I am somehow quite sure that these very same activists, should they become critically ill, will happily make use of the best modern medicines. All of which were developed with the help of animal trials.

I have an acquaintance who works for PETA. She says there is no need for animal testing whatsoever as we can get better testing results using computer models, stem cells, and aborted fetuses. Meanwhile, she vaccinates her children, has a porcine heart valve (pig valve), as well as takes injectable anticoagulant medication which is made from the intestinal mucus of pigs or cows depending on the medication. Hard telling how many other animal derived and tested treatments she has used over the years. I asked her if she felt it so wrong to test and develop medical treatments why she got the valve and takes the anticoagulants. She said it was because she'd die without it and there wasn't a good non-animal alternative for her. So the animal rights PETA freak thinks it's perfectly fine when it benefits her.

I work for a biotech company. We use mice and rats, and are working on an osteoporosis drug and another treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension. What people don't understand is that these "hundreds of small, cute, furry mice (and rats)" are a dime a dozen, and if left to breed of their own accord, in the wild, where these PETA idiots seem to want them, our cities and towns would be overrun with these rodents to the point of no return, and with these rodents there would also be fleas and ticks by the hundreds of thousands. These lab animals serve a very real purpose, and if BunnyGirl's friend and others like her are going to be that hypocritical, then they themselves should be volunteering to help with medical studies. No? Then they should STFU. Right NOW.

Flynne,

My sister used to work in a biotech lab in MI. She was the one who cleaned the cages of the animals being tested.

Now, my sister is very much an animal lover. She will not use cosmetics that are tested on animals and avoids meat. She becomes attached to animals very easily. But, even she recognized the importance of the testing and never once did she try to free any of the animals in her time there nor did she ever complain about how the animals were treated.

The activists need to understand that the animals aren't being tortured for amusement. The people working on them are scientists, not serial killers. If they die they aren't dying in vain. PETA should focus on helping domesticated animals that are out on the street and leave this alone.

Agree with you 100%, Sabrina. If only these PETA people would stop anthropomorphizing animals, ALL animals. Too many of them think that wild animals are like "Bambi".

For my senior undergraduate thesis, I worked on a project testing photo-sensitive dyes as ways to preferentially target cancerous tumors. One of the other students asked if we keep the rats afterwards. Umm, no, but we took their use seriously and treated them as carefully as we could.

PETA doesn't help domesticated animals, they euthanize them, more than 90% of the ones they take in.

"Some misfiring loop, preventing the mind from accepting that societies will never care more about mice than they do about people?"

They don't care about mice or people. They don't care about anything other than their sanctimonious selves.

"They don't care about mice or people. They don't care about anything other than their sanctimonious selves."

And money. Let's not forget money.

I have a skit in mind to illustrate PETA's folly.

-----
She wakes up looking at a white ceiling, a memory of crashing noises and the sky/ground/sky/ground kaleidoscope of a rollover crash ghosting through her mind. An overhead light moves into view, as does the face of a kindly doctor, his blue eyes radiating warmth and care. He speaks:
"Sherry. you're going to be just fine - just fine. Normally you would be in big trouble, your injuries are - troublesome - but the helicopter was already near you and we were practicing this very thing in this operating room today. Now, just relax as Mel puts the anesthetic to work... I haven't done this on a living creature before, but on the simulator a hundred times... relax..."

C'mon, PETA. Volunteer for things like retinal replacement, nerve grafting and so forth.

Haven't you realized that new surgeons have to be trained?

I can't remember who said it; but, the best line I ever heard said to a PETA idiot was this:

"Oh, sure, let's try that new drug out for the first time on a 6-year old leukemia patient. How about that?"

Kinda left the PETA person silent.