Are we debating animal rights or animal welfare?
The simple truth of the matter is that, were it not for animal testing, the majority of us would not be here today.
It’s a very idealistic notion to use humans for the medical and reactionary studies we inflict on animals today. However, when you take into account the decades worth of interbreeding this would necessitate in order to achieve your experimental and control groups due to the time period between human generations and the massive amount of resources required for such a project, you have to realize that such an undertaking would be utterly impossible.
The animals used in labs today (such as mice) require very few resources to keep in captivity and have extremely short gestation periods and very large litter sizes. With such large litter sizes added to the exponential population growth mice are capable of; a single pair can easily turn into over a million within a year’s time. These characteristics allow for constant repetition and alteration within experimental studies and hypotheses.
As of right now (technologically speaking), creating a million human subjects as completely interbred (which is experimentally crucial) as the million mice in the example above, would take more time than we could ever afford with the pressing threats of newer flu strains and deadly diseases.
Just about every medicinal advance in the history of humanity can be attributed to the experimentation of animals. Without which, nothing we have thus far achieved would be possible.
With that said, I’m not arguing that humans are the “superior” species. To make such a statement and be completely objective would be entirely impossible (since there’s just a tiny bit of a bias, lol). However, this instinctive preconception is the very mechanism that has allowed all life on this planet to flourish. Every organism on this planet, human included, has been biologically programmed through evolution and natural selection to ensure the survival of its own species. Such is the way that every species alive today has gotten this far. It would go against the very laws of nature to NOT do everything in the power granted to you by nature to ensure the survival of yourself and those important to you.
And, as Lauren was saying, our intelligence is no less natural than any other defense mechanism possessed by any other species. It has come to us through the demands of an ever changing world and the increasing pressure for adaptation. However, the essence of intelligence and what we do with that intelligence are two completely different things when we consider what we deem as natural.
It is true that many animals suffer in the name of scientific advancement. And in many cases, this suffering is completely unnecessary. For example - to pour developing shampoos and other pioneering products into an animal’s eyes and observe its reaction. Experiments such as these are ones that I have problems with and believe serious amendment is needed to ensure that things change. But as far as medicinal purposes go, I see no other possible way to ensure the continuation of our species without the experimental use of animals.
Sorry for the extremely long post….just seems to be a lot to discuss on this topic. I also hope I did not offend anyone. These are just my opinions and are subject to your discretions.
