Posted on 11/30/2011 9:19:51 AM PST by Nachum
As a dog lover myself, I’m not buying a lot of the BS rationalizations certain “apologists” in this thread are selling. How remarkably sad.. A beagle, a dog bred for game, a loving companion, being kept for life inside a lab? While you go home to your pets (those who have them) to let them outside to run in the yard, or to take them for a walk where they can smell other dogs, roll in the grass, and do other things dogs love to do. You seem to think it’s enough that they were well-fed and don’t *appear* physically abused.
The idea that testing on such docile, companion animals because it “serves the greater good” could come straight from the communist manifesto, IMHO. We are supposed to be more conpassionate than that.
Heartless capitalist I have heard before.
Straight from the Communist Manifesto is a new one to me.
Communists are generally not too interested in innovative therapeutics to prolong life - more interested in “death panels” that deny care to the general public while seeking out Western Medicine for the well connected.
When the soviets shot Laika into space, they didn’t think twice, because they knew their masses would, when told what to think, regard her as a hero who died so that a Russian cosmonot wouldn’t have to.
NASA didn’t dream of doing such a thing, at least publicly, because they knew the American public would be squeamish about it, at best. We love our dogs and cats. Yours is an “end justifies the means” mentality that is a good fit for what the soviets were doing not just with Laika, but across the board.
Lifesaving therapies that truly push medical science forward? Okay, though I doubt they need domesticated dogs like the beagle to do it. Cosmetics, or pharmaceuticals that might extend a terminal patient’s life five days (or five hours?) I don’t think so.
The ends do not justify the means - but there are ends in mind - and the means are as humane as possible. Those dogs were not abused, just used to an indoor environment, and unfamiliar with an outdoor environment.
I imagine many a Park Avenue pooch would act similarly when taken out into the country and away from the sidewalks and cars.
Lifesaving therapies that truly push medical science forward use dogs in research.
Every breakthrough therapeutic in the last 50 years was developed using animal models.
Would you sign up to be the first human to test a therapeutic that had never been tested in animals?
Our little lady died two winters ago of tick fever. We have had four Beagles in nearly 60 years.
We kept her cleaned and kept treatment on her all the time. She hunted day and night, she lived to hunt and kept the 40 acre hill hopping. You could hear her out at 2 o’clock in the morning but we tried to keep her up to give her some rest.
She could clear the window sill in my Dodge truck she got so excited when I drove in.
She captured the heart of everyone she met and our vet stayed with her for two full days to try to save her.
Every time I have lost one of these friends I say I’ll never have another.
‘Every time I have lost one of these friends I say I’ll never have another.’
Yep. My kids wanted a dog and I had already been an owner to two others that lived a long life and died. I did not want to go through it again, but they all wanted a dog. They got the dog.
Sooooooo.... we have had a beautiful black lab/golden retriever mix now for more than 3 years. She follows me everywhere.
They wanted a dog...and now it’s ‘my’ dog. :)
You’re getting into PETA territory if you are going to argue that all animals should be equal in the eyes of man and equally protected. What difference between a dog, a rabbit, or a rat in these experiments, eh?
Yes, many in our society believe docile, intelligent, domesticated pets like beagles deserve not to be treated like a lab rodent. Just as someone else pointed out in this thread, it’s a sad state of affairs that any dog, but even specifically this breed, is being chosen for experiments based upon the same traits that were bred into them to make them good companions in the first place. Submissive. Trusting. Not likely to get violent.
It’s pretty clear to me that you can be a dog lover or a pragmatic supporter of using dogs in a lab, but not both. You are fooling no one with your opinion that the dogs seem “happy.” You cannot make that judgement any more than the rescuers can insist the dogs look “sad.” (using common sense in that matter is something else altogether, though).
I know you won’t change your mind. You apparently are somewhat involved in this in your profession, so there are some barriers put up no doubt, nobody wants to feel bad about what they do. It falls upon others to feel badly, I suppose.
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