Mars Vs. PETA

Is Animal Testing Wrong?

The other day I received an email from PETA: They have discovered that the Mars candy company is testing on animals, and are using their usual brilliant marketing approach to make sure everyone else knows it, too.

The email included a video, which of course I watched. The images were gruesome: A rabbit struggled to get up on paralyzed hind legs, a kitten with chemicals pouring out of her eyes begged to be let out of her cage, and a monkey screamed in terror as a researcher held a sharp and viciously curved tool to his nose.

After watching the video, I felt stunned. Who could watch that video and not understand how horrible animal testing really is? And so I started my own personal "I dare you" campaign: Everywhere I posted the video, and in every email to the Mars candy company, I dared my readers to watch the video. In one instance, I dared Mars employees to visit the lab and personally supervise the most invasive experiment currently running - bringing their children along for the show.

The point is, if you can't handle the horrors of animal testing, or if you think it's too disturbing for your child to see, why would you support animal testing at all?

Look How Far We've Come

For many years, scientists were convinced that animals didn't feel pain. If you cut them open with a knife and they cried or struggled, that was nothing more than an automated response to a life-threatening stimulus.

Using this justification, veterinarians performed all types of surgery on animals without using anesthesia. In fact, it wasn't until a few decades ago that scientists "realized" that animals did indeed feel pain.

Nowadays, it would be unheard of for a veterinarian to perform surgery on a pet without anesthesia. Most middle-class pet owners would say that our society has become quite humane in our treatment of animals; yet unbeknownst to most of them, it is quite common for lab animals to live out their short lives with poisonous chemicals being applied to their eyes and skin, and Borg-like devices implanted in their heads.

"It's Just an Animal"