MY ANNUAL POST...no really this is my first one in a year
Hey everybody back home. It has been a really long time but don't worry I am coming home this weekened. I hope everyone is doing alright. I love it up hear at SFA. It has been a lot of fun. I have cool classes, lots of new friends and I am rooming with the best man I know. Well anyways. . .the other day in my Political Science class I got in an argument with the entire class (me being the only conservative) about animal experimentation and a bunch of vegan, tree hugging, PETA idiots started rambling off a bunch of unintelligent, unsupported bull crap (liberals never have valid arguments) and so my teacher (a liberal herself) assigned a paper about it. I wrote a pretty ok paper and ended up getting a 100. So for your reading pleasure, here is my paper:
Animal Experimentation: Right or Wrong
For years, Americans have been combating for civil rights. From the abolishment of slavery to women’s suffrage, there has always been people willing to fight for rights and now subjects like slavery and segregation are recognized more as a bad dream than an actual reality. Now, around the world, people are taking up a new battle: animal rights. Many believe that animal rights is a worthy cause and have been radically pursuing it for quite some time. Because of this new movement, there is now several animal rights groups; PETA, PCRM, and HSUS to name a few. Several different organizations have now united in an attempt to eliminate what they feel to be a cruel practice; animal experimentation that furthers the medical and psychological welfare of mankind.
Many animal rights groups feel that it is morally wrong to perform experimentation on animals, even if it means saving thousands of human lives. When PETA, the most influential and the wealthiest animal rights organization, was asked if they would “support an experiment that would sacrifice ten animals to save ten thousand people” (www.peta.org) they said that it was unethical and immoral on the basis that it infringed on the animal’s, most commonly mice, rights. PETA said in response to the same question, that killing a mouse is the equivalent of killing “one mentally challenged orphan” (www.peta.org). That statement is proof that it is possible to be naïve and ignorant at the same time. To compare the death of a child, mentally challenged or perfectly healthy, to a mouse is what is really unethical. These radical claims is what makes groups like PETA less credible. In another article, PETA claimed that the whole sale slaughter of chickens is a far greater tragedy than the attempted genocide of the Jewish culture during the Holocaust. It is hard to take groups like this seriously when they make such outlandish comparisons.
Animal testing and experimentation has lead to many breakthroughs in medicine that have saved the lives of countless thousands of people. Since the dawn of modern medicine, animals have been used to test and develop methods of helping mankind. Almost every medicine that reaches the shelves, except for all natural remedies, have forgone some type of animal testing. PETA claims that there is no difference in experimenting on rats and experimenting on humans and also say that many of the most important medical breakthroughs have been made without animal testing. For instance, the stethoscope, artificial respiration, x-rays, and CAT, MRI, and PET scans. The biggest and most obvious problem with this argument is that the breakthroughs that were mentioned are completely man made and have no relation to biomedical research , thus requiring no animal experimentation at all. PETA also brought up another breakthrough; “the link between smoking and cancer” (www.peta.org). Once again, this was not something that could be observed or tested with the use of lab animals. These organizations have no real substance to any of their arguments and most of what they bring to the table has no relevance to the topic at hand.
Also, PETA claims that “behavioral and environmental factors-rather than knowledge gained from animal experiments” (www.peta.org) is what is responsible for decrease in deaths and the rising average life expectancy. This simply is not correct. In the pre-industrial age, the average life expectancy of a “man was about 30-35 years” (www.cspinetalk.com). During and after the industrial revolution, the average life expectancy jumped to around seventy. The industrial revolution was the beginning of the deterioration of our environment, particularly the ozone and heavy pollution of the air, and working conditions were deplorable. Also, now more than ever before, people abuse tobacco, alcohol, and drugs yet still the average life expectancy is higher than ever. This is not because of our awareness of “behavioral and environmental factors“, but because of the advancement of medicine and medical treatment which resulted from and relied on animal experimentation.
I love animals and hate the idea of performing experimentation on them, but I feel that animal testing is a necessary evil. Animal cruelty is out of the question, and if animals are being put through unnecessary discomfort during testing than there is a problem, but if the life of a few mice can save someone I care about than I want the experimentation to happen. Animals should be cared for, but the welfare of mankind comes before the welfare of a rodent, and animals are ours to use. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Genesis 1:26). This is not justification for animal cruelty but it is proof that animals are not man’s equals.
Well that is enough ranting for this post so I hope that everyone is doing as well as I am. Love to everybody.
Animal Experimentation: Right or Wrong
For years, Americans have been combating for civil rights. From the abolishment of slavery to women’s suffrage, there has always been people willing to fight for rights and now subjects like slavery and segregation are recognized more as a bad dream than an actual reality. Now, around the world, people are taking up a new battle: animal rights. Many believe that animal rights is a worthy cause and have been radically pursuing it for quite some time. Because of this new movement, there is now several animal rights groups; PETA, PCRM, and HSUS to name a few. Several different organizations have now united in an attempt to eliminate what they feel to be a cruel practice; animal experimentation that furthers the medical and psychological welfare of mankind.
Many animal rights groups feel that it is morally wrong to perform experimentation on animals, even if it means saving thousands of human lives. When PETA, the most influential and the wealthiest animal rights organization, was asked if they would “support an experiment that would sacrifice ten animals to save ten thousand people” (www.peta.org) they said that it was unethical and immoral on the basis that it infringed on the animal’s, most commonly mice, rights. PETA said in response to the same question, that killing a mouse is the equivalent of killing “one mentally challenged orphan” (www.peta.org). That statement is proof that it is possible to be naïve and ignorant at the same time. To compare the death of a child, mentally challenged or perfectly healthy, to a mouse is what is really unethical. These radical claims is what makes groups like PETA less credible. In another article, PETA claimed that the whole sale slaughter of chickens is a far greater tragedy than the attempted genocide of the Jewish culture during the Holocaust. It is hard to take groups like this seriously when they make such outlandish comparisons.
Animal testing and experimentation has lead to many breakthroughs in medicine that have saved the lives of countless thousands of people. Since the dawn of modern medicine, animals have been used to test and develop methods of helping mankind. Almost every medicine that reaches the shelves, except for all natural remedies, have forgone some type of animal testing. PETA claims that there is no difference in experimenting on rats and experimenting on humans and also say that many of the most important medical breakthroughs have been made without animal testing. For instance, the stethoscope, artificial respiration, x-rays, and CAT, MRI, and PET scans. The biggest and most obvious problem with this argument is that the breakthroughs that were mentioned are completely man made and have no relation to biomedical research , thus requiring no animal experimentation at all. PETA also brought up another breakthrough; “the link between smoking and cancer” (www.peta.org). Once again, this was not something that could be observed or tested with the use of lab animals. These organizations have no real substance to any of their arguments and most of what they bring to the table has no relevance to the topic at hand.
Also, PETA claims that “behavioral and environmental factors-rather than knowledge gained from animal experiments” (www.peta.org) is what is responsible for decrease in deaths and the rising average life expectancy. This simply is not correct. In the pre-industrial age, the average life expectancy of a “man was about 30-35 years” (www.cspinetalk.com). During and after the industrial revolution, the average life expectancy jumped to around seventy. The industrial revolution was the beginning of the deterioration of our environment, particularly the ozone and heavy pollution of the air, and working conditions were deplorable. Also, now more than ever before, people abuse tobacco, alcohol, and drugs yet still the average life expectancy is higher than ever. This is not because of our awareness of “behavioral and environmental factors“, but because of the advancement of medicine and medical treatment which resulted from and relied on animal experimentation.
I love animals and hate the idea of performing experimentation on them, but I feel that animal testing is a necessary evil. Animal cruelty is out of the question, and if animals are being put through unnecessary discomfort during testing than there is a problem, but if the life of a few mice can save someone I care about than I want the experimentation to happen. Animals should be cared for, but the welfare of mankind comes before the welfare of a rodent, and animals are ours to use. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Genesis 1:26). This is not justification for animal cruelty but it is proof that animals are not man’s equals.
Well that is enough ranting for this post so I hope that everyone is doing as well as I am. Love to everybody.