Dissection
I need a breif moment to ventilate. I'm on powerful drugs here on account of my sickness, so incoherency might be an issue.
On the LJ of an old acquaintance, there is a small debate going on about the ethics of animal dissection..but more so that sticks out to me, is how some people can't stand to know the truth.
I am totally against dissection, but can be for it on an extremely rigid set of criteria. I can justify some; What I mean is, is that I find that dissecting a stillborn kitten, calf from a local farm, euthanized shelter animals or roadkill to be alright-- why? Because the animal is not being killed to be cut up.
The reality of it is, while 57,000 dead pets from American animal shelters are being dumped in landfills each week, people, usually from low income neighborhoods supply the production facilities with strays, ferals, family pets that they have either trapped or taken from somewhere. This could be an alluring business to someone who can't or refuses to do real work.
Since the post was about cats, I will refer to cats here, but other animals-- crabs, earthworms, piglets, clams, rats, and frogs are commonly used in dissection.
Before their deaths, the animals are placed in small, unsanitary cages. When their time is up, they will be loaded into a gas chamber, several at a time, and gassed until they are dead. Often some do not die, and eventually die while they are being filled with formaldehyde. Some facilities will even put them in scalding tanks to remove hair for discriminating science teachers who live by 'no muss-no fuss.' Stuck in little bags, your science teacher buys them through a catalog or at a science trade show.
The facts are hard, I know, but why get bitchy at someone for telling the truth? If she is having reservations about this, then maybe she SHOULD know the facts and decide appropriately what she is going to do about it. I met a bit of resistance when I protested my Bio dissections, and encountered the same thing. It surprises me how so many people could want to keep their head in the sand about this issue and not get truly educated even though they know in their hearts it is wrong. Maybe Kristina's cat did have a family once. Maybe a couple states away, the same family is now taking down posters for their lost cat, because its been too long. What is so wrong about knowing where your specimen came from? Maybe you should know that her cat could have had a name, could have had a home, but was taken and violently killed for high school kids!
This wasn't meant to make her feel bad, hell no. It was about activism. Denial is a horrible thing, and this kind of mentality isn't stopping this abomination, its prolonging it.
The Truth Hurts
You'll want to check out this video, basically a visual to what I've just said. You can't keep your head in the sand on this one, stand up for what is right!
On the LJ of an old acquaintance, there is a small debate going on about the ethics of animal dissection..but more so that sticks out to me, is how some people can't stand to know the truth.
I am totally against dissection, but can be for it on an extremely rigid set of criteria. I can justify some; What I mean is, is that I find that dissecting a stillborn kitten, calf from a local farm, euthanized shelter animals or roadkill to be alright-- why? Because the animal is not being killed to be cut up.
The reality of it is, while 57,000 dead pets from American animal shelters are being dumped in landfills each week, people, usually from low income neighborhoods supply the production facilities with strays, ferals, family pets that they have either trapped or taken from somewhere. This could be an alluring business to someone who can't or refuses to do real work.
Since the post was about cats, I will refer to cats here, but other animals-- crabs, earthworms, piglets, clams, rats, and frogs are commonly used in dissection.
Before their deaths, the animals are placed in small, unsanitary cages. When their time is up, they will be loaded into a gas chamber, several at a time, and gassed until they are dead. Often some do not die, and eventually die while they are being filled with formaldehyde. Some facilities will even put them in scalding tanks to remove hair for discriminating science teachers who live by 'no muss-no fuss.' Stuck in little bags, your science teacher buys them through a catalog or at a science trade show.
The facts are hard, I know, but why get bitchy at someone for telling the truth? If she is having reservations about this, then maybe she SHOULD know the facts and decide appropriately what she is going to do about it. I met a bit of resistance when I protested my Bio dissections, and encountered the same thing. It surprises me how so many people could want to keep their head in the sand about this issue and not get truly educated even though they know in their hearts it is wrong. Maybe Kristina's cat did have a family once. Maybe a couple states away, the same family is now taking down posters for their lost cat, because its been too long. What is so wrong about knowing where your specimen came from? Maybe you should know that her cat could have had a name, could have had a home, but was taken and violently killed for high school kids!
This wasn't meant to make her feel bad, hell no. It was about activism. Denial is a horrible thing, and this kind of mentality isn't stopping this abomination, its prolonging it.
The Truth Hurts
You'll want to check out this video, basically a visual to what I've just said. You can't keep your head in the sand on this one, stand up for what is right!