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“WE LIVE in fear.” That is how Ian Gibson MP, chair of the UK’s House of Commons select committee on science, describes life as a target of animal rights extremists. Because of his backing for animal experiments, Gibson and his wife have received death threats and routinely check under their car for bombs.

For countries where animal experimentation is not yet a national issue, the UK shows one way the debate can go. Despite having some of the strictest rules in the world governing what can be done to animals in the name of science, it is home to a…

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