Animals Are Not Ours to Use
Image by Tibor Janosi Mozes from Pixabay
When we were children, my brother and I had pet rats, Lena and Templeton. They were sweet and clean and curious, and my brother and I cared for them with all the tenderness and affection in our hearts. I am not quite sure how we came to have rats as pets in the first place, but while they were with us we cared for them deeply. We were devastated when they died, and buried them in our backyard.
When I learned as a teenager that rats and mice and rabbits and beagles and chimpanzees and Golden Retrievers and frogs and many, many more animals are used in the human testing of medicines, toiletries, cleaning products, and even dog and cat foods, I was horrified. I began to write letters to my elected representatives asking them to draft bills banning animal testing. I wrote to companies telling them that I would not purchase their products and would encourage everyone else I knew not to purchase them, either, until they stopped testing on animals. I donated to — and participated in campaigns coordinated by — organizations that worked to end animal testing. Though I understood why members of my community participated in fundraising triathlons and such in support of their favorite nonprofit organizations, when I was asked to sponsor them in their efforts I would first find out if the organization whose work they were supporting conducted — or paid to conduct — animal testing; if they did, I would gently inform my loved ones that while I applauded their efforts to increase awareness of and rid the world of certain diseases like breast cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, I would not donate funds to any organization that conducted or paid to conduct animal testing.
Most scientists seem to be ethical individuals who wish to do something good in the world. But many of their peers are not. Some justify breeding healthy dogs and then making them sick in order to attempt to find a cure for a rare disease, despite no cure having been discovered after many years of this animal torture. Some take scientific breakthroughs — like the discovery of nuclear fission, which might have been used for any number of positive outcomes — and use it for horrific purposes, like creating the atomic bomb and other nuclear weapons. Brilliant, compassionate, ethical scientists do not need to test on animals. They find another way.
Over the years, many people who thought my passion for ending testing of every kind on animals a bit sentimental or “cute” or “granola-loving, tree-hugging, California-liberalish” challenged me on this issue. Wasn’t it worth it to test on animals if doing so might help rid the world of diseases that ravaged humans? Absolutely not. And many scientists and medical professionals agree. The scientists who founded and are represented by Cruelty Free International, the doctors who founded and support the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, and other non-profit organizations championed by ethical scientists work tirelessly to end animal testing (“vivisection”).
In the first of what will certainly become fifty U.S. states doing the right thing, California became in 2018 the first state in the U.S. to ban the sale of “beauty products” tested on animals. Thank you, California voters and elected representatives! You did the right thing and are leading the way to a more humane and just world for all.
If you would like to learn more about the cruelty and torture inflicted on animals in the name of science, check out what Sentient Media has written about it.
If you would like to find out whether a company whose product you are considering puchasing conducts testing on animals, search this Caring Consumer database.
If you would like to help end animal testing, take on any one or more of these 28 excellent suggestions from Jennie Richards and Humane Decisions.
Animals are my people. If they could volunteer to participate in tests, I would support their right to do that, just as I support the right of humans to volunteer to participate in scientific studies (I have even volunteered on more than one occasion). But they are unable to volunteer. And because they cannot lobby for themselves they are robbed of their freedom, their health, their safety, and ultimately their lives in the name of science. They are bred and born into horrific situations, suffer their entire lives, and then are tossed out with hazardous waste. They do not experience one moment of the freedom that should be their birth right, just as it is ours.
Animals are my people. And I cannot support “scientific” experimentation on my people. I suspect that you have read this far because animals are your people, too, and you cannot support cruel and torturous experimentation on them any more than I can. Speak up for them. They cannot do it for themselves. They are counting on you.