The exploitation of animals for science begins with us taking a look at the use of animals for vivisection, encapsulating a plethora of horrendous processes which we put them through to the apparent betterment of our own species. Alas, the methodology behind this science is misguided, and arguably completely useless given the artificial conditions animals experience, coupled with the need for extensive human trials anyway before any drug would make its way to the market place and pharmaceutical counters.
The head injury trauma performed caused to baboons is perhaps one of the most graphic examples of the savagery we see fit to carry out on other species with the belief that this is somehow justified by the negligible benefits, if any, it brings to our species.
Military scientific research takes us to places of depravity and terror that you wouldn’t believe were actually real had they not been documented. In the US alone, there are in excess of 100 million animals held in captivity in laboratories whose sole purpose in life is to be used for harsh, painful and life ending experiments.
The terrorisation of animals has shown to our own species the lowest levels of debasement we are able to reach, which has been allowed to fester by the ignorance which has run like a strong current through our societies, enabling us to avert our eyes and continue our patterns of consumption at the expense of the innocent. Animals are all that we are, they are like us, alive, vertebrate, just like us.
The aftermath of this decades long bloodbath has come back to bite us in a plethora of ways. If what goes around comes around then what do the animals get for their pAIN? They are Earthlings after all and equally deserving of being here and living a life free from pain. Inevitably, we will reap what we sow.
However, when we wince at the suffering of animals there is that glimpse of hope, as it takes nothing for a human to be kind and compassionate to other animals. We must only see and experience life “feelingly”. We are the Earthlings, so let us please make that connection.