Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 20, 1990 TAG: 9005210215
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The column was headlined: "Remember polio? `Animal rights' zealots would hinder research." One could also say, "Remember thalidomide?" It was a drug thoroughly tested and found safe for laboratory animals, but what devastatingly crippling effect it had on the unborn child.
He fails to mention there are many drugs that tested safe for animals but are dangerous or lethal to humans: Phenacetin, Reserpine, Methaqualone, Isoniazid, Methotrexate, to mention a few.
Also, drugs that are dangerous for animals are not necessarily dangerous for humans, such as aspirin, which kills rats, or penicillin, which is lethal to guinea pigs. Advil and Motrin cause severe gastric problems in dogs.
The point is: Tests on animals do not predict what reactions will occur in humans. Authentic research involves human subjects in clinical studies. Only then can medical science say, with confidence, how treatment will affect people.
The public has been led to believe for years that experiments on animals are valuable for human health. Lately this myth built on lies is being challenged by a growing number of people, including doctors and medical authorities.
Vivisection is big business. At present 100 million animals a year are shot, electrocuted, irradiated, force-fed toxic substances, burned, suffocated, drowned, crushed, forced to cannibalize one another, starved, frozen, deprived of sleep, water and the company of other animals, and otherwise tortured.
Some are kept in restraining devices, unable to move for months at a time, while their brains or sexual organs are shocked, mutilated or removed - all in the name of medical research.
Once the animals are behind locked doors, there are no laws protecting them from pain from the experimenter's curiosity and big business. Anesthetics are not regularly used, though dogs routinely have their vocal cords cut so that researchers won't hear their cries of agony.
Call us people who are against the needless torture of animals "compassionate," a word not in Davis' vocabulary.
Albert Schweitzer said: "Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace." Would you call him a zealot?
\ NAN FARISS
\ ROANOKE
by CNB