Crazies Make Me Feel Uncomfortable: The Animal Rights Terrorists

I just read both PZ Myers and Orac¬†weigh in on the subject of some animal rights activists. Honestly, I find the whole thing really disconcerting. Not that there is testing on animals, that’s fine. So long as the animal testing is done as humanely as possible and in some way hopes to better our understanding of biology, life, health, et al. The idea that these wingnuts think it is justified to threaten children and promote violence towards the researchers, that’s where my problem lies.

As a kid, I remember seeing the Body Shop t-shirts that featured terrified bunnies strapped down to hideous machines stamped with the words AGAINST ANIMAL TESTING, and I was told about how the cosmetics industry would force cute widdle bunnie wunnies to lie still while they slit open their eyelids and sprayed shaving cream in. When I asked why, they said “Just to see what it does!” When I said, “No, why bunnies?” they said “Because PEOPLE would never stand for it!” This, of course, is stupid and wrong.

We test on animals as ethically as we possibly can. That doesn’t mean there aren’t horrible animaltests out there, or that abuses don’t happen. Abuses happen from time to time in any situation where there are more dominant and less dominant parties. But to hear these Animal Rights people talk, you’d have to believe that every single animal researcher is a violent sadist compulsively masturbating over the rendered flesh of a sad otter. Totally not the case.

Animal testing has saved countless lives. Animal testing is a good thing. The light shone on cruel animal testing is a good thing. When there are abuses, we need to be made aware of them to remind us that this is unacceptable. But even if I totally agreed with these people, I would never condone their behavior. It is disgusting.

Allow me to go on record. I am for ethical animal testing. I believe that the lives saved by researchers are worth the sacrifice. I don’t believe that animals have a soul any more than I believe that people have a soul. If the animal is treated as respectfully as possible and the research has the intention to benefit the world or our understanding of it (even if it does not achieve that intention) then I see no problem with it.

These people are extremists. When you add the word “extreme” to any position, you take all the capacity for logic and discourse out of the equation. You cannot go to them and talk. You cannot bridge the gap. There is a wire that is simply not there anymore in the gray matter, and you might as well try reasoning with a can of tuna. I believe extremism is a form of psychosis, like an ideological narcissistic personality disorder. The best that we can do is keep our eyes on them and be there when they screw up to remove them. And that goes for all extremists.

Jim