My daughter arrived home from school talking about a video shown in her school today. In her 8th grade science class, a video from PETA was shown describing the horrors of animal research in the US. There was no explanation of why the animals were being used, no history of what animal research has done for medical science, and no views from the other side were provided. The class was showered with "ways to do it without animals", and that animal research was no longer necessary.
My wife and I then showed her the medical advances that would have been impossible without animal research. We explained that both of her grandmothers would be dead due to cancer if effective techniques, and drugs would not have been tested on animals first. I asked her if she would like to volunteer to be the first living thing to try to see if a new drug would work or kill her. Of course she answered no, then I asked who should? I, as a retired paramedic, asked her if she would like for me to use her as a training dummy to perform various procedures. I then stated that if I did not learn on animals who or what should I practice on? These questions were not answered on the video and caused her to think.
I showed her the current rules for the use of lab animals as found on the net. I demonstrated that the animals were better treated in the labs than in the shelters. I also showed her the recent article in the paper showing the number of animals destroyed in the local shelters every day. This total was significantly larger that the total number of lab animals in use in the USA.
It is difficult to overcome this disinformation spewed by these people. I am scared though for those of her classmates whose parents either lack the resources or the interest to give a balanced view. I fear that it will only get worse and not better.
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