ABSTRACT
Michel Vandenbosch said patenting animals will lead to an increase of the use of laboratory animals. Since most of the laboratory animals are designed to suffer and die, this will lead to an increase of animal suffering. The process of making a transgenic animal is biological, except for the first step that is the micro-injection. One micro-injects a new gene construct into an embryo and afterwards the embryo divides, grows, and becomes an individual. The European Parliament, a democratic institution, is also against the patenting of animals. The chapter focuses on the new Directive of the European Commission. Animal welfare organisations, as stated in the statutes, should take care of the interests of the animals. If these interests are harmed by a certain technology, for instance by genetic engineering, then the authors oppose this technology.
