Should Scientists Bond with the Animals Whom They Use? Why Not?
Abstract
The Inevitable Bond (Davis & Balfour, 1992; Davis, 1993) is a useful and well-edited collection of original essays. Davis and Balfour's introductory remarks and the brief summaries they provide before each chapter are helpful for keeping the central theme — scientist-cuiimal interactions — in focus. They and their contributors have produced a volume that is long overdue, one that forces scientists to come to terms with how they interact with the nonhuman animals (hereafter animals) they study, and why they interact in the ways they do. For some scientists this is a topic about which they would rather think than talk, but the many issues that need to be considered in studies of scientist-animal bonds will not disappear if they are ignored. And now they can no longer be ignored; The Inevitable Bond brings the issues to the table for much needed open discourse.