Animal Cruelty

(For those of you not in 3rd block AP Comp, we read a very one-sided article on animal testing and how it’s wrong, cruel, etc. This is a rather delayed response to the conversation held in class.)

First off, I’ll admit that I may be biased, that my mind is often swayed by both personal experiences and a trait where my logos fall to my pathos and ethos. However, my opinion is just as valuable as any. I wouldn’t be alive today if it weren’t for animal testing. I’m diabetic. When I was seven, my family rushed me to the hospital where I, phobia of needles and all, could only survive if I was injected with insulin. I won’t go into the details of diabetes, but insulin was made available to people through animal testing (pigs, if I recall correctly). So, yeah, I get the point for animal testing—it saved my life.

Needless cruelty is, however, needless. While this article was not the most eloquent that I have ever read and lacked in citations, it struck a cord. There are people today that do NOT give animals the compassion they deserve. Waffle with me if you like, call me a slave to PETA, tell me to go hug a tree, or what have you, but I’ve been exposed to enough injustices. We as a race often see ourselves as the creation almighty, ruler of the earth, and Darwin’s grand contender. Maybe we are, maybe we aren’t, but we don’t need to disregard other living beings just because we wrote ourselves some books, constructed concrete cities, wasted earth's natural resources, and use a whole 2% of our brains.

We set the standard for what is or isn't worth something, what does or doesn't qualify as knowledgeable. Throughout history, certain human beings were treated as—to put it nicely—utter crap. We've had discussions on the holocaust (which, mind you, incited anger when disregarded, but eyes rolled at animal cruelty) and the mistreatment of blacks in America and the general disregard for women. In the Holocaust, humans were experimented on by ‘Doctor’ Mengele. It wasn’t for beauty products, sure, but it was painful all the same. But, then again, it was done in the name of science—therefore it must be okay. The experiments were done on lesser beings, therefore it's fine. Those Jews and Roma were people though, with feelings and the ability to feel pain. I'm not trying to personify animals like Gopnik's daughter, but if you slap your dog upside the head, you cannot deny they'll feel it.

Anyway, that's my two cents. I'm not saying we should cease all animal experimentation, just that humanity could cut back on the needless cruelty. It'll be hard, considering our species, but not impossible.