Ban animal testing now (From York Press)

Ban animal testing now

10:34am Tuesday 29th June 2010 in Letters By Reader's letter

NOTHING is more needed in this country than a ban being placed on the cruel and outdated practice of animal experimentation.

It has been an immoral waste of life, an obscene and senseless assault on the animal kingdom; actually, a kind of scientific nihilism.

Do we really want to kill and dissect a loveable beagle in order to test the health benefits of green tea? Do we really want to turn harmless mice into alcoholics to study the effects on their tiny brains? Do we really want to insert electrodes into cats’ heads just to understand their nerve process? These tests, and dozens more like them, are meant to contribute to the advancement of human society, but all they do is demean us.

We should learn to respect the complex feelings of our fellow creatures. There has been too much violence in the name of “science”. And, in truth, there are so many modern viable alternatives to vivisection, such as computer modelling and human stem cell research. The longer animal testing continues the easier it is to conclude that a large portion of British society is primitive and depraved. People in the future will feel ashamed of what this country did to sentient animals, so denying the very Christian teachings it was built on.

Aled Jones, Mount Crescent, Bridlington.