Book Recommendations, Reviews and Author Interviews from All-Creatures.org



Slaughter of the Innocent By Hans Ruesch

Publisher: Civitas Publications

Reviewers: Scott Harris, Activist, and People for Reason and Science in Medicine PRISM



Slaughter of the Innocent
Slaughter of the Innocent
Available from GoodReads.com
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0961001607
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0961001605

Download PDF of the entire book

REVIEW from PRISM People for Reason and Science in Medicine

For everyone who is actively working to end animal experimentation, it is not enough to talk about cruelty or moral or philosophical arguments. The hard truth is that if people think torturing animals will bring cures to humans most of them will shut their eyes to the horrors of vivisection labs and support its continuance. SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENT is the first book ever written which directly discusses the scientific arguments against the needless use of animals as a part of medical progress.

Mr. Ruesch spent countless years compiling this gut wrenching masterpiece. He successfully lifts the veil of secrecy which has always been an important part of research establishments and the medical community as well, giving the reader a peek at what REALLY goes on after the laboratory doors are closed. His words reveal some of the worst atrocities anyone could possibly imagine.

With his creative style and excellent documentation, Mr. Ruesch washes away the excuses of doctor apologists for animal experimentation with facts showing not only that animals aren’t needed for medicine/health to move forward, but the use of which often leads to detrimental and misleading findings, and catastrophic results. This wonderful yet disturbing volume is a must read for anyone interested in ending this destructive, brutal fraud perpetrated by the petrochemical/pharmaceutical industry for the sake of monetary profit.

REVIEW from Scott Harris, Activist

I was a sensitive, idealistic and naive child (and teen, young adult...). I believed that loggers had to remove birds and other creatures from trees before cutting them down. I believed that all animals living on farms lived idyllic lives- as companions not as sentients being exploited, physically and emotionally tortured, and ultimately slaughtered- so we could “have it our way.” As a very young child (“Love is Blue,” was playing on the car radio) my uncle took me with him when he went to a lab that he worked at to check on the animals. Each of the rabbits there had their own room (cage), with food, water, and plenty of pets from their human caretakers, I figured.

In 1978 (my final year of middle school), while watching PBS (even as a kid, I was a nerd), I saw a story about animals having horribly invasive and medievally barbaric procedures performed on them. I remember feeling devastated. I remember crying. I remember hearing about a book by a Swiss novelist, race car driver, and anti-vivisectionist, Hans Ruesch, entitled, Slaughter of the Innocent. I remember finding, buying, and reading this book from the local independent bookstore.

Now as a passionate young teenager, I figured that my charge was to introduce my family, my classmates, my teachers, anyone with ears, a brain, and a soul to the abomination of vivisection. All I needed to do to stop vivisection was to share what I just learned. In Slaughter, Ruesch passionately and persuasively compelled readers to recognize that not only is there a moral repulsion inherent in using fellow sentients as subjects of torture for some potential benefit for human beings, but that whatever information is ascertained is in fact- horrible for humans.

Ruesch’s meticulous research suggested- for the first time in a book made available to the public- that the non-human animal model research was “pseudoscience.” He argued that rabbits, mice, rats and other animals are not anatomically and psychologically similar to humans and that any findings would be spurious if applied to humans. In his paper, “1,000 Doctors and More Against Vivisection,” he employed statements from doctors and researchers that substantiated his contention.

Besides introducing many nascent activists to what happens beneath the “veil of secrecy,” that institutions depend upon to keep the horrors of animal research continuing- and to help spark an animal rights movement, Ruesch went after the institutions- the “petro-chemo-pharmaceutical corporations” and those in government and in universities that enable them.

Before writing, Slaughter, and his 1986 follow-up, The Naked Empress, or the Great Medical Fraud, Ruesch founded, “The Center for Scientific Information of Vivisection” (CIVIS).

Ruesch, retired from his racing career in 1937 (after running in over one-hundred races in Europe and South Africa, winning 27 of them). From the late 1930s through the late 1950s, Ruesch wrote notable screenplays (he was nominated for the Golden Palm award at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival) and novels (The Racer, was turned into the 1955 film, The Racers,”starring Kirk Douglas), his life would have been accomplished. That the crowing jewel of an accomplished man’s life would be exposing the travesty of animal torture is a most remarkable and essential feat.

Although this groundbreaking work is no longer in print, it can be purchased online.

 Even 45 years later, this is a powerful and compelling read.

Many of his other writings can be found on a website created in his honor: The Hans Ruesch Foundation for a Medicine Without Vivisection


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