The Island of Doctor Moreau follows the story of Edward Penrick, a survivor of a shipwreck who ends up stranded in an island in the middle of the nowhere. The Island is ruled by the eccentric and mysterious Doctor Moreau. Edward discovers horrifying experiments in which Moreau transforms the animals surgically into human-like creatures.
Written during the peak colonization and rising industrialisation of the Victorian era, H. G. Wells warned us what ambition paired with unchecked freedom and a lack of conscience can lead to.
Only a couple of decades later, the axis powers proved during world war two what H. G. Wells had predicted. Only that this time, it wasn't animals that were experimented on, it was humans.
Ultimately, those who approved or carried out those experiments were defeated. The question remains, what do we make of the experiments still conducted on animals for medical studies?
Ofcourse, the scenarios aren't exactly the same. The medical experiments try to save many at the cost of the few. But the ethical question still remains, what was the fault of the animals that they were experimented upon? I am no man with the authority or the wisdom to answer the question. If they had the power or ability to free themselves, they would have. Ultimately, it's all about who is more powerful.
The monument to the laboratory mouse sits in Novosibirsk' Akademgorodok, Siberia, Russia, to honour all the animals that have been used to develop the medical sciences. Acknowledging the involuntary sacrifice of the innocent is the least we can do.