Sheeps and Cows and Puppies
Oct. 27th, 2021 05:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
degringolade
Impressionism / Lovis Corinth/ Still Life with Buddha-Lobsters and Oysters
In the long ago, fresh out of grad school, I worked with experiments on animals. Heart research mostly. I did a bunch of the work on polymers for the Jarvik heart and did a major piece of the work defining the kinetics of dephosphorylation of the ATP-ADP-AMP cycle in forced cardiac infarct (you old fuckers who have had a heart attack, you’re welcome).
The work was done on cows and sheep. Mostly sheep. The reason that we chose sheep was that they were bigger than dogs and, more to the point, almost no one gave a shit one what we did to them.
I was never thrilled about the whole process. Luckily, I hate sheep, and once sheep get over the bouncy cute “lamb” phase, they are pretty unattractive and stupid. And they taste good.
But we took care of our sheep. We even took them out on walks to mow the grass and keep down the weeds out back. When we took them in for the stage where they died, we alway let them think we were still their friends, they went to sleep and didn’t wake up while thinking this thought.
My point is that animal research has its place in carefully circumscribed circumstances. There are thing that are needing research that can’t be gotten any other way. But you have to have ethics and you have to give a shit about the dignity of the animal, the pain and suffering that you are causing, and what is the actual value of the experiment that you are undertaking.
Tunisian sand fleas don’t make the grade in any way shape or form. The folks who did this torture animals for money. The folks who fund it pay for that torture. I am of the opinion that both of these parties would be an excellent choice as experimental subjects for experimental sandflea research.
Not Yet
Date: 2021-10-27 07:16 pm (UTC)