Did Rene Descartes and his followers really torture animals?

[Mudhammam]

While reading The Christian Delusion, on pg. 253 co-author and editor John W. Loftus writes: "Descartes' followers used this [that animals are little more than machines] as an excuse to torture, kill, and experiment on live animals. As a result, Peter Singer tells us, experimenters "administered beatings to dogs with perfect indifference, and made fun of those who pitied the creatures as if they felt pain. They said the animals were clocks; that the cries they emitted when struck were only the noise of a little spring that had been touched, but that the whole body was without feeling. They nailed poor animals up on boards by their four paws to vivisect them and see the circulation of the blood, which was a great subject of conversation."' A brief Google search turned up the claim that "Descartes dissected his wife's dog to prove a point." Being the skeptic that I am, I like to locate the historical origin of claims, and not that these contradict Descartes' own stated ethic on animal suffering, but I would like to know their source. Do any of Descartes' own writings include these heinous acts? His colleagues'? His followers'? Does anyone have any information about this? Thanks.

[Anomalocaris]

It would not have been considered particularly heinous in Descart's time.

[EgoRaptor]

http://knowledgenuts.com/2013/09/29/desc...e-a-point/

Yes, it appears he did torture a dog to death. But in his defence, he did not have the benefit of modern science & truly believed that the dog felt no pain. He believed bodies were merely mechanical machines, & that only humans had souls & therefore only humans could feel pain or think. I wouldn't say Rene was necessarily immoral for doing these things, but rather that this is an example of how religion can brainwash people into doing heinous acts.

As Rene said himself; "The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues."