Animal Testing: More important than you think

Before I say anything, let me first emphasize that this post is NOT a PERSONAL attack.  I did have a couple of conversations within the last couple of weeks that inspired this post, but this is NOT personal.  I just really wanted to document my feelings and leave it for open discussion.

Context 1:  (I guess I got de-friended for this, but here you go.)  Someone had posted this picture, legitimately thinking that this was a good idea.

There are just so many things wrong with this idea.  This is a terrible idea.  From a humanitarian perspective, this is just awful.  To use bodily harm as a form of punishment is unjust, not to mention incredibly hypocritical.  If we punish someone for murdering/beating/poisoning (harming a victim's body) by harming their body, what does that say?  That just tells everyone that using bodily harm as a form of punishment is okay, which it shouldn't be.

Now, hopefully you won't jump to conclusions and say that because I don't want to do terrible things to pedophiles, that means that I think that pedophilia is okay.  For anyone out there dumb enough to think that--no, I do not think that pedophilia is okay.  I don't think it's okay to abuse a child, period.  However, I don't think it's fair and I don't think we could set good examples for others if we use bodily harm as a form of punishment.

From a scientific perspective, this would be useless.  One of the benefits of animal testing is that we are using them as models in place of people (and that we're not testing on people).  However, I believe that one of the reasons why we use animals in the first place is that we can easily control their genes.  Testing would be incredibly difficult if we didn't have the ability to easily take control of genes, let alone manipulate the genes throughout generations.  And for that matter, the length of time it takes to create new generations within animal models is obviously much shorter than that for humans.

I guess this card was supposed to be funny?  Or something?  I think it's incredibly stupid and I think it's even STUPIDER that some people actually take this seriously (let alone the fact that I got defriended over disagreeing with them).

Context 2:  In the same day, someone posts something similar to this.

Photo Credit: not me, found it on google.

Then, they rant about how terrible it is to test on cats, and how we should save the cats, how we should ban animal testing, blah blah blah.

First of all, let me say that the idea of animal testing makes me uneasy, but I know it's necessary for us so that we don't kill ourselves with the new drugs we make and so that we can get closer to finding treatments and even cures for diseases.  I have done some testing on animals and I didn't like it, so I don't do it.  I just think that for a lot of people, proclaiming that animal testing should be banned is incredibly hypocritical.  It's like saying that killing animals is terrible, but then going home to a lovely chicken dinner anyway, putting on your leather jacket, etc.  The results of animal testing are all around us, and are pretty much unavoidable at this point.  Yes, animals have died for us, but at the same time, they have saved so many of us as well.

What really saddens me is that a picture like this would probably have less of an effect on people:

Photo Credit: found it on google again, not mine.

This picture makes me really sad as well.  I think the main difference is that people care more about animals they can relate to.  People think cats are way cuter than rats, or whatever, but honestly I think this is just as saddening, if not more saddening.  A rat is more helpless than a cat, and people are just so big and scary that the poor little ratties must be terrified.  Le sigh.  I think people place more of a priority on certain animals than others, which is really stupid because if you're arguing for animal rights, you should be arguing for the rights of ALL animals ... right?  If you're against killing animals, I feel like you should be against killing any kind of animal, whether it is a puppy or a spider.  Yes, spiders are animals too.

The idea that we put animals through so much hell is really saddening, but unfortunately, if you want your own cancer to be cured by some miracle drug or if you want a pill to make your x-y-z go away, you probably will only get it because we have tested this on so many animals first.  I wish people would think about that before being so single-minded about the subject.  From a person who has done animal testing herself, I know how important (and I can only imagine how painful) it can be.  I just can't believe how little people understand it.  Yes, I wish there were an alternative, but there really is no good alternative because there are no better models for human disease than animals (except humans, but this is just not feasible and socially unacceptable).