Animal Experiments - Science or Sadism?

I decided to start this blog because I have a strong bond with animals and have been a voice for them in the past as a public speaker, an animal communicator and a persistent letter writer on their behalf to legislators.  I desire to do more for them, because they have done so much for and meant so much to me my whole life.   Some of my most formative experiences are those with animals.  I will blog more about those in later posts.  For now, I would like to share with you the letter (copied below) that I recently wrote
to Francis Collins, director of NIH (National Institute of Health), which funds experiments on animals.

The letter to Mr. Collins was prompted by an article I read in PETA magazine about experiments being conducted on baby monkeys.  There is a petition online at http://investigations.peta.org/nih-baby-monkey-experiments/, and I signed that, but I know from past experience with Congress that petition signatures only go so far.  What moves and motivates Congressmen and Congresswomen are personal letters from their constituents. I thought the same would be true of the NIH.  Besides, I had a lot more to say to Mr. Collins about the baby monkey experiments and other experiments  that are funded by NIH.  So I share it here with you, the reader.  

Dear Mr. Collins:

I have been reading about the experiments done on baby monkeys at a National Institute of Health Laboratory. The monkeys are intentionally being bred to be genetically predisposed to mental illness and then are subjected to tremendous stresses. This is not science; this is sadism, and it must be stopped. Were I or any other non-scientist to treat an animal in the fashion in which the so-called scientists (sadists) conducting this experiment (and just about every other experiment involving animals), I or such other would (rightly) be convicted of felony animal abuse in most states.

There is absolutely no justification for these experiments. The only thing we learn about humans from these experiments is what we already know - we are capable of incredible cruelty and of turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the suffering of others.

What we discover from these experiments is that it is the so-called scientists who conduct them who are spiritually ill and morally bankrupt. They have lost their consciences and sold their souls (if they even believe in them). It is well-established that those who abuse animals often abuse people and tend to be violent. NIH should not be funding experiments that enable and promote animal abuse.

Funding these kinds of experiments allows sadists to torture and abuse animals without consequence to the perpetrator. Bright-eyed young scientists who get involved with animal experiments learn to shut down what is humane in themselves or they quit. Those who approve and fund these experiments are complicit in this cruelty. As the director of NIH, you are complicit.

I ask - no, I demand and command - that you cease your complicity and end these and all other animal experiments that inflict pain or suffering on any animal. For legitimate research, there are many non-animal tests now available, tests that are far more reliable than tests run on animals.

Mohandes Gandhi said: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way in which its animals are treated. I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man." Not only the nation and its moral progress but the greatness and the moral progress of an individual can be so judged. Every captive animal is rendered essentially helpless by its captivity. We have stolen their freedom and their right to live a natural life. At a minimum, they deserve our mercy, our compassion and our protection.

Show your greatness and put an end to these experiments. Thank you.