An open letter to a vivisector
I received an email from a vivisector regarding from the media coverage for Beagle Freedom Project, which my company Evolotus has managed for almost a year. Below I’ve included her letter, in sections, then my responses.
“First, I should introduce myself. I am a middle-aged woman who has been a life-long animal lover and animal welfare advocate. I have been a licensed veterinary technician for over 30 years and have been involved in animal control and humane society work for 20 years. I am also a registered laboratory animal technologist and have worked at a university in animal research for 25 years.”
How exactly do you marry the idea of being an animal lover and advocate when your career calls for the unnecessary confinement, torture and suffering of animals? Do you not see the obvious contradiction? I fear for the people and animals that you exude compassion and love towards. Yikes. Do you show your love for children by confining and torturing them as well? You mention that you have been involved in animal research for 25 years. How exactly are you expressing your love and welfare for animals when you profit directly from confining and using them against their wills? Maybe you mean that you love your hefty paycheck?
“I do applaud your efforts in finding retired research dogs new forever homes. These animals have given so much to the advancement of science, medical breakthroughs and society — the least we can do is try to find them the green-green grass of home!”
We agree that “these animals have given much.” Unfortunately, they have given much without being asked if they desired to do so. It would be far more accurate to say that these animals have had much taken. Your other point about “the advancement of science, medical breakthroughs and society” is totally disingenuous. We both know that animal testing is bad science at best, and more accurately, fraud. When 92 out of 100 medications which make it out of animal testing and into human testing fail, the science is clearly garbage. In essence, you have spent 25 years confining and torturing animals, against their will, for fraudulent and dangerous science. Not only have you been harming animals, you have been putting the public at risk. It would be more accurate to say that you have spent 25 years testing on humans.
“BUT…the statement you use such as “known nothing except the confines of metal cages,” “They have known no soft human touch, no warm bed, no companionship, no love” could not be further from the truth!!! I am personally offended by these statements because I have been a part of making sure dogs (as well as many other species) are cared for and treated with the most compassion when they serve their purpose of being research subjects. Many live in large runs with “furniture” and enrichment devices. Many are housed in compatible groups. If individually housed, they are allowed out daily to play in groups. They are given social time with the animal care staff, research personnel and volunteers.”
You claim to know the conditions that our 55 rescued beagles have come from. You don’t. But I do. We have worked with contacts at different labs and they confirmed that these dogs were not exercised, were bred directly to go to labs, fourteen had their vocal chords cut so as to not bother the research staff, all were fed absolutely atrocious diets to minimize waste and costs, all were emotionally and psychologically damaged as a result of their time being caged, all came out with fear of other dogs and humans and all needed a lot of time, love and patience to become trusting of humans. Making false claims about these beagles having access to furniture, grooming, socialization/play, or leash training is an insult to those of us who rescued, fostered and adopted these victims of violence you directly profit from.
I lived with one of the rescued beagles for five weeks this summer. He did not come to us from a place where he was treated with any compassion or provided with any “enrichment.” He was frightened of sounds, of human touch, of cats, of toys — of life. We nurtured him into a loving dog.
More recently, we had eight of the beagles from the Spanish laboratory rescue in our home for five days. All of them were emotionally and physically scarred and violated. All of them will have long-term issues as a result of being held against their wills.
Right now we are living with two of the beagles rescued from Spain. They were not able to walk on leashes. They showed anxiety about eating. They were afraid, suspicious, antisocial. One of the boys was so psychologically scarred that it took six days before he allowed me to touch him. So stop pretending that you know how these dogs were treated when you have not spent one single minute with them.
“The personnel who care for our research dogs are some of the most compassionate, loving and caring individuals I know. They LOVE these dogs…they give them names…they bathe and groom them…they teach them to walk on leashes…they sit and cuddle with them… they give them LOVE!!”
Wow. Really? The personnel who care for your research dogs are compassionate and love the dogs? I will consult my dictionary to find an appropriate definition of compassion and love that includes confining and harming animals against their wills. Compassion is rescuing these beagles from your labs of torture. Loving them would be providing homes for them so that they can begin to heal.
“Also you should not use this statement: PLEASE DO NOT BUY PRODUCTS TESTED ON ANIMALS! You can see their faces now…buy only products that have the cruelty-free symbol. Buying cruelty-free products just means that a company purchased chemicals to use that had been tested elsewhere. The use of animals in research has been the reason for EVERY SINGLE MEDICAL DISCOVERY in the past 100 years. If you do not want to take products tested on animals, then stop taking antibiotics when you have an infection, don’t take your high blood pressure medication, refuse anesthesia when you have to have surgery, stop using sunscreen and get burned, don’t let your loved one get treated for cancer…because all the drugs used to treat that terrible where [sic] developed through the use of animals in research!!! Also, have you ever had to take your dog, or cat or other pet to the veterinarian and they had to be treated with medications or surgery — how do you think THOSE were developed!!!???”
This is quite a statement. Every single medical discovery over the past 100 years was due to animal research? Can you show me any proof?
You and your colleagues constantly justify your sickening industry as if you are saving the world, when we all know the majority of animal testing is done for non-biomedical products such as cosmetics, fertilizers, shampoos, and household cleaners. Enough with the propaganda already. Stop creating fear in the public. Stop pretending that medicine will fail without animal research, that our children will die without the important and vital work you do. People are waking up, and the work Beagle Freedom Project does threatens your livelihood. The sole reason you have a job is because you work in secret. As the public becomes aware of what you and your colleagues are doing to animals, your career is over.
You are clearly scared and know that the public will come to look at you and your profession as barbaric and will shun people like you. You’ve followed the media coverage. You’ve read the comments following our articles and videos and seen that the public does not support the obscene cruelty of your profession. The majority finds it morally and ethically unacceptable, and they want it to be illegal.
You know that the truth is on our side. Animal testing is not only unethical, but it is also fraudulent science. I understand that most people in poor health would be unlikely to give up their medications. Until animal testing is illegal, many feel they have no choice. However we do have choices in consumer products. You’re correct that many products that claim to be “cruelty free” are not, but you’re ignorant if you think that there aren’t real alternatives today.
“Stop bashing and telling LIES about the use of animals in research just to raise your funds!!! Stick to just wanting to find these great dogs new homes and that will be enough…and what is right.”
Rather than spend your time attacking those of us who are trying to clean up the violent mess that you created, and provide lives of love for the victims of your profession, it might be time to ask yourself if you truly do love animals. My suspicion is that if you sat with yourself for a moment, you would realize that you are nothing but an abuser of innocent beings.
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Alison
December 5, 2011
AMEN GARY! You spoke and replied so well about this whole situation. I agree 100% with everything you just said. I applaud your response and thank you so very much for defending the precious beagles who DID NOT have a choice or a voice to say “don’t test on me.”
~ Alison
Jackie H.
December 5, 2011
Bravo, Gary! I just don’t get how they can say they love those animals. If that’s love then I can only imagine what goes on when the animals aren’t loved. Jeez!
Kat
December 5, 2011
She says they are being used for their “purpose” what a naive piece of crap excuse for a human. Blind to the suffering of creatures she thinks she loves. And so what if sometimes we cannot avoid taking medication that was animal tested. That’s great to know this corruption has gone on for decades! Sick.
When I have a choice, I buy cruelty free. Or, frankly, avoid western medicine altogether. Sore throat? Salt. Uti coming? Whoops, just drink straight Cranberry juice. Etc etc She can take her animal tested product and bury herself with it for all I care.
Peter Keller
December 6, 2011
She conveniently leaves out how harmful animal biomedical testing has been to humans; many drugs have been recalled, like Vioxx (which caused over 27,000 heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths before being pulled from the market), because animal testing found the drugs to be safe, but not enough clinical trials were conducted to prove the safety in humans.
Great response Gary. She is trying desperately to assuage her guilt and prove her “compassion.”
Jean Blanquart
December 6, 2011
Absolutely correct Gary!There is no difference between what the Nazi’s did with humans and what humans are doing now with animals. it’s all the same: non-consenting testing = violence and absolutely abhorring! If scientists want to test, let them test on themselves as they claim that testing is a loving job! Also, I dunno about all medication, but what I remember about the discoevry of penicilline, aspirine and mrofine, three wonderful medications, they were discovered by coincidence! so where does animal testing comes in to this equation? Oh, wait, maybe it’s about finding the right perfume or harmless shampoo ? nonsense as chemicals all burn in eyes. You don’t need testing for this! The simple truth is sicence is not almighty and scientists are not to be trust. I know as I used to be one of them (social sciences)… Indeed, there is one thing that science will never understand: the all embracing and explaining force of love and compassion, something non human animals seem to psosess in plenty of quantity!
Gary Loewenthal
December 6, 2011
Extensive animal testing couldn’t even prove that tobacco smoke caused cancer despite overwhelming epidemiological and clinical evidence. That’s just one of countless failures of animal research. It is shoddy and unethical psuedo-science.
The vivisector’s presumption that animals’ purpose is to serve us reveals the extent of our self-absorbtion with respect to other species and our denial of the rights and interests of nonhumans. It’s no surprise that after harming animals decade after decade, a vivisector would subscribe to the delusion that they “love” animals or that their work is necessary. These delusion masks the horror, and they serve to superficially avoids the vivisector’s complicity in serial, institutionalized animal cruelty.
Charlotte
December 6, 2011
“Every single medical discovery over the past 100 years was due to animal research.”
Ummmm… I call BULLSHIT!
Ann Parkes
December 6, 2011
Brilliant response to this woman. She attempts to justify her sadistic, murderous ‘profession’ by diversifying, misleading and telling outright lies!
Is this a ‘real person’ who actually works in this lucrative industry?? I find it hard to believe that anyone with a modicum of intelligence would attempt to justify vivisention – they attempt to justify it in order to assuage their conscience, retain the respect of their families and peers (when they get to know what monsters they are, I doubt this will be the case) and – of course justify that all important pay cheque! YOU SSPEAK TO PEOPLE WHO ARE AWARE!!!! MURDERING BITCH!
Maria Quinones
December 6, 2011
This is very bad what you people are doing taking adventage of the dog who don’t have the voice. We doing ugly in God eyes.. Please let them go. They are great dogs and you used them for for your greedy evil hearts! Please stop it now you hurting animals lover’s.. please no more .. stop stop now!
Kiley Mullen
December 6, 2011
Excellent response – this makes me so sad and upset, to hear from a vivisector who claims to be doing the right thing.. There truly are so many alternatives to products tested on animals; we have a choice! Choose compassion!! I always go back to the saying, “Just because we CAN [test on animals] doesn’t mean we SHOULD.”
Steven
December 6, 2011
THANK YOU for taking the time to reply to this confused individual. I hope she takes in all that you’ve offered, though I fear her anthropocentrism will override it all. You’ve clearly demonstrated that this woman does not LOVE these imprisoned animals, but I’m sure it is much easier for her to believe the farce, than allow the tenets of her world to crumble by admitting to herself that she has played a major role in the suffering of countless animals for a significant portion of her life. Imagine the cognitive dissonance when one finds that their “love” is disingenuous–that their acts of love aided a most horrible cruelty.
renecca alger
December 6, 2011
The woman (where is her name if she is so proud) who works in vivisection is a flat out liar and is defaming cruelty free products and should be sued for liable. We need her name and location to get it to these companies. She is also lying about the fact that animals are used in all drug and medical developments. She has no heart, only facile and false justifications. There is a special and particularly hot place waiting for her when she does the world a favor by expiring. I hope if she has any children, they can thrive despite the horrific mother they have. Maybe her neighbors should know exactly what she does for a living. I bet they do not.
inkpuddle
December 6, 2011
That is an incredible work of fiction she thought up for your benefit—how very kind of her to wish to entertain you with such a fairy tale. Unbelievable. Sad when simple toys are instead referred to as “enrichment devices.”
When I was working as a vet tech, I had a coworker who had just come from working at Emory University in the animal research department. She was utterly desensitized to the cruelty and actually shrugged when she told me the ways she handled, experimented on, and ultimately killed the pigs and rats and dogs. And suffice to say that they were not the sort of deaths you would provide to animals that you “love.” It seemed utterly sociopathic and I was horrified.
Rebecca Sloan
December 6, 2011
Every Vivisector claims to love animals, you could not do your job if this were true. Show us proof that your research animals are treated as well as you claim, go on I challenge YOU! I doubt you can or will.
Monica
December 6, 2011
Thanks Gary: you spoke your heart and your mind to this delusional woman. I will translate your letter and post it on my blog. Hope it’s ok.
Jack Carone
December 6, 2011
The fact that she reached out at all shows some inner turmoil. She needed to defend herself more so than the miserable industry she inhabits. She is echoing the justifications they no doubt parrot to each other to be able to be there. The higher-level perpetrators surely look at people like her as peons and dirty-workers. She has been in the belly of the beast for all this time and yet has a very inaccurate knowledge of the genesis of true medical advances. A smart person would not be there. I’d love to ask her how many animals make it out of her workplace to “the green green grass of home”—all of them, as she doesn’t even know that the phrase refers to an executed prisoner being buried in a grave.
Janet M
December 6, 2011
I’m going to say something in defense of the woman who works at the lab. I know everyone is going to get mad at me, but I think it needs to be said.
And know that I say this not because I approve of the animal testing that is going on. Nor do I know anything about the specific beagle related case that is happening here.
But having personally worked in an animal facility where the animals did not receive what I would consider to be appropriate care (exotics, not lab animals), I have to say that it IS possible to BOTH love animals and work in one of these facilities. I spent months being threatened by my boss for doing awful things like feed appropriate diets to the animals under my care and try to get them veterinary care when they needed it.
Please understand that I didn’t do it for the sweet sweet zookeeper paycheck (right around the poverty line). Nor did I do it because I approved of the facility. Or because I derived some kind of sadistic enjoyment out of my boss’ threats. I did it because I feared what might go on behind closed doors if I WASN’T there doing what I could every day.
I am NOT saying that animal testing is right. And there ARE some BAD BAD people in this world. But please don’t assume that everyone that works in these facilities is bad. Some are there enduring the horrible things they must see every day because they are trying to work within the limits to help.
Janet M
December 6, 2011
I’m going to say something in defense of the woman who works at the lab. I know everyone is going to get mad at me, but I think it needs to be said.
And know that I say this not because I approve of the animal testing that is going on. Nor do I know anything about the specific beagle related case that is happening here.
But having personally worked in an animal facility where the animals did not receive what I would consider to be appropriate care (exotics, not lab animals), I have to say that it IS possible to BOTH love animals and work in one of these facilities. I spent months being threatened by my boss for doing awful things like feed appropriate diets to the animals under my care and try to get them veterinary care when they needed it.
Please understand that I didn’t do it for the sweet sweet zookeeper paycheck (right around the poverty line). Nor did I do it because I approved of the facility. Or because I derived some kind of sadistic enjoyment out of my boss’ threats. I did it because I feared what might go on behind closed doors if I WASN’T there doing what I could every day.
I am NOT saying that animal testing is right. And there ARE some BAD BAD people in this world. But please don’t assume that everyone that works in these facilities is bad. Some are there enduring the horrible things they must see every day because they are trying to work within the limits to help.
Vegan Rabbit
December 7, 2011
At the end the vivisector says “The use of animals in research has been the reason for EVERY SINGLE MEDICAL DISCOVERY in the past 100 years”. This argument is a fallacy. They are basically saying:
‘We have used animals in research for at least the past hundred years. We also have had many medical discoveries during the past hundred years. Therefore, using animals in research leads to medical discoveries.’
This is completely illogical. Just because we have done something a certain way in the past and wound up (an incredibly MINISCULE amount of the time) getting favorable results doesn’t mean that those results wouldn’t have occured if we did things in a different way. There’s more than one way to accomplish a task.
There are many alternatives to animal testing:
http://www.vivisectioninfo.org/humane_research.html
Also, just because things were done a certain way in the past, doesn’t mean that they must continue into the future. Besides, what else is there to really develop? It’s all “been there, done that”. We’ve got good pain meds – let’s stop testing that crap. Need to lower your cholesterol? I’ve got a simple solution for you: go vegan. How about your insulin level? Go vegan. Erectile dysfunction got you down? Yeah, you guessed it: go vegan. It’s amazing how people pollute their bodies with the rotting flesh and secretions of tortured beings, and then pollute their bodies some more to alleviate the symptoms with pills and serums which have been tested on the mutillated bodies of other tortured beings. Eat a Big Mac, chase it with some Tums. Wake the f*** up, people.
Vegan Rabbit
December 7, 2011
At the end the vivisector says “The use of animals in research has been the reason for EVERY SINGLE MEDICAL DISCOVERY in the past 100 years”. This argument is a fallacy. They are basically saying:
‘We have used animals in research for at least the past hundred years. We also have had many medical discoveries during the past hundred years. Therefore, using animals in research leads to medical discoveries.’
This is completely illogical. Just because we have done something a certain way in the past and wound up (an incredibly MINISCULE amount of the time) getting favorable results doesn’t mean that those results wouldn’t have occured if we did things in a different way. There’s more than one way to accomplish a task.
There are many alternatives to animal testing:
http://www.vivisectioninfo.org/humane_research.html
Also, just because things were done a certain way in the past, doesn’t mean that they must continue into the future. Besides, what else is there to really develop? It’s all “been there, done that”. We’ve got good pain meds – let’s stop testing that crap. Need to lower your cholesterol? I’ve got a simple solution for you: go vegan. How about your insulin level? Go vegan. Erectile dysfunction got you down? Yeah, you guessed it: go vegan. It’s amazing how people pollute their bodies with the rotting flesh and secretions of tortured beings, and then pollute their bodies some more to alleviate the symptoms with pills and serums which have been tested on the mutillated bodies of other tortured beings. Eat a Big Mac, chase it with some Tums. Wake the f*** up, people.
renecca alger
December 7, 2011
Janet M. you are sadly misguided. This woman negates everything she says is good in her. Jerry Sandusky “loves” kids. So in your world we give him a pass, right?
Juno Rescued Beagle
December 8, 2011
To Gary, my friend and one of the bestest advocates for laboratory animals I have ever known.
Thanks u for all that you do for us laboratory animals. As long as we stick together and keep spreadin our message one day it will end. Until then we has work to do, like makin the maddest eyes ever at that not very smart lady who had bad words fall out of her mouth. Maybe she has a Grinch heart? If you ever want me to write to her and tell her what my life was like before I was rescued please let me know. I has four or six things to say to her.
My best luv, wags n aarrroo’s to you and everybodies at Beagle Freedom Project!!
Juno
Juno Rescued Beagle
December 8, 2011
To Gary, my friend and one of the bestest advocates for laboratory animals I have ever known.
Thanks u for all that you do for us laboratory animals. As long as we stick together and keep spreadin our message one day it will end. Until then we has work to do, like makin the maddest eyes ever at that not very smart lady who had bad words fall out of her mouth. Maybe she has a Grinch heart? If you ever want me to write to her and tell her what my life was like before I was rescued please let me know. I has four or six things to say to her.
My best luv, wags n aarrroo’s to you and everybodies at Beagle Freedom Project!!
Juno
Jelica Gajic
December 11, 2011
hats down to you…..BRAVO
Jelica Gajic
December 11, 2011
hats down to you…..BRAVO
inkpuddle
December 11, 2011
I wouldn’t be so quick to write off Janet M for presenting a different perspective. It IS possible to love animals and work around them in a less-than-ideal situation, though I personally don’t think this is the case for the woman who wrote the original letter. I worked at a no-kill shelter for almost two years and had a similar experience as Janet … I stayed because I cared about the animals and felt better giving them some modicum of decent care than leaving them with nothing at all. I never once supported the mass warehousing they were subjected to, but I couldn’t just walk away and leave them either. I was threatened with firing on more than a few occasions for standing up for the animals, blamed for campaigns I had nothing to do with, and had my name dragged through the mud by neighbors associated with the shelter. I did love those pets, but I just couldn’t be a part of that side of “rescue” anymore. I still have nightmares about some of the ones I left there.
In a similar vein, I used to accompany my father on his morning “rounds” at his factory farm, just so I could try to save the chickens who’d had their necks snapped from suffocating in the buckets they were all thrown into. I rarely succeeded, but I felt like I had to try. I felt better having cradled a few dying hens in my arms than letting them slowly die, squawking and gasping under a pile of other doomed bodies.
Not so unrelated, I have often wondered if I could make a difference in the care of research animals if I went into that field, just like I’ve wondered if I could give the homeless pets at the county shelter a better end if I decided to take on animal control as a career. To me, if we can’t eradicate the practices we oppose immediately, it may be better to have someone who cares involved in those fields than someone who just sees another number.
So while I don’t think the perspective Janet M was presenting necessarily applies to the letter-writer, I do think her point is valid and Janet shouldn’t be vilified for that. There ARE good people involved in shoddy animal-related industries (non-profit or not), and I’d guess for those individuals who do actually care, they experience enough on their own without having anyone else judging them. JMO.
Regan Forrester
December 24, 2011
Gary – thank you; thank you for exposing and sharing with us newbies more of what we need to see to understand why we choose the vegan lifestyle and why its so important to continue to break down old ideals and myths which surround us. Lemmings….most of the walking out there are completely oblivious, ignorant or simply “can’t handle” the horrors so they choose to ignore. The miniscule amount of “uncomfortable” we feel pales in comparison to how these animals are treated and how they live until, thankfully, they’re given a second chance. Sadly, though, I’m certain there isn’t a happy ending for all of them, which is wrong, so very sad and utterly heartbreaking. I think anyone who can support animal cruelty or inflict pain has no soul. My heart broke today watching the trailer for “Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home”. Animals exist for their own reasons. How can we, as a supposed intelligent species continue to abuse and justify this way of treatment or thinking? If testing is so damn vital to these life saving drugs why not test on death row inmates? Oh, I’m certain there are laws around using humans (way out of my league of knowledge) but, really why not? I’d love to discuss this further with you. As a vegan business, we are really wanting to effect powerful and positive change within my city – and I am the only “ethical fashion” boutique. Thank you for your time and for your work – it is so vital.
On my wall is the following quote which really summarizes so much, “Think of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.” Dr. Albert Schweitzer….one can’t really ignore or argue that, now can they?
Warm regards,
Regan
Regan Forrester
December 24, 2011
Gary – thank you; thank you for exposing and sharing with us newbies more of what we need to see to understand why we choose the vegan lifestyle and why its so important to continue to break down old ideals and myths which surround us. Lemmings….most of the walking out there are completely oblivious, ignorant or simply “can’t handle” the horrors so they choose to ignore. The miniscule amount of “uncomfortable” we feel pales in comparison to how these animals are treated and how they live until, thankfully, they’re given a second chance. Sadly, though, I’m certain there isn’t a happy ending for all of them, which is wrong, so very sad and utterly heartbreaking. I think anyone who can support animal cruelty or inflict pain has no soul. My heart broke today watching the trailer for “Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home”. Animals exist for their own reasons. How can we, as a supposed intelligent species continue to abuse and justify this way of treatment or thinking? If testing is so damn vital to these life saving drugs why not test on death row inmates? Oh, I’m certain there are laws around using humans (way out of my league of knowledge) but, really why not? I’d love to discuss this further with you. As a vegan business, we are really wanting to effect powerful and positive change within my city – and I am the only “ethical fashion” boutique. Thank you for your time and for your work – it is so vital.
On my wall is the following quote which really summarizes so much, “Think of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.” Dr. Albert Schweitzer….one can’t really ignore or argue that, now can they?
Warm regards,
Regan
An animal loving vivisector? Hilarious
May 15, 2012
“There are, in fact, only two categories of doctors and scientists who are not opposed to vivisection: those who don’t know enough about it, and those who make money from it.”
-Dr. Werner Hartinger, M.D., German surgeon, 1989
“Since there is no way to defend the use of animal model systems in plain English or with scientific facts, they resort to double-talk in technical jargon…The virtue of animal model systems to those in hot pursuit of the federal dollars is that they can be used to prove anything – no matter how foolish, or false, or dangerous this might be. There is such a wide variation in the results of animal model systems that there is always some system which will ‘prove’ a point….The moral is that animal model systems not only kill animals, they also kill humans. There is no good factual evidence to show that the use of animals in cancer research has led to the prevention or cure of a single human cancer.”
– Dr. D.J. Bross, Ph.D., 1982, former director of the largest cancer research institute in the world, the Sloan-Kettering Institute, then Director of Biostatics, Roswell Memorial Institute, Buffalo, NY.
“Practically all animal experiments are untenable on a statistical scientific basis, for they possess no scientific validity or reliability. They merely perform an alibi for pharmaceutical companies, who hope to protect themselves thereby.”
– Herbert Stiller, M.D. & Margot Stiller, M.D., 1976.
“The wellbeing of man takes first place in the ladder of human values. Today, in 1986, after years of practice as a physician, I am convinced that any result I might obtain from experimentations on a dog, a cat, or any other animal, will be misleading, damaging and even disastrous for human beings. There is no question of any advantage to be gained at all.
Animal experiments confuse the issues and their results will never have scientific precision. There is absolutely no connection between vivisection and human health. The general belief in the value of animal experimentation is the result of brainwashing that the public has been submitted to for a long time. Behind it are the pharmaceutical industries, which spend fortunes on publicity and finance the research in institutes and the universities.”
-Dr. Arie Brecher, M.D., extract from a lecture to the Medical and Juridical Society at the Hotel Dan-Panorama of Haifa in Israel on November 1, 1986.
“I have been in medical practice for 38 years. I have never done any animal experiments, neither during my studies nor subsequently, and have also never been inside an animal laboratory. Animal experimentation represents a fallacious practice. I cannot name one single case in which experiments on animals may have led to a useful result. I think vivisection is a crude, archaic method which must be completely reconsidered. I am convinced that we are approaching a quite differently conceived form of research method, based on cell cultures.”
-John A. McDougall, M.D., article, “The Misguided War on Cancer” in the Vegetarian Times, September 1986
“Why am I against vivisection? The most important reason is because it’s bad science, producing a lot of misleading and confusing data which pose hazards to human health. It’s also a waste of taxpayer’s dollars to take healthy animals and artificially and violently induce diseases in them that they normally wouldn’t get, or which occur in different form, when we already have the sick people who can be studied while they’re being treated.”
– Dr. Roy Kupsinel, M.D., 1988, medical magazine editor, USA.
”Vivisection is barbaric, useless, and a hindrance to scientific progress.”
-Dr. Werner Hartinger, surgeon
“Most important, I agree with your position re the utter uselessness of vivisection. When I first left the laboratory, I remained skeptical, stating, “there are some good experiments to be sure, but the majority are worthless”, or words to that effect. Now after years of looking for those “good” experiments, I have long since concluded that they do not exist. But I had to do the looking myself. I was simply too conditioned to the “Party Line” to accept anyone’s word for this.”
-Donald J. Barnes, after experimenting on rhesus monkeys for 16 years, from a letter to Hans Ruesch of December 31, 1987
“I am against vivisection because it is immoral and completely useless for the progress of human medicine. Animals have a physiology and reactions quite different from ours. I am of the opinion that all experiments on live animals should be abolished because they only lead us into error.”
-Dr. Marie-Louise Griboval, Paris France
“The abolition of vivisection would in no way halt medical progress, just the opposite is the case. All the sound medical knowledge of today stems from observations carried out on human beings. No surgeon can gain the least knowledge from experiments on animals, and all the great surgeons of the past and of the present day are in agreement on that…Animals are completely different from Man from the anatomical standpoint, their reactions are quite different, their structure is different and their resistance is different.”
-Prof. Dr. Bruno Fedi, in an interview with CIVIS in Rome, January 11, 1986, At the time of the interview he was the director of the Institute of Pathological Anatomy at the General Hospital in Terni, Italy
“From an animal one can get only a very approximate indication of how a human will react under similar circumstances. But this is not science-it’s a lottery. However, we are not playing games. At stake are health and life. There is absolutely no connection between vivisection and human health. The day it was decided to develop medicaments using animal models, it was a sad day for mankind. People began to get sick and to die due to medications.”
-Dr. Arie Brecher, M.D., the Israeli physician, held on August 12, 1986 at Tel Aviv
Sources (and for more quotes): http://www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr/online/research/dav.html
http://www.ohsukillsprimates.com/quotes.htm
Sonja Ost
March 3, 2013
GREAT, Gary!
Sonja Ost
March 3, 2013
GREAT, Gary!