To the editor:

While griping about security measures at laboratories, Frankie Trull neglected to mention that 95% of all animals used for experimentation—mice and rats—are specifically excluded from the Animal Welfare Act, the only federal law covering animals in US laboratories. Mice and rats have no protection at all under federal law. Meanwhile, the laboratory committees that by law are supposed to oversee all studies involving animals and prevent redundant experiments are failing dismally at their jobs.

In my personal opinion, Trull's role as apologist for anything and everything experimenters do to animals is an anachronism given the burgeoning field of non-animal research. Forward-thinking scientists are ready to admit that experiments on animals often represent outdated science and that such experiments are always unethical.