prof. dr. C. (Coenraad) Hendriksen

“It is good that we are working on 3R alternatives: good for laboratory animals, good for science and good for the economy. The most important of the 3Rs is the R for Replacement. We must seize every opportunity to implement this. At the same time, we must recognize that replacement is, by no means, always an option. New developments come thick and fast, but our knowledge is still incomplete and many non-animal methods have their limitations. Where replacement is not yet possible, we will have to pull out all the stops to reduce and refine laboratory animal use. Discussions about animal procedures often take little account of the latter R. I trained in veterinary medicine. The motto of our profession is “For the benefit of people and animals”. I have always tried to keep this motto in mind, but when you look at animal procedures, it is clear that the animals involved get a pretty raw deal. Something needs to be done about this. What you often see is that all the money available for 3R research goes into the development of replacement alternatives, and that is very time consuming. In essence, the message to all of the animals currently being used is “Forget it, we’re not going to do anything for you”. If the reality is that we can not do without animal procedures for the time being, then we have a major responsibility towards those animals that are still being used. A worthwhile short-term objective would be to eliminate all experiments involving severe distress/discomfort.”

Take a look at Coenraad Hendriksen’s CV in brief and read his Statement of Interests.