Animal research can save lives

Editor:

As I sit here in the library browsing through the Wildcat, I see this ad condemning animal research for medical practices. Here I go:

First of all, have any of you animal rights activists ever lost a loved one to cancer? Have you ever seen your mother wither away in a span of 17 painful months? If not, let me give you a clue. You can't forget the wig your mother had to buy because of the results of chemotherapy. You don't know about watching your father give your mother injections of morphine because the pain was so bad. You don't know what its like when you see your brother come home with your aunt after shopping to see that they have a suit for each of them to wear to the imminent funeral. You also may not know what it is like to be awakened by your father at 6:45 a.m. on a Sunday to be told that your mother just passed away 30 minutes ago.

Now I'm sure some might say, "That's sad, but research on animals still didn't save her." Maybe so, but someday you might have a child who is saved by some miracle drug derived from animal research which otherwise might not have been discovered in time or not at all because of the absence or hindrance of animal research. I wouldn't want ANYONE to go through that type of hell, because when you hear someone scream in agonizing pain, you will remember it for the rest of your life.

I can partially understand the objections to some cruel experimentation on animals, such as beating a monkey in the head with a hammer just to see how he reacts to pain, but when it comes to finding cures to diseases, it is needed.

Of course, there will be those who protest regardless of how many lives were saved thanks to research on animals. In fact, because of animal research, you can protest 20.1 years longer.

Scott Chappa

Pre-Computer Science Junior

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