Local Government and communities secretary Greg Clark has given the go ahead for a beagle breeding facility in East Yorkshire. The dogs will be bred, before being exported to laboratories abroad, where they will become the subjects of cruel and inhumane testing. This has also highlighted the fact that there is already such a facility in Cambridgeshire.
I've heard all the usual supporting reasons from those who think this is necessary. Some supporters believe it will help develop cures for various diseases and illness. However if I need treatment and I'm worried about it, being 'assured' that it's okay because it was tested on a beagle, won't do much to put my mind at rest.
I am not a beagle and therefore, why would I be comforted by knowing something works on a beagle?
Next is the argument that I eat meat, so how can I object to this? Yes I eat meat and yes I know the poor Animals died. I have no excuse for this, but I do become more and more convinced each day that I should become a vegetarian. Would this change people's minds abut performing cruel tests on animals though? Probably not.
I think the reason this bother me most.My parents have a pet dog, a beagle in fact. As most of us grown up 'children' have now left home, their beagle is now like family, maybe even a child to them. Whenever I visit, I'm greeted by an excited dog, who jumps up at me, by way of a greeting and has her own box of toys in the same way a child has a toy box.
So if dogs can be like family, is it okay to breed them and do tests on them? Would it be okay to breed members of your human family, then perform tests against their will? I'm sure there are other ways to develop treatments.
So yes, for now I eat chicken, fish and sometimes bacon, but I don't have these animals as pets and I don't know anyone who does.
If my parents had opted to have a garden full of chickens or pigs I might feel differently.
While I hope that the food I do eat didn't suffer more than it had to while alive or in the process of being killed, I'm aware that this isn't always the case and don't agree with the extended suffering of any animal. Although just because something already happens, I don't see that as excuse to say it's okay for more animals to suffer. We should be working towards decreasing animal cruelty, not increasing it.
