such an important new film. It examines Dr. Pippin’s revelations – and those of other scientists – in greater detail. It challenges the naive notion that the animal experimentation controversy is simply about the ideological differences between vivisectors and animal advocates. Rather, the film reveals animal experimentation as an industry in itself. And, like most industries, it is primarily concerned with its own perpetuation. And with making money.

If you’re already convinced that you should see the film, please click here for more information and to purchase advance tickets.

If you’re still on the fence, stayed tuned for more ;)…