Animal rights and the myth of objectivity

Science is supposed to be objective and activism involves working towards a particular aim. So can activists be scientists? Should scientists be activists? Can anyone in the world claim to have no agenda at all and to be free of any influence from their background environment? Is "evidence based" just the new horsemanship buzzword to replace "natural"? And has applied ethology taken a turn towards the dark side? Animal rights activist and ethologist Dr. Francesco De Giorgio takes a swing at some difficult questions.