Thomas Bromley's latest defence of vivisection (Letters, August 14) is correct insofar as he states animals provide the most useful model for testing drugs destined for human use.

I assume he is referring to the practice of animal dissection prevalent in the 17th to 19th Centuries, where those without the benefit of today's computer modelling and other innovative methods tried to extrapolate to human beings animal reactions to drugs.

Mr Bromley and the organisation he represents are promoting grossly inexact science by their staunch defence of vivisection. There can be no "humane" use of animals in medical research, where the ultimate end for these creatures is incineration. Their wasted lives are testament to the increasing number of adverse drug reactions in humans, which at present are responsible for the hospitalisation of one in every four Americans.

AnneMarie Moynihan

-Associate Member, Doctors and Lawyers for Responsible Medicine