Animal Welfare

[Shaun]

Didn't know if this should be Current Affairs or Lifestyle so if any of you all powerful beings decide it shouldn't be here can you move it for me? Ta


First off I'm not starting this thread off to slag other members off or to cause a flame war but I didn't want to take the cloning thread anymore off topic. Can we please keep it nice folks. Thanks

Originally Posted by Macca371

That's truly selfish. Animals feel pain just as we do, therefore they should have rights. Under no circumstance is a human life more important than an animal life. They especially shouldn't be living a life of quivering pain for our benefit. Every living thing should have the right to live properly.

I agree totally.

I like you find animal testing repulsive, but unfortunately there is little alternative with some of the products that we need. This does NOT mean cosmetics, cleaning products, and the like. I'm talking about vaccines and medication. For the record I personally actively seek out cosmetics, soaps etc that are not tested on animals.

I would love them to find an alternative to all animal testing as much as the next man/woman, however we need to be practical over issues like this and not let our hearts rule our heads.

There are millions of people that are alive today that without some form of animal testing would be dead. This is a fact, and personally I think this is a good thing, I don't know about you?

A small number (relatively to the number of people helped) of animals have been used for testing but they have saved millions from death, illness or poisoning. As far as I can see the benefits out weight the costs.

Moving on from animal testing (but still on topic*) we use animals in lots of ways that go against the "Animals are equal to us" mentality. We bread cows to provide us with milk and in doing so take milk that was intended for the calf. We use dogs to go into buildings with gunmen in them with cameras on to judge the situation. We take eggs from chickens that are intended to produce chicks. I'm not even going to mention all that meat most of us have in the freezer. The list goes on.


*I was going to call this thread "Animal testing" but I found while writing the post it wavered onto how we treat animals in other areas of life so I thought I'd rename it "Animal Welfare"

[Paul]

I think most people would prefer an alternative to animal testing but currently that alternative is not there. With technology moving on in leaps and bounds there is certainly the hope that in the years to come all testing will be done using computer modelling but to get to the point where that testing is feasible and accurate we need to carry out tests on.... animals
As a pet owner I hate to see cruel or unusual treatment of animals and my dietary choices mean I don't eat meat of any kind but those are choices that I made in my life. Some people choose to eat meat, some people choose to take part in recreational pursuits that cause physical harm to animals (hare coursing etc) but those are the choices that they made in their lives. Unfortunately what people perceive as animal cruelty will often depend on their viewpoint on certain issues.

[Matth]

Animal testing should be the final step, after theoretical science and cell culture testing, just so long as the results will actually be relevant, useful and necessary - some of our medicines and food products are lethal to some animal species - eg. chocolate and grapes are poisonous to dogs.