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97 lines
4.4 KiB
Plaintext
97 lines
4.4 KiB
Plaintext
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ANIMALS MUST DIE SO PEOPLE CAN LIVE
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(reprinted from the Minneapolis Star Tribune)
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Demonstrations against the use of animals in medical
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research bring out some interesting personalities. The
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demonstrators are all vegetarians, because one cannot object to
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killing animals for medical research while continuing to eat
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them. And since more than 90% of animals used in medical
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research are mice or rats, animal rights zealots should never use
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mousetraps.
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Demonstrators wear rubber-soled canvas shoes, and if the
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weather is cold, woolen, not leather, gloves. And since research
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on contraception medication involves the use of rabbits, most of
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the women in the groups probably are pregnant.
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None of these demonstrators would have been immunized
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against polio-myelitis, diptheria, whooping cough or other
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childhood diseases, or cured of potentially fatal infections by
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antibiotics. Accident victims, salvaged from death by blood
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transfusions, are disqualified from participation, as are
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diabetics who depend on insulin for their continued existence.
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Responses to these medical situations required animal research.
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Anyone with a prosthetic joint, a transplanted kidney or
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a cardiac pacemaker, or a history of heart surgery, chemotherapy
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or immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer or of successful
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treatment of glaucoma, could not, in good conscience, represent
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him or herself as an opponent of the use of animals in biomedical
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research. Relatives of those with Alzheimer's disease must
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disqualify themselves as marchers, since current research on
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monkeys may eventually suggest effective ways to treat this
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disorder.
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One would not expect protesters to bring along their pet
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animals, since most domestic pets are protected against
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distemper, infectious hepatitis, parasites and even rabies by
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medications perfected through animal experimentation. And since
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the 100 million cats and dogs in North America are carnivores,
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requiring food obtained by killing other animals, pets must keep
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a low profile to avoid the charge of hypocrisy.
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For consistency, one would expect animal rights groups
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picketing rodeos, where animals are mistreated for
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entertainment. And why not release cattle from slaughter houses
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where they are killed without general anesthesia?
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The conscientious objector must also refrain from eating
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animal flesh, but must also protest against others eating it.
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Fourteen million dogs, more than one third of the total
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dog population in North America, are destroyed in public pounds
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and animal shelters. Animal pounds and humane societies engaged
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in animal control kill more than 50 cats and dogs for every one
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that is sacrificed for research purposes.
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Although computer simulation, test-tube experimentation
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and tissue cultures are gradually supplanting some types of
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animal research, it would be a serious error to suppose that such
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alternative techniques will soon be available for all research
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that now uses live animal subjects. No other method can fully
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replace the testing of a drug, a procedure or a vaccine in a
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living organism.
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Successful alternatives to some types of animal-related
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research have indeed been developed in the last decade, with a
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40% drop in the number of animals used in research between 1968
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and 1978, with still further reductions since that time.
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The human body, however, is far more complex than a
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tissue culture, with physical and chemical interactions that
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cannot be reduced to a computer programme. Just as a new type of
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aircraft can be tested in a wind tunnel but must eventually be
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tried out by a test pilot, a new surgical operation, a new drug
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or new treatment must be tried on the first human being.
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Who among healthy protesters would volunteer as a subject
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for the study of AIDS? This disease must be studied in an
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environment that provides for an immune system found only in a
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living animal.
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The dispute regarding the use of laboratory animals has
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heightened the research community's sensitivity to the need for
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strict safeguards against pain and suffering when conducting
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experiments. Let us hope that reason will prevail, and that
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these well-intentioned efforts will not bring biomedical research
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to a state of virtual paralysis as it has in England.
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John A. Kirchener Ph.D.
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h
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to a state of virtual paralysis as it |