Now as you can probably tell from my last post, I've never been a really militant sort of vegan, though I have always probably more sympathetic to the ALF than their targets. But in the last two months I have visited two animal research facilities (for completely unrelated reasons) and have been quite calm about the whole thing. I still can't shake the NQR* feeling about either place, but I'm not sure they lived up to the idea of animal research facility that I had in my head either.
In fact I didn't even think of one as "that" type of facility until I googled for directions and all these ALF and PETA related thingies popped up.
I've never liked the idea of using animals for research. Yes, even to cure cancer. In fact, maybe especially to cure cancer, because I think curing cancer is like curing old age, I don't think we ever will do it. Murphy's Law says that we already lost the only plant that can produce the compound we need to cure cancer in one of the 100+ rain-forest species we make extinct everyday. Even if it does happen, sometime in the future, we might kill a great many animals in vain until that day finally comes. Either way, I've never been entirely convinced by that "for the greater good" malarchy. Because the "good" is not guaranteed, but pain and suffering are. I especially got angry a couple years back when that beagle farm was on 60 minutes and the guy said that the beagles were "heroes" because they got to save lives. Oh, Hallmark-sentiment-induced vomit. There is nothing warm and fuzzy about animal testing.
So the question of whether I'm becoming a bit more conservative comes from my unexpected lack of discomfort at visiting these facilities. Part of it might come from my knowledge of animal shelters, where animals are killed every day for no good reason other than there isn't a loving home for them. Perhaps animal death for a specific purpose is far better than death for practically no reason at all. It also seems a bit daft to be bringing animals into the world for the specific use of testing when there are so many unwanted ones out their that could be used in their place. And it also makes me wonder why ALF don't target their local SPCA and municipal pound, as I'm sure these facilities put more animals to death each week than any animal testing facility. So whilst I'm not happy that animal testing goes on, I know that far more animals die in shelters and to produce our food, so I guess these things need to be prioritised.
I didn't like the facilities I visited, they had a slaughterhouse vibe about them and I wasn't actually that happy with the condition of the animals that I saw. For animals that had been there their entire lives, they seemed a bit stressed, like this wasn't quite normal for them. Which it of course isn't. Neither place was very clearly sign posted as to what the facilities actually were or what went on there, but they certainly weren't as security conscious as I'd heard such places need to be. So I was left with an uncomfortable feeling in my conscience, but I didn't feel the need to return after hours, free the animals and burn the place down, either. Confused.
Oh yeah, P.S. this sort of thing does exist in NZ. A lot.
*Not Quite Right - like the reject stores in Melbourne
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