dr. K. (Katja) ten Cate

“Human–animal relationships have had my deep interest for a long time, both as a professional bioethicist and as a human being. Fortunately, we continue to free ourselves from the old mindset of viewing animals as secondary creations that exist to serve human interests. More and more people are starting to realize that animals are also sentient beings with inherent value that has nothing to do with their usefulness to humans. This also means that using animals for scientific research, including causing them suffering and killing them, is increasingly problematic, and the justification for doing so will need to be increasingly compelling.

As an ethicist, I am pleased to be able to contribute to the efforts of NCad, and to ensure that the trade-off between suffering inflicted on laboratory animals and the benefit yielded by the research continues to be determined with utmost care and rigour. We owe that to the animals. The ultimate goal is to minimize animal suffering.”