Show Animal Experimentation is It Necessary Or Just Cruel H by Linda Unda Fabert Animal rights has been and continues to be a hotly debated subject in this country On the one hand there are the animal lovers who feel it morally wrong and cruel to use animals for experimentation and research On the other hand there are the doctors researchers and scientists who feel obligated to todo todo todo do animal research for the sake of saving lives and alleviating human suffering Personally I love my two dogs five cats and one guinea pig Over the years my animals have been constant devoted and loving which is more than I can can cansay say for some of the people Ive I've known and I could not begin to imagine anyone doing research on any anyone one of them The idea makes me shudder I did however run across an article in Ann Landers in the LA Times that did make me stop and think for a moment Entitled Medicine Needs Those Animals it was written by Dr Michael DeBakey chancellor of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and first appeared in the Washington Post In part here is what it said As a patient advocate both in inand inand inand and out of the the operating operating room I feel a responsibility to protect the rights of patients to reap the benefits of animal research Had the animal legislation now pending in Congress been enacted when I began my career it would have prevented me from developing a number of lifesaving lifesaving lifesaving life- life saving procedures in my research laboratory Instead of restoring thousands of patients to a normal life my colleagues and I would have been helpless to offer many of our patients any real hope This legislation legislation legislation legis legis- lation known as the bill seeks to ban the use of pound animals for research supported by bythe bythe bythe the National Institutes of Health the chief source source of funds s for research in this country Would rights animal-rights activists have objected to the first kidney heart or liver transplant Would they forgo the protection humanity enjo enjoys s today against polio diphtheria and whooping cough or the treatment for strep throat ear infections and pneumonia all products of animal research Would they have denied the 11 million diabetics the right to life that insulin has given them Or the additional years made possible because of I radiation and chemotherapy It was in monkeys that the deadly AIDS virus AIDS virus was isolated and that isolation is the initial step in the ultimate development of the v vaccine According to the American Humane Society 7 million pet dogs are abandoned to pounds or shelters each year 5 million of which are killed Yet some would have you believe that killing animals in a pound is more virtuous than using them to help advance medical knowledge and benefit human and animal health As a physician I 1 cannot conceive of telling parents that their sick child is doomed because we cannot use all the tools at att our disposal Surely those who object to animals in research laboratories must be equally distressed to see sick children hooked up to tubes How will those parents feel about a society that legislates the rights of animals above those of their children Self preservation is a primary instinct of all aU members of the animal kingdom and patients with that instinct deserve our compassion as much as other species The American public must decide Shall we tell teU hundreds of thousands of victims of heart attacks cancer AIDS and other diseases that the rights of abandoned animals to die in a pound supersedes the patients' patients rights to relief from suffering and prem premature ture death In making t that at decision let us not use anger and hatred but reason and good will I I can relate to this article My mother before she died was a diabetic who would have died fifteen years ago were it not for insulin In the last month of her life her kidneys failed and she had to be beon beon beon on dialysis Surely that hat machine c was not developed as a result of u using ing human beings for guinea pigs Katy my Husky was scheduled for execution the next morning when I bought her from the West Valley Animal Shelter She was picked up because beca se she had been running the streets in heat I have a alot alot alot lot of animals that's true and feeding them almost takes a part- part time job on top of the two time part jobs I already have but I have loved those animals enough to have them all spayed and neutered 1 I I still cant can't convince myself that animal research is humane its it's necessary Neither do I believe that killing lolling animals by lethal injection is humane Its It's a necessary evil borne of people who will not take responsibility for their pets I wonder if anyone knows how many puppies and kittens were put pu to sleep last year because someone decided to to let their cat or or dog have babies so their children could witness the miracle of birth How many were abandoned starved to death or hit by cars for the same reason If adults wont won't ta take e responsibility for their pets perhaps we should let children witness the pain of death j I f t J Jat at their local animal animal ammal shelter helter and f maybe somebody will learn learn something Kids are often quicker than adults For the rest of you who are pet less' less October is Dog Adopt Month Consider giving some gentle soul soula a home They can bring you untold hours of fun and joy and companionship and they'll they love you like no human e ever er will Of course adoption would mean fewer animals for research I I for one am ba back k i in a d dilemma dilemma f 5 o f f |