Larry Carbone

I started my animal work at the age of 14, at the local zoo, where I first came to see the ethical challenges in working with animals. Many animal jobs and college years later, I became a veterinarian, with specialty certifications in Animal Welfare and in Laboratory Animal Medicine, and a PhD in History of Science/Veterinary Ethics. Unlike most kids who’ve dreamed of becoming a vet, I took up the challenge of a life with laboratory animals, doctoring the assorted monkeys, mice, dogs and others in medical research, while guiding, assisting, and policing the medical scientists in the labs.

My first book, What Animals Want (2004) and even more, my forthcoming The Hidden Lives of Lab Animals, bring my practice experience as a lab animal vet together with my studies of history and ethics of animal use. While most ethicists and activists write of animals from some remove, I keep the animals close, always asking and testing what I know as a vet and an animal welfare scientist about how to recognize and meet their needs and desires.