CARDIFF, WALES, Sept. 7, 1998: British scientist Stephen Hawking has condemned extreme measures by animal rightists to halt medical experiments on animals, reports Reuters.

Hawking, who teaches math at Cambridge University, authored the best-selling book "A Brief History of Time". He is also afflicted with the debilitating motor neurone disease.

"Why is it worse to use animal experiments to save lives than to eat them, which the majority of the population are happy to do?" he asked in a message to the British Association of science before the start of its annual meeting on Sept. 7. The Association was founded in the early 19th century to promote better public understanding of science.

His thoughts were echoed by Andrew Blake, director of the patients' group Seriously Ill for Medical Research. "Medical progress is being threatened by the extreme tactics of those who are seeking to abolish animal research," Reuters reported Blake as saying. "They don't want better laboratory cages, they want empty laboratory cages."

Their joint statement coincided with an animal rights protest at an animal breeding farm in Oxfordshire, which delayed the arrival at the conference of Association president Prof. Colin Blakemore. A leading researcher in early development of the brain, Blakemore has been targetted by animal rightists for the past decade, with his property coming under attack and his family receiving threats.

Blakemore is currently studying a new technique for imaging the cerebral cortex with potential application to humans, and makes use of cats from the breeding farm. However, he insists the animals used are anesthetized and never wake up during experiments, reported Reuters.

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