On Seals, Veal and Vivisection

pattrice jones is having a Carnival Against Vivisection and has asked us all to write about vivisection, particularly if we tend to focus on other issues as a rule.

I came to animal rights because of three issues: seals, veal and vivisection. I don’t recall the actual timing, as this was all about 25 years ago. What I do recall is one campaign I donated to to stop the clubbing of seals, and a different campaign against veal. At one point I plastered the walls in the kitchen of my childhood home with photos of calves in veal crates. (I also wrote "Elvis is God" on our family chalkboard, as I believed the idea of a god was absurd, and I was in an Elvis Costello phase that still hasn’t ended, but that’s another story.)

Again, sorry for the memory issue, but I recall getting photo after photo in the mail showing animals in laboratories. I had a kitty, Brady, so of course the kitty with the electrodes cemented to her brain left an indelible impression. There were photos of rabbit after rabbit, lined up in some sterile white room, stuck in horrible contraptions that made it impossible for them to attempt to relieve themselves when toxic substances were dropped into their eyes (the Draize Test), and a rabbit in a cage whose fur was shaved and who had a huge bloody sore from the chemicals "administered" to her skin (something about skin irritancy testing). Not finally, but another powerful image that stands out in my memory is of the tiny monkeys of the Harlow experiments that I learned about in school. You know, the ones where they tear the baby away from her mother and I believe give her a choice of a wire monkey-mother and one with cloth on it, and the baby clings to the one with the cloth. Desperately.

These images from 25 years ago, and scores of others I’ve amassed since, haven’t left me.

The new Scripps biomedical research facility is being constructed
under three miles from my house. We joke that the only good thing about
that is that when the scientists from La Jolla come here they’ll be
thrilled to discover they can buy a home for only $1,000,000, or even under $1,000,000. So at least we’ll be able to sell our house when they all arrive in a couple of years without taking a huge loss.

When I drive past the windowless facility–and in fact most
"research" facilities, I can’t help but hear screams, imagine the
terror, and experience a bit of the loneliness and hopelessness of
creatures who were either taken from their families or bred for the
sole purpose of vivisection (and for all I know I’m experiencing this
as I drive by an empty facility). I feel shame that my kind still does
something that is so counterintuitive (not to mention unethical, in my mind) and for which there are
alternatives.

I think everyone interested in the welfare in animals–not to mention the progress of science–should read Sacred Cows and Golden Geese, by Drs. Ray and Jean Swingle Greek (and their other books).
I find it profoundly frustrating to hear, time-after-time, that (for example),
experimentation on nonhuman primates is our only answer to a cure for
AIDS. And I find it morally bankrupt when we test drugs that we’ve
already tested. But most of all, I feel disgusted that the reality of
the web of industries that make vivisection possible are really just
businesses capitalizing on human fears and misconceptions. They take
advantage of the fact that most people actually believe we need to test
on animals, and that it’s "for the greater good." It’s intellectual
laziness; they believe what they’re told and don’t think critically
because it’s not their cat with electrodes on her brain, "they’re only mice," and they think that "if it helps just one person it was worth it."

If the same people knew the how expensive, ineffective and inhumane
vivisection continues to be, and if they knew that there were efficient,
effective alternatives that were less expensive (often over time),
maybe they’d change their tune. If they realized they are participating
in vivisection via their tax dollars, maybe they’d change their tune.

In the 25 years since my mind was infiltrated by the harrowing
images of seals being clubbed, calves in veal crates, a kitty with
electrodes on her brain, rabbits being tortured and infant monkeys
clinging to cloth, not much has changed. Though crates may be on their
way out, like in the UK, I’m sure a newer, more "compassionate" veal
will become popular (and it already is at Wolfgang Puck’s restaurants).
Seals, however, are still being clubbed, rabbits are still being
tortured and nonhuman primates and millions of other animals (some not
even counted, such as millions of rats and mice) are the subjects (objects) of often-brutal experiments. And much of this "science" isn’t in the name of "progress," but in the name of business.

The good news is that, regardless of what you think about it,
capitalism (/corporate socialism) in the US isn’t going anywhere
anytime soon. And the research, development, marketing and distribution
of more alternatives to using animals (and that includes stem cell
research) is its own industry that I think we should be endorsing and
funding every chance we get.

In my experience, people don’t change their behavior or their thoughts unless they have something to change to that gives them more or better than what they started with. We have that more and better now, and we have to do a better job of telling everyone about it so they’ll shift their charitable dollars to organizations that don’t test on animals and to organizations that are developing and distributing alternatives to vivisection.