The stupidity of animal experimentation.

Hello everyone.

Today, is a day of very mixed feelings. As a dog, I am proud of my relationship with my human family. I love them and I get a great deal of love back in return. However, I am a very lucky dog to have a family that care for me. I have a family that provide for me as well as treat me as an equal.

Unfortunately, it is not the same for all dogs. I have written about Laika the Russian space pioneer in a previous posting. (Celebrity Dogs 3) Laika is a well known and much revered canine sister. But there have been hundreds of thousands of our brothers and sisters who have led lonely and unloved life's in research institutes. Some have been forced into enduring inhaling cigarette smoke whilst others have suffered much worse fates.

Vivisection: "Operating on a living animal for experimental rather than healing purposes or more broadly, all experimentation on live animals." Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2009

Animals are used to test the safety of cosmetics, household cleansers and other consumer products. These innocent dogs, primates, cats, rabbits, rodents and other animals are used against their will as research subjects. In experiments and procedures that would be considered sadistically cruel were they not conducted in the name of science. The science is flawed!

We are not alone. Every year, tens of millions of other animals are dissected, infected, injected, gassed, burned and blinded in laboratories on university campuses and other research facilities. 

Dad worked for many years in a university with an excellent research record. It was a university that did not practice any form of research on animals.

Me and dad believe that over-reliance on animal experimentation has hindered scientific advancement and endangered human safety. This is because results from animal research typically cannot be applied to humans. In fact, dad says that "Scientists could save more human lives by using humane non-animal research and testing methods that are more accurate and efficient."



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 Research scientists are also seeing the negative consequences of using one species to provide information about another species; often the results of animal experiments are totally misleading or even harmful to humans. The achievements of physicists, chemists, mathematicians, computer engineers and bio technical engineers have long since outpaced the archaic research methods of animal experimentation.

Me and dad believe that direct action against medical research institutes is a bad way to bring about change. The negative publicity generated by such action deflects and detracts the public perception away from addressing the cruelty of animal experimentation.

Are products you
purchase tested
on Animals?

There is much that our human companions can do to help end the animal testing problem. You could for instance choose to buy products that are not tested on animals. So is there any information available to help you choose the products or companies to avoid? 

 Uncaged is typical of a number of prominent UK websites that publish such information.

Uncaged say "The most important factor that affects whether a product is ‘cruelty-free’ is the animal testing policy of the manufacturing company. You have to ‘follow the money’. Even if a particular product and its ingredients are not tested on animals, if the company that makes it performs animal tests in other areas, then purchasing any of their products promotes and supports cruelty to animals. This also includes parent companies of subsidiaries."

Uncaged also have a web page specially targeted at Pet Foods and Animal Testing Policies. Norman Baker MP, Liberal Democrat spokesperson on animal welfare said. "Uncaged keeps alive the flame of hope that one day, animal experiments will seem as outdated as today sending children up chimneys seems."

Uncaged also have a Compassionate Shopping Guide. This publication is an 80 page guide to cruelty-free companies, shops and supermarkets. You can purchase a copy by making a small donation.



The Sunday Express
On pet food cruelty



In the United Kingdom, any experiment involving vivisection must be granted a licence by the Secretary of State for Home Affairs. The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 expressly directs that, in determining whether to grant a licence for an experimental project, "The Secretary of State shall weigh the likely adverse effects on the animals concerned against the benefit likely to accrue."

The political fall-out surrounding animal experimentation continues at a pace. The problem with following the political route to banning or limiting the use of animal vivisection is that politics has as murky a reputation, as animal experimentation itself.



The Observer On
Animal Organ
Laboratory



Me and dad would like to see the Code of Practice used in Australia adopted by the UK. The code of practice "Requires that all experiments must be approved by an Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee. That includes a person with an interest in animal welfare who is not employed by the institution conducting the experiment. And an additional independent person not involved in animal experimentation."

So today we salute the memory of those hundreds of millions of dogs and other animals that have been subjected to unnecessary animal experimentation around the world, all in the name of flawed science.

Yip Yap.

XX Poppy