I believe in stopping the use of animals in medical experimentation with extreme prejudice. First, it’s useless; all medical procedures and drugs are tested on humans (a clinical study) after they are done with the animal testing (a laboratory study) anyway, so why waist valuable time, cut out the middle man, and go straight to human testing? The death toll racks up while vital drugs are being kept from public consumption for up to 5 years. The second is that viable alternatives to animal testing are out there, but are rarely used.
"Since an animal's natural life is a gift from God, it follows that God's right is violated when the natural life of his creatures is perverted."
-Andrew Linzey"
Child labor laws were put into place at the turn of the century after the public saw the images of children in sweatshops. The medical community is well aware of public outrage if the images of animals used in biomedical experimentation are leaked to the public from past experiences. Since these images can only come from laboratories being broken into and the abuses documented, vested business interests in animal research managed to pass the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act that makes braking into laboratories an act of "domestic terrorism" on par with acts of al-Qaeda.
“If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.”
-C.S. Lewis.
If you're a Christian or a Jew, the practice is especially abominable. We were meant to be stewards over the animal kingdom, not exploiters. The early Church fathers were no help in seeing animals as nothing but a resource void of feelings. Pagans sought answers by reading the entrails of sacrificial animals (Ezekiel 21:21); how is that different from a scientist doing the same with the “sacrificial animal” in the laboratory? The stone alter has been replaced with a metal table but trying to find answers in the entrails stays the same.
"Whoever is righteous has regard for the life (Nephesh=Soul) of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel."
Proverbs 12:10
