Stranger in a Familiar Land

If politics makes for strange bedfellows, sometimes it makes for strange enemies as well: Tensions are brewing between environmentalists and animal-rights activists over federal efforts to establish the health effects of industrial chemicals and pesticides by testing them on laboratory animals. Under pressure from environmentalists, who were concerned about humans being exposed to tens of thousands of environmental pollutants, the U.S. EPA established three chemical-testing programs, all of which use lab animals. In response, animal-rights advocates, who claim the programs lead to needless suffering and death for the animals, joined the pesticide industry in a lawsuit to block one of the three programs, and may sue the EPA over another as well. In addition, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals launched a website, www.meangreenies.com, attacking the Natural Resources Defense Council, the World Wildlife Fund, and Environmental Defense for backing the use of lab animals.