Sir

I disagree with C. Jimenez's reply, in Correspondence, opposing Victoria Buck's suggestion of making animal-welfare sections in scientific papers compulsory ('Animal-welfare section in papers would be a burden' Nature 447, 259; doi:10.1038/447259b 2007). We all have a great many bureaucratic hoops to jump through these days, but we should not take a dismissive attitude to animal-welfare issues.

Animal-rights extremists have made life a misery for some scientists in the United Kingdom, despite our having one of the best-regulated licensing and ethical review processes in the world. National legislation requires scientists wishing to carry out experiments on animals to be licensed, and strict enforcement by both the legislature and by the local ethical review committees ensures that there are very few infringements.

The exchange between Buck and Jimenez did not address ethical approval statements, but for the record I do not think it an onerous task to include in scientific papers a paragraph stating the legislation(s) and local ethical review process under which the work had been approved. Many journals, including the Nature journals, already make compliance a condition of publication (see http://www.nature.com/authors/editorial_policies/experimental.html).

Although we must be robust in our defence of the need for appropriate animal experimentation, it is pointless to antagonize those individuals who will never be persuaded of its need or relevance. The 3Rs requirement goes some way to assuaging the disquiet of the more reasonable objectors, and hence should not be dismissed.

We live in a cynical world where everything is questioned, and the scientist is no longer seen as an ivory-tower figure. We are all accountable to the agencies that fund us and regulate our use of experimental animals and human tissue samples. Our ability to pursue science gives us a privilege that few others enjoy, that of unravelling the biological processes that make us what we are. We are enabled in this occupation by the silent consensus, and hope, of people all over the world. We abuse that consensus at our peril.