Beagle looks through bars.

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In The Hidden Lives of Lab Animals: A Vet’s Vision for a More Human Future, animal welfare scholar and lifelong laboratory veterinarian Larry Carbone refers to beagles as “the poster-pups of animal research battles.” They’re small enough to handle. They’re not vicious. Indeed, they’re cute and loyal as the dickens. Unfortunately, this means they’re routinely used in veterinary schools for surgical training.

When Carbone was in veterinary school, students practiced surgical techniques on beagles. Some dogs had to endure post-surgical pain many times over. Some were killed as soon as their surgery ended. Regardless of whether a beagle had survived one or several surgeries, each one was killed at the end of the semester. By and large, the veterinary students had to do the killing, generally with an overdose of anesthetic.

Federal law eventually limited animals to a single major surgery from which they were allowed to recover, with exceptions for scientific necessity and other special circumstances. USDA regulations issued in 1989 and effective in 1990 further specified those exceptions: additional surgeries required written justification from the principal investigator and could also be permitted when necessary for veterinary care or to protect the animal’s health or well-being. Meanwhile, over the years, post-surgical pain treatment improved.

In another bunch of steps of the slow slog toward more humane treatment of lab animals, laws in many states have prohibited shelters from supplying dogs for use in research and veterinary education. Meanwhile, federal law reduced the economic incentives for using animals consigned to pounds. As a result, the breeding of “purpose-bred” animals, especially beagles, has become a profitable enterprise.

Early this May, national media covered allegations of abuse and a massive rescue at a single beagle farm in Wisconsin. A prosecutor gathered evidence suggesting that beagles were being operated on by non-veterinarians, that general anesthesia was sometimes withheld during procedures that normally call for it, and that wounds may have gone untreated. A Dane County judge found probable cause that animal abuse had occurred. Before the case went to trial, an activist group purchased all 1,500 beagles from the commercial breeder and worked with rescue organizations to find them homes.

The story drew national attention and renewed public scrutiny of the treatment of animals used in research.

Of course, dogs are only one species among many. Cats, horses, pythons, guinea pigs, rabbits, pigs, sheep, chickens, chimpanzees, rats, mice, rhesus monkeys, frogs, fruit flies, worms, and even fleas have been used in medical research. And that’s the short list. The ethical dilemma facing scientists and policymakers is that such research has saved countless human lives. Where should the balance lie?

The Hidden Lives of Lab Animals takes an autobiographical approach to that question. Carbone recounts episodes from his student days and his forty-year professional career as he searches for a balance between scientific necessity and compassion. In addition to his veterinary credentials and specialty certifications in Animal Welfare and Laboratory Animal Medicine, he holds a Ph.D. in the History of Science and Veterinary Ethics.

Undeniably qualified to tell this story, Carbone writes with clarity, candor, and authority. Chapter by chapter, his accounts are compelling. He concludes with a series of practical recommendations, among them perhaps my favorite: “Unmask invisible pain.”

This is an unusually thoughtful book—part memoir, part history, part ethical inquiry, and part practical guide. Taken together, these elements add up to a remarkable work of moral reflection.