Medical progress needs transportation

Pleased to report my guest post on the Speaking of research blog called Safeguarding Medical progress means supporting animal transport.

You can find it by clicking the following link. Likewise if you work in transportation or an affiliated industry, it is important to know how you can support initiatives that seek to support the continued transportation of laboratory destined animals. Being familiar with the sources for educated information about animal research is equally as important.

If your company or you as an individual are called targets by animal extremists, do not hesitate and contact the appropriate parties.   Unless of course you support PETA campaigns against airlines.
In which case you support the statements that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on or use for entertainment (think of zoo's and aquaria or other conservation mechanisms).

With more than one million living species described, the animal kingdom is by far the largest on earth. I can't wait to see PETA's first invertebrate campaign in support of  animal rights for Nematodes (agrilus planipennis). After all, despite their threat to agriculture, aren't they all animals worthy figthing for? What about protection for agricultural plant species many of us depend upon for our  diets? Surely using bees for polination puposes is called slavery by some and exploiting their honey equates to animal cruelty! 

What about you? Is medical progress on your mind? Do the right thing and support animal research. Who knows one day you , or a family member, too may benefit from the many medical advances we are used to. Take a look here.


 

Free from harm

In previous blog entries I have written about (animal) person hood and the risk associated therewith. Most recently I stumbled upon the works of photograph Jo Anne McArthur or at least as it is described in
freefromharm.org  You can read the article here. I will however quote a part of the article for the purposes of the article in this blog:

the really important theme running through the We Animals project: Each individual animal that McArthur encounters and photographs on her journeys is a someone rather than a something. That may seem like a matter of semantics to some, but the difference is truly a paradigm shift in our relationship with other species. A something is to us an object. But a someone is a person, an individual. The beauty and genius behind McArthur’s work is how she portrays animals in our society that have been objectified to show that actually they are individuals whose individuality has simply been erased from our consciousness. Her images compel us to reconnect to who they truly are—individuals.

I happened to have worked in or with at least two domains where animal use and breeding prevail, namely agriculture and life science research for medical advancement. From as far as I can tell there is no one in either industry that takes pleasure in exposing animals to painful procedures. That doesn't take away the fact that it remains necessary.

Can you imagine creating a strong emotional bond with an animal  to the point where it becomes counterproductive to the very aims of the enterprise because you consider the animal as an individual? Can one actually afford to walk that path? Yes probably but then for a very short period of time and then concluding that what you are about to undertake is absolutely necessary. That the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. Asking for person hood is the beginning of the end for both industries and probably much more.

Most of us go to the grocery store to purchase food such as meat, eggs, dairy products, bread, fruits and vegetables. Likewise for drugs at the drug store. We did not have to do a single thing, except for earning money, to take advantage of these benefits. Actually we take them for granted. I did not have to raise an animal, take care of its health, grow it up to an adult stage, provide it with food and shelter, slaughter it, remove its intestines, cut it into pieces etc. And the same stands for all of our other food habits, the medications we take and so many other things we enjoy on a daily basis. Most of us wouldn't even know nor have the most basics skills it takes to be able to do these things I just mentioned.

I actually happen to agree with the web site's title 'free from harm'. May we humans be free from the harm that these people call upon us with the greatest sense of conviction and rightfulness! I for one will blissfully ignore them, go to my supermarket to buy my steak and take my animal tested pills. May those involved in or with animal use industries be free from harm and harassment such as this and this.