Dear Editor,
Thank you for the article: 鈥淩escued beagles start new lives on the island鈥�. I was buoyed to hear that The Winnipeg Beagle Alliance is fighting to re-home beagles that have been used in scientific testing. That said, I must admit to feeling such pain in the knowledge that animals, especially these lovely dogs, are ever used for scientific experiments in Canada or anywhere. The article listed such staggering numbers (Over 3.5 million animals used for experiments in Canada including primates plus 16,000 dogs)鈥nd those are only the numbers from laboratories that voluntarily reported.
There have been improvements in the way society treats animals; the tremendous increase of (protected) whales along our B.C. shorelines, the increase of vegetarians/vegans, the ban of bull fighting in Mexico City, the ban on using animals to test makeup, the popularity of PETA and more.
Yet still animals are being used for scientific experiments. Animals don鈥檛 even have the same physiological makeup as humans which leaves so many animal test results completely flawed. If we judged by dog tests, we would conclude that raisins, Tylenol, avocado and chocolate are toxic to humans.
It would be nice to know how society could bring an end to medical testing on animals. ADAV is BC鈥檚 anti vivisection group and, on their website, I liked a quote I found from George Bernard Shaw: 鈥淭here are hundreds of paths to scientific knowledge. The cruel ones can teach us only what we ought not to know.鈥�
I remain grateful that some lucky Beagles will get a second chance to have a happy life and grateful to The Comox Valley Record for bringing this informative story to their readers.
Michelle McIntyre
Comox Valley
