Animal-rights activists are the danger to animals

[alp227]

biologist and atheist blogger PZ Myers writes:

It is possible to have a conscientious opposition to research on animals, and every university has channels by which activists can register their dissent, and by which they can also influence ethical decisions made by institutional animal research review committees. There is a right way and a wrong way to protest. And the wrong way is charge into a lab, disrupt experiments in progress, and “liberate” highly inbred, specialized animals that are dependent on laboratory care for their health and survival. Protesters in Milan chose the wrong way.

Activists occupied an animal facility at the University of Milan, Italy, at the weekend, releasing mice and rabbits and mixing up cage labels to confuse experimental protocols. Researchers at the university say that it will take years to recover their work.

Many of the animals at the facility are genetic models for psychiatric disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.

I don’t even understand the mindset here. Where are you going to release lab animals to? They may require special diets and care, they most likely have been raised in a very specific environment and have no ability to cope with a different place, and they may have genetic diseases that make them completely unable to compete with wild forms. Years ago at the University of Oregon, ALF pulled a stunt like this; they released lab-bred animals along the side of I5. The only animals to benefit in the area were the red-tailed hawks who saw a sudden bounty of terrified white rodents.

And further, scrambling the data for research into human neurological disorders accomplishes nothing other than slowing research. Why? This is nothing but hatred of science.

There’s not much one can do in the face of determined stupidity other than to show a united front. Sign the Call for Solidarity with the scientists in Milan.

[Archae]

1. This is the results...

Of learning about nature not from PBS, but from Disney cartoons.

[brett_jv]

2. A poorly-named article ...

Should be more like 'Fighting for Animal Rights: The Right Way and the Wrong Way'.

This name choice is totally inflammatory and clearly geared towards sensationalism to register clicks.

[Deep13]

3. This avoids the central issue...

...the continuing necessity for animal experiments. If you are against medical testing on animals, then you are a hypocrite if you use any medication of any kind, any surgical procedures, insulin, asthma medication, vaccines, antibiotics etc. None of those things are possible without animal testing for safety and efficacy. You can't even isolate a pathogen without going through three sets of test animals.

The people who did this are guilty of crimes against humanity for setting back medical research. Everyone who dies from some condition that otherwise would have been cured, but for the disruption in testing is a murderer as sure as if they pulled triggers.

[Warpy]

5. My cat is on 6 medications originally approved for human use

and the combination has slowed her renal disease, perked up her appetite, and treated her chronic gastric upset. She's been stable for a year now and has actually decreased some of the elevated lab values.

She'd be dead without research on other cats. I'm grateful for it.

[Warpy]

4. Anti vivisectionist nuts have always been with us

ever since animals were first used in research. They're just as thoughtless now as they were decades ago.

They shouldn't be lumped into the same category as animal rights activists doing good work exposing the appalling conditions of factory farming meat animals.

Using animals in research has provided information about animal physiology that has benefited the animals as well as humanity. I'm astounded by the number of veterinary drugs that have become available in the past three decades, all from animal research.

Factory farming produces misery for the animals and bad meat for humans, laced with hormones and prophylactic antibiotics and serving as a reservoir for resistant bacteria. It should be ended. Meat should be expensive enough to reflect humane treatment of the animals we eat.