Lab Rats
So.
Rian was, last night, once again at the airport baggage claim, once again waiting for a precious package from NW cargo.
The aeroplane was, as usual, an hour or so late. And then, as the baggage handlers are on strike, Rian had another wait of 40 minutes or so before the parcel was unloaded.
Rian spent the hour plus sitting alongside a rep from City Parcel, idly chatting. He was an affable enough fellow, with a very long, very obvious comeover and a crooked smile. We rambled on about the strike, and the people in the airport, and the very sloooow baggage process.
As we waited another creature wandered by.
"Hey, Joe," the creature said. "Here for the Usual?"
"Yep." Combover replied, playing with the pens in his pocket.
"What," Rian demanded, "is the Usual?"
"Guinea pigs." Combover said, "And a coupla crates of lab rats."
Rian found this oddly speech evaporating, and simply stared.
"Every Monday," Combover explained. "Guinea pigs and lab rats. For Holister Stier. Usually four or five crates. But today I've got fifteen."
"Fifteen," Rian said slowly. "Fifteen crates?"
"Yes."
Well, thought Rian. I am an enlightened creature. I know that lab rats are needed. I know that through them scientists discover cures for diseases. Holister Stier, for example, often works in pediatric meds.
Nevertheless....
"Every Monday," Rian repeated. "They must...eh...go through them rather quickly."
"They take really good care of them," Combover insisted. "And only one in twenty would survive in the wild."
Rian took a moment to imagine guinea pigs galloping through wide open plains.
And I decided I would be firm and adult about it, yes? Enlightened, yes. This is the way life works. I would not trade my son's health for one hundred guinea pigs any day.
Then they started bringing the crates out, one by one. Cardboard flats with see through cellophanish windows.
Three piles of flats, each taller than Combover. The guinea pigs were little more than still grey blogs. The white mice, however, ran here and there in their tiny cells, tiny creatures with pink noses.
Rian's throat lumped and I considered the logistics of a mouse break. And then I took my own package and hurried away, leaving the tiny creatures to their fate.
I would not trade my son's health for 500 guinea pigs any day. But sometimes Rian dislikes being enlightened.
Rian was, last night, once again at the airport baggage claim, once again waiting for a precious package from NW cargo.
The aeroplane was, as usual, an hour or so late. And then, as the baggage handlers are on strike, Rian had another wait of 40 minutes or so before the parcel was unloaded.
Rian spent the hour plus sitting alongside a rep from City Parcel, idly chatting. He was an affable enough fellow, with a very long, very obvious comeover and a crooked smile. We rambled on about the strike, and the people in the airport, and the very sloooow baggage process.
As we waited another creature wandered by.
"Hey, Joe," the creature said. "Here for the Usual?"
"Yep." Combover replied, playing with the pens in his pocket.
"What," Rian demanded, "is the Usual?"
"Guinea pigs." Combover said, "And a coupla crates of lab rats."
Rian found this oddly speech evaporating, and simply stared.
"Every Monday," Combover explained. "Guinea pigs and lab rats. For Holister Stier. Usually four or five crates. But today I've got fifteen."
"Fifteen," Rian said slowly. "Fifteen crates?"
"Yes."
Well, thought Rian. I am an enlightened creature. I know that lab rats are needed. I know that through them scientists discover cures for diseases. Holister Stier, for example, often works in pediatric meds.
Nevertheless....
"Every Monday," Rian repeated. "They must...eh...go through them rather quickly."
"They take really good care of them," Combover insisted. "And only one in twenty would survive in the wild."
Rian took a moment to imagine guinea pigs galloping through wide open plains.
And I decided I would be firm and adult about it, yes? Enlightened, yes. This is the way life works. I would not trade my son's health for one hundred guinea pigs any day.
Then they started bringing the crates out, one by one. Cardboard flats with see through cellophanish windows.
Three piles of flats, each taller than Combover. The guinea pigs were little more than still grey blogs. The white mice, however, ran here and there in their tiny cells, tiny creatures with pink noses.
Rian's throat lumped and I considered the logistics of a mouse break. And then I took my own package and hurried away, leaving the tiny creatures to their fate.
I would not trade my son's health for 500 guinea pigs any day. But sometimes Rian dislikes being enlightened.
posted by La Tulipe | 1:34 PM
9 Comments:
Not all meet an untimely end. Some may end up involved in studies where longevity is important, others may find their way to being a researcher's pet. I have known more than one student with a pet mouse or rat initially bred and sold for research. I myself rescued a lamb once.
I have seen cruelty, and have cried over the fate of shelter cats sold for research. But that is rare.
Here our animal care person adores animals, and many of our lab rats live long and coddled lives.
Not all of course. And any decent scientist feels for their small live subjects and tries to ensure that they live comfortably and die humanely.
Would that that was true for people.
I can't be adult about it. It feels wrong.
It feels wrong to me as well, despite knowing that they serve a purpose.
To me, life is life. A rat has as much right to its life as a human - what arrogance gives us the right to say otherwise? Because they can't speak for themselves, we're allowed to take from them the luxury of a normal life?
I know this is a minefield. I know there are pros and cons on both sides. I just can't place one creature's right to life so vastly above another's.
We have the power to save lives. Work on organ transplants, initially done in animals, allows us to save both human AND other animal's lives. people are much less likely to DO a kidney transplant in a cat than in a human. But is is done.
If we want to be able to do new surgeries etc, we need to figure out how to do them. So we have three choices. 1) Learn on our laboratory animals, 2) practice on humans only or 3) Stop medical advancement on many fronts.
Most of us think that 2) is a bad moral choice. Most of us think that 3) is is an inadequate choice. That leaves us with 1). Not a pleasant choice, but one that proovides us with the ability to save lives.
We do not pay enough attention to lives other than our own. We do not pay enough attention to human lives as well. In the natural world. Lives are short. Most creatures don't even make it to adulthood. If we were to try to protect EVERY life on the planet we could not. Populkltions cannot grow endlessly and many many organisms require destroying others for their food. The wolf must kill to live. Wanting to protect those dependent on us is a strength. But in truth absolute protection is impossible.
It feels wrong. No matter how right I know it is.
I think the thing is how disconnected we are from it. If, as Rian said, you were faced with a loved one's life or poisoning a certain number of guinea pigs...I could do it. But we don't appreciate it. I use my asthma inhalers every day. I have no idea if asthma drugs are/were tested on animals. Presumably they were. But because those of us who don't work with the research animals don't fully feel the impact they have on the world, it feels like animals being killed unnecessarily. Even if rationally we know they aren't, and we know that they maybe wouldn't have survived long happy lives in the wild anyway.
*shrugs* No idea how you solve that one, though.
Random, yet related:
PETA Senior Vice President MaryBeth Sweetland on her use of insulin, which was tested on animals:
“I’m an insulin-dependent diabetic. Twice a day I take synthetically manufactured insulin that still contains some animal products—and I have no qualms about it … I’m not going to take the chance of killing myself by not taking insulin. I don’t see myself as a hypocrite. I need my life to fight for the rights of animals.” —Glamour, January 1990
Ha. Amusing.
When companies like the Body Shop claim that they have no animal testing, surely what they mean is that they only use products that have already been animal tested by some other company.
I assume that no company would test their products if it is just the standard kind of cosmetic because the cost and red tape would be prohibitive.
So it always strikes me as an odd thing to claim.
Whatever.
Testing cosmetics on animals is something I cannot condone at all. Causing suffering to an animal just so we can look more attractive? So very wrong.
Your option number 2, Heather, best sums up the problem I have with animal testing. Perhaps testing on humans is, indeed, a bad moral choice. But what makes testing on another living creature a better moral choice? And tests done on humans would surely be all the more accurate anyway?
And you may be right, Kep, but The Body Shop does produce some gorgeous cosmetics that I've never seen anywhere else... so presumably they do come up with their own originals as well.
Including figuring out the LD50? That is the amount of a substance that is fatal? Very important to figure out toxicity. EXTREMELY important to figure out toxicity in drugs that by nature cn be expected to be toxib like chemotherapy drugs for cancer, antiviral drugs, heart medicines. Therapeutic ranges are where a drug works, but will not kill the patient. Many many potential drugs are abandoned because laboratory animal studies (often on mice) indicate that the therapeutic action is to close to a dose that is harmful or lethal.
I think raising lab mice for this purpose is perfectly acceptable. This way we learn, come up with treatments. My father, my cats, myself, all benefit from therapies whose safety and effectiveness were all tested on lab mice first.
A mouse will not grow up to develop a cure for a disease, or to be a veterinatrian keeping someones dags healthy, or to raise public awareness of an endangered ecosystem. Not all living things are equal to me. I kill carpenter ants if they venture in my house. I pour bleach into my bacteria cultures to kill them when I am done with them.
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