Thursday, August 7, 2008
Stop Torturing Innocent Animals!…Start Testing Drugs On Criminals!
Society piece by
Dave Gibson
It has been said that a society can be judged by the way they treat their animals. As long as thousands of animals are forced to endure months and even years of painful tests in American biomedical and cosmetic labs, it is difficult to consider ours a civilized society.
Typically, these animals live in cramped cages, while being injected with experimental drugs, cancer cells, HIV, or tortured with household cleaners being poured into their eyes. While the overwhelming majority of these animals are destroyed, when they are deemed no longer useful, a few are allowed to go to specially designed sanctuaries, where their medical needs can be met while living in a more natural setting.
Everyday in this country, animals are abused and tortured in the name of science or ‘product safety‘. No matter your beliefs or party affiliation, you cannot possibly believe that animals were put here simply to be mistreated.
If we are to become a more enlightened and evolved society, the cruel practice of testing new pharmaceuticals and cosmetic products on animals must be stopped, and a much more viable replacement is easily available. There is not one person of conscience who could visit an animal testing facility without deciding that it is wrong. At the same time, there is not one reasonable person who could visit a maximum security prison and agree that rapists, murderers, drug dealers, and child molesters deserve a comfortable life, or that they should simply be warehoused until they die, or released to bring about more harm.
Regardless of the immorality of testing on innocent animals, it makes no sense to test a new drug or procedure on them, as they have different anatomy. Who better to test a drug produced for humans than another human? Convicted rapists and murderers have made choices which has erased their humanity. These are people that have brought about terrible suffering throughout their lives and now live-out rather meaningless existences. Should not they be given the chance to contribute something, for once in their lives?
My proposal is this: testing would not be forced upon anyone, the inmates would be offered some special privileges, and paid in exchange for allowing doctors and scientists to test experimental drugs and procedures upon them. Federal and state prison systems would also be allowed to work out deals with cosmetic companies for the same purpose. Drug and cosmetic companies would pay the government enormous sums for this right, money that could go offset the prison operating costs, as well as reparations to the offenders’ victims.
Mine is not a new idea. In fact, prisoners were tested upon in this country until the 1970’s. In 1978, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services placed very restrictive limitations on the testing of drugs and treatments on inmates, which has all but ended the practice.
Nor am I alone in my opinion. In August 2006, the editorial board of USA Today came out in favor of testing drugs on inmates. One of the benefits cited in the piece entitled: “Our view: Test drugs on inmates? Yes,” was the fact that drugs designed to combat HIV, Hepatitis, and mental illness could be beneficial to our prison population, due to the fact that those diseases are very common throughout our prison system.
Additionally, a report submitted to the federal government in 2006 by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences recommended that regulations be loosened to allow the testing of drugs on prison inmates, even for those drugs which may pose a great risk.
Cosmetic laboratories throughout this country pour bottle after bottle of drain cleaner into the eyes of rabbits, simply to determine that you should not pour drain cleaner into your eyes! Let us either ban the practice of cosmetic/product testing altogether or employ our violent criminals for this procedure. I would reserve that particular test for child molesters, let them suffer stinging physical wounds… the same way their victims will suffer emotionally for the rest of their lives.
Our prisons are bursting at the seams. The are currently more than 2.3 million people incarcerated in this country. All are being fed, clothed, housed, and medically treated at the expense of the taxpayers.
What an outrage it is that thousands of dogs, cats, and monkeys among others are being held in tiny cages, only to be pulled out and injected with cancer cells, the AIDS virus, and countless other painful and deadly diseases. Conversely, violent thugs sit about our prisons watching cable television, working out, and eating free meals, while being supported by the American public.
I worked at the Virginia Zoo for several years and have completed quite a bit of research on this subject. I will never forget the taped footage of an old chimpanzee who had been given to an animal sanctuary after years of testing. This chimp was suffering from hepatitis, as a result of being intentionally infected by this wretched malaise years earlier. His eyes were yellow, his gums bled, most of the time he could do nothing but lie in his room while his new keepers tried to comfort him. He eventually succumbed to the disease, but not before teaching a lesson in humanity. His keepers were amazed by how quickly he was able to show trust and affection for them, after so many years of abuse.
I have also worked in a prison and witnessed the lack of remorse and even the complete contempt displayed by violent criminals towards their victims. A large portion of inmates are career criminals, and have never contributed anything to our society, they only take. They take resources which other have earned, they take our sense of security, they take lives, and in the case of child molesters… They take innocence.
Our bloated prison population is growing everyday and the reasons for this troubling trend are many. However, the fact is that ours is becoming an increasingly violent place and acts of evil are becoming more prevalent, as is a lack of personal responsibility. Testing on animals is an evil that must end and testing on violent criminals is a way for them to truly pay their debt to society (or at least a down payment)..
HowardWasRight 
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