Professor Pietro Croce
[back]
Vivisection/Animal research critics
Professor Croce M.D., founder of "scientific anti-vivisectionism", is a luminary of medical science. Born in Dalmatia in 1920, he graduated at the famed University of Pisa, Italy. His curriculum includes:
For thirty years, from 1952 to 1982 Professor Croce was head of the laboratory of microbiological-pathological anatomy and chemo-clinical analyses at the research Hospital L. Sacco of Milan, Italy. A member of the College of American Pathologists, he is a prolific author of medical books, scientific papers and press articles. Professor Croce is still professionally active in his great contribution to the current movement of doctors against vivisection which now numbers thousands in 29 countries. Past President of the INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE OF DOCTORS AGAINST VIVISECTION, Professor Croce currently holds the position of Honorary President of DOCTORS IN BRITAIN AGAINST ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS, which was founded on March 22 1990. Participating on the circuit of international medical congresses with this fast-growing group of like-minded scientists he lectures, debates with opponents and addresses gatherings in Paris, Geneva, Lausanne, Athens, Tel Aviv, Zurich, London, Munich, Frankfurt, Holland, Brussels, Spain and the U.S.A.. Professor Croce campaigns on the urgent need to "abandon the animal model system" in medical research, which he and his medical colleagues say is "the wrong methodology".
A former believer in animal experiments Professor Croce writes in his latest book Vivisection or Science - a choice to make:
"The proposition is made... Let us take the animal as the experimental model for the human being. But here at once comes the first objection: Which animal? The mouse? The dog? And why not the rhinoceros or the warthog?... There are over three hundred thousand animal species on our planet, not one of which is a model for man. It only needs the appropriate animal species to produce the desired result."
At a recent conference Professor Croce declared:
"If I still believed in the usefulness of animal experiments, I would say: Let's do them. However, I've come to realize that they are not only useless, but moreover highly damaging for medical science, owing to their unreliable results. So if I advocate the abolition of vivisection it is not because I am concerned about animal suffering, but out of my concern for human health."
Photo: Advocate for Animals
Prof. P. Croce: Promoter of Scientific Anti-Vivisectionism