PETA on the move again

[Kummok]

Note to Olds.....This IS a family forum. The term you MEANT to use was Richard Cabeza or, as we used to call 'em on the street, an Adam Henry or a 51-50 [;)][:D][:D]

35 years of extinguishing smoking stuff and now I'm wondering WHY!
Kummok @ Homer, AK USA

[JJC]

I know I've said these same words on the Forum about a year ago, but it's worth saying them again . . .

I couldn't agree with all of you more! In addition to smoking and eating meat, I am a biomedical scientist and I use animal models (rats and mice) to try and find treatments for heart disease and uterine fibroids. Ask anyone who is waiting depserately for a heart transplant or a women who can't have children and is in incredible pain from fibroids whether she would be willing to sacrifice a few hundred mice or rats to have children or save her parent from heart disease and the answer is obvious. Every scientist I know is very sensitive to the animals they use--I have 5 cats myself and take great pains to justify the use of each and every animal in the lab.  They are treated with great respect and experience minimal, if any, discomfort.

I makes me crazy to hear the president of PETA say that "it would give her no solace to know that her father was saved from a heart attack if the treatment was practiced first on a dog" and to say that "a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy"! These are quotes, and you only have to aske ANYONE who has had a loved one saved by life-saving organ transplants, drug treatments, or other medical treatments if they would rather see their loved one die or a few animals die to know what any sensible person would say.

This is a very sensitive issue with me . . . I also teach vet students, and if there was ever a group that was tuned into animal rights, it's vets. Ask any of them if they are in favor of animal research and they will tell you exactly how important it is. Among the many ironies is that animal research actually leads to new treatments for animals, too!

Just my $.02 . . .

John
Newton MA