Of Mice and Men (and Other Animals Too)

I've noticed that a lot of people seem to be writing about animal research, and for good reason. There are a lot of emotions that come up with this topic and I kind of want to get in on the action, so here we go!

I find that I lean toward the "minimalist" side of the debate. Let's face it, animal research has done a lot for modern medicine whether anyone wants to admit it or not. However, in this video about the issue, Peter Singer makes some good points when he says that there are some unnecessary experiments being conducted. Ultimately, I believe animal research is necessary, but strict guidelines should always be followed.

The "abolitionist" groups out there seem to be no better than any other extremist groups in the world. Every few months you can hear a story in the news about someone killing (or attempting to kill) a researcher or someone wearing fur. It's this kind of behavior that makes people not take these groups seriously. Instead of trying to open a dialogue, they resort to violence. Here is a news story from earlier this year about a woman who was arrested for trying to hire a hitman to gun down people wearing fur. Obviously, fur and animal research aren't the same thing, but the article exemplifies the type of behavior radical activists (for any cause) are willing to resort to. Now, It's important to note that you can't generalize every animal rights advocate as some kind of blood-thirsty lunatic; this is strictly directed at extremists.

In closing, people need to stop being stupid and start talking out their issues like decent human beings. It amazes me that some of the people who are trying to protect these animals will actually start acting like them. Before I finish, I'd like to make note of the fact that I tried to find some funny cartoons related to animal research and everything I found (regardless of which side of the argument they were on) oversimplified the issue and ended up being really lame. Make of that what you will.

Looks like I'm done here. 'Til next time.
Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.