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 are increasingly freeing ourselves from the old mindset where we view animals as secondary creations that exist to serve human interests. More and more people are starting to realise that animals are also sentient beings with an 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 seen as problematic, and the justification for doing so needs to be increasingly compelling.

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