The animal testing debate

Time to Take a Stand on Animal Testing

We’ve all heard that the “squeaky wheel gets the grease.” The saying basically means that the loudest or most noticeable problems usually garner the most attention. If you’ve ever complained loudly about poor service, a poor experience, or a poor quality product, you know the saying is true.

And that’s the way it’s been lately with animal rights activists. In their quest to protect the rights of innocent mice, rabbits, and other critters with no human voice of their own, their voices have grown louder than ever before.

As their voices grow louder, the attention those voices attract grows larger. One group whose collective voice has become extremely loud belongs to Animal Aid, a group that up until recently was a fairly insignificant player in the battle over animal rights.

With animal testing supporters more tight-lipped than ever, this one group alone has been able to cast a huge shadow of doubt over the continued need to subject helpless animals to the inhumane tests that help determine a product’s safety and/or effectiveness.

This group believes – as many other animal rights groups do – that the rights of animals should be made a higher priority than finding cures for life-stealing illnesses including Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. The group also believes that this type of research fails to achieve beneficial results in humans.

Animal Aid is targeting those messages at anyone who will listen, but has its sights set on those with deep pockets; in other words, the people and organizations most likely to put their financial support behind medical research. It’s a smart move at a time when those same people and organizations are trying hard not to upset one side or the other.

A tough balancing act

No doubt some of the things researchers do to animals in the name of advancing medical science are unpleasant. Torture and mutilation are not uncommon. But these actions are not wasteful or futile or performed by sadists as some animal rights groups contend. They’re performed by individuals who truly want to make a difference in people’s health and their lives.

Animal testing has as many opponents as proponents. Unfortunately, many proponents are afraid to speak up. When they do speak up in support of animal testing or they agree to debate the topic, all too often their words sound apologetic, full of regret or worse, defensive. Knowingly or unknowingly, many proponents overcompensate to avoid appearing inconsiderate or heartless.

And that’s a shame

Some contend that too many concessions have been made to animal rights supporters. They say that concessions like limiting the number and type of animals used in testing could endanger us all. Rather than be on the defensive, they believe medical researchers should be on the offensive, reminding all of us as loudly as they can of the significant role animals play in advancing medical research – and saving human lives.

Unfortunately in this situation, we can’t have it both ways. Each of us needs to take a stand – either for or against animal testing – and not be swayed by the squeaky wheel.