On December 2nd, our ADAV Society lost a dear friend with the sudden passing of former communications director and webmaster John Pranger.

John, or Jan as he was known in the Netherlands, was ADAV’s in-house medical historian.  His writings on the flawed science of vivisection (animal experimentation) and its attendant harms provided an awakening for many of us lucky enough to be mentored by this compassionate scholar.

Much of John’s writing remains, sadly, as relevant today as it did in past decades. Many articles from his time provide urgent reading for the ethicist and scientist alike:

https://www.straight.com/article-284236/vancouver/john-pranger-smoke-screen-animal-research

John was longtime technical director and, along with Karl Losken and Marge Adams, a co-host of Animal Voices on Co-Op Radio in Vancouver.  His interview with Dr. John J. Pippin of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine on the topic of diabetes research is available here: https://animalvoices.org/archive/  (November 14th, 2008)

John worked at Eternal Abundance on Commercial Drive for some time, and spent a few very happy years living on West Fourth Avenue, later being cared for there through the early stages of Parkinson’s disease by dear friend Randy.  Friend Mavril and his partner, the staff at Lakeview Care Centre, and always, Karl, showed John the kindness and true brotherly love that a man of John’s gentle nature so deserved.

“Vivisection is a crime, and you don’t seek to regulate a crime.  You condemn it.      -John Pranger