cover image Saving Molly: A Research Veterinarian's Choices

Saving Molly: A Research Veterinarian's Choices

James Mahoney. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, $21.95 (252pp) ISBN 978-1-56512-173-7

""I have never seen myself as a spokesman for animal research,"" Mahoney writes in the prologue to this searching life snapshot. ""My mission, as I see it, is to encourage a gentler, more compassionate approach towards animals in the laboratory."" Mahoney is a London-born research veterinarian who works with primates to find cures for human diseases like AIDS. His Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP) in New York tries to treat the animals in its care as humanely as possible--a practice, Mahoney allows, that sets it apart from many labs. Mahoney reflects on the trials and tribulations of lab life during the period he and his wife cared for Molly, ""a dog of modest origins"" they came across on vacation in Jamaica and adopted. Molly was extremely ill, practically blind in one eye, anemic and at one point seemed possibly brain damaged. Mahoney and his wife nurtured the pup as one would a sick infant, around the clock, often taking her to bed. In telling the story of Molly's miraculous recovery, Mahoney draws parallels between her plight and that of lab animals, both those in his care (to whom he becomes heartbreakingly attached) and elsewhere. His candid reflections reveal, as noted by ASPCA president Caras, his courage and compassion in the face of thorny ethical conflict: namely, whether the lives of animals should be sacrificed, in quality or in quantity, in order to better our own. (July) FYI: National Geographic Discovery has produced a documentary on LEMSIP, which shut down soon after this book was completed, that airs on the TBS network August 30.