14 DAY TRIAL // If there is one thing animal rights activists and researchers tend to bicker about quite often in today's day and age, this thing is the practice of carrying out experiments on poor, defenseless creatures held captive in one laboratory or another.
I hate to say this and I'm sure many will want to feed me to the wolves or burn me at the stake for saying it (you're more welcome to do so, just let me watch the “Game of Thrones” season finale first), but I'm with the scientists on this one.
Now don't go setting your torches ablaze just yet, as I am not saying that there is absolutely nothing wrong with animal testing. On the contrary, what I mean is that, as messy as this practice can sometimes get, it does have its perks.
I was watching this documentary on the history of surgery earlier this week, and, as it turns out, humans have been experimenting on animals since antiquity. In fact, it's animal testing that we should be thanking for the development of early surgical procedures.
Besides, experiments carried out on dogs whose pancreas had been surgically removed led to the discovery of insulin, and pretty much changed the lives of diabetics, and the polio vaccine was also developed by means of animal studies.
Those who oppose animal testing say that, since humans are different to mice, rats, dogs, chimpanzees and whatever other creatures scientists experiment on, it is very much doubtful that results obtained while toying with the life of defenseless creatures are reliable.
First off, I would like to point out that the human race has been shown to be quite intelligent. Hence, I for one believe that, if animals were in fact as poor test subjects as some claim them to be, researchers would have given up on experimenting on them quite a while ago.
What's more, studies have shown that chimps share 99% of their DNA with humans, and the genetic similarities between us, two-legged creatures, and mice add up to as much as 98%. Not to mention the fact that, although belonging to different species, all mammals share the same set of major organs.
Simply put, animals do make reliable substitutes for humans, and – ethics aside – they can therefore be used to study how different viruses or drugs behave when introduced in a living, whole-body system whose complexity makes it impossible to recreate it in a petri dish.
And we're not talking just medicine, there is also the issue of space exploration. Laika, the Soviet space dog, was the first animal to orbit Earth, and NASA is just now getting ready to send a bunch of mice and rats to the International Space Station and research how conditions there affect living organisms.
Lastly, I would like to point out that animals too benefit from results obtained while carrying out experiments on their brethren. Simply put, rabies, feline leukemia, the canine parvo virus and several other diseases would have killed millions of animals by now, had researchers not developed vaccines.
While I do approve of (mind you, I said “approve of” and not “promote” or “fully and wholeheartedly support”) animal testing, I am the first to admit that the sight of an animal locked up in a cage, all pumped up with one experimental drug or another, can be disturbing to say the least. Still, I don't see it as cruelty, at least not in the strict sense of the word.
What I mean is that, while it is true that scientists inflict pain and suffering while carrying out experiments on animals, they are not doing so on purpose, as their goal is merely research. Besides, animal research is highly regulated, and the animals are treated as humanely as possible.
Once again, I am not saying that there is nothing wrong with animal testing. All I wish to point out is that condemning this practice and forgetting the fact that we live in a society that has been shaped by animal experiments to a considerable extent is liking what science gives us but not science itself.
These being said, the time has come for me to add another nail in my coffin, which will probably also have the words “heartless crazy lady” inscribed in it. This is because I wish to pick on animal rights activists who try to intimidate and who sometimes even attack researcher who experiment on animals.
While I see no reason to condemn or speak ill of people who do not approve of animal testing and who voice their opinions in a peaceful manner, I do have a problem with folks who vandalize laboratories and bully researchers whose working agenda does not sit right with them.
Suffice it to say that, at one point, one such group of people placed a bomb (yup, an actual bomb) on the front porch of a neuroscientist in California, US, and made it explode. The researcher`s family was sleeping inside the house when this happened.
What I wish these overzealous animal rights activists would understand is that their behavior counts as being aggressive, and that they are basically perpetuating the very same violence and inhumanity that they say they want to put an end to.
They might say that they are working towards a higher purpose, and that this somehow excuses their actions. However, the same can be argued about the researchers who they target, as they too have a higher purpose in mind when experimenting on animals: the advance of science.
Bottom line: sure, animal testing is bad, but it has also helped make life better for us over the years. It's a necessary evil, if you will, and condemning it without at least a “thank you” for how it has transformed society just does not seem right.
At this point, I for one have nothing further to add. The comments section (just scroll down, you'll find it) is all yours, and you are more than welcome to use it to take a swing at me and my stand when it comes to animal testing.