Animal rights; which is your view?

Former_MSE_Andrea

Poll started 5 June 2006: Animal rights extremists have targeted directors, families and shareholders of drugs and other companies which do animal experiments. Which of the following is the closest to your view of it?

Disgusting. People have a right to do their work and invest without fear

Over the top. I agree with their cause, but this takes it too far

Fair enough. When you believe in something, these means are justified

Vote here or click reply to discuss

shokadelika

http://www.xenodiaries.org/deception.htm
The lengths the Government will go to!

sallyjo_2

It seems that animal rights protesters do not seem to grasp the fact that, for production of human medicines, it is mandatory not optional for drug companies to test on animals to prove a medicine is potentially safe for humans. Without demonstrating that the medicine is safe on the basis of animal tests, government agencies like the MHRA in the UK or the FDA in the US or the many other agencies around the world would not grant permission to conduct tests on humans, eg clinical trials, to develop the medicine further for treatment of disease.

Humans are also 'test subjects' for medicines. Thousands of humans are given the medicine in layers of clinical trials conducted over years before a licence is granted. It is a very long, rigorous and expensive process, taking up to 10 years+ and costing in most cases millions, sometimes hundreds of millions of pounds.

Should we dismantle the medicines testing and licensing procedures and just launch compounds on human volunteers to 'have a go', 'lets see what it does', 'lets see if its safe' without doing as much as we can beforehand to know how the medicine might act inside the human body? Would animal rights protesters or their families care to volunteer for Phase 1 trials that have had no safety testing beforehand, no tests to demonstrate what the benefit and side effects might be, so that a medicine that could save millions misery if not their lives can be developed? Who might these brave martyrs be?

Veterinary medicines also benefit from animal testing, and from the development of human medicines. Is that wrong?

Malicious targetting is wrong, whether it be of drug or test facility company staff, shareholders, or granny graves. If animal rights protesters want to make a difference, perhaps they should become shareholders in drug companies, so they influence them in their development programmes. They should do their homework and research where some animal testing programmes might be assisted or replaced by computer modelling, and then prove their effectiveness and write papers and lobby governments. Terrorism won't change things, and I suspect that animal rights protesters who aren't willing to look beyond the top layer of their cause to see what should and can be done, just want to have a rant. However, their rant is hurting human beings, not benefitting the animals involved, and in targetting the medicine development process, it just making the whole thing more expensive for all of us and the NHS.

kevwright

To be honest it is a badly worded poll.

Try it again and put this as a choice

It is OK to "target" shareholders provided only legal and non threatening means are used to bring the facts to these peoples attention.

Come on, the first choice of "It is disgusting" REALLY shows what you the poll setter believes..

You should (or maybe do!) work for the Govt :-(

Kev

Dead_Eye_Jones

kevwright wrote:

Come on, the first choice of "It is disgusting" REALLY shows what you the poll setter believes..
v

But it is disgusting! By their logic, should I decide I feel strongly enough against their actions, I have a right to intimidate and threaten them into stopping their protests. I wonder how they'd like that. Perhaps I can spook their children or dig up their grannies.

There is plenty of stuff in society I dont like, but I have to be a member of this society and I have to play by the rules. We cant all start campaigns of violence everytime we come across something we disagree with.

Please note this is just my thoughts on their actions and their approach, I dont want to discuss the actual issue of animal rights at this time.

Coveredinbees!!!!

I think animal rights activists should all volunteer for human testing if they feel so strongly about animal testing, see how many activists there are then.

If they feel that strongly they should all refuse drugs tested on animals, which would be about all of them. Bunch of hipocrites.

And while were on about it bring back hunting too.

mikiec_2

I'm a vegetarian and not at all keen on animal testing. However, there are means and ways of protesting and promoting your cause without resorting to dangerous and life-threatening tactics.

My girlfriend works for a construction company who have recently done some work for a pharmaceutical company. Because of this, several people in her company have been 'targetted' by some of the unsavoury elements within the animal rights movement, including a lady who works as a cleaner, who had the brake lines cut on her car while it was parked outside her house. Luckily for her, she was driving slowly when the brakes failed and although she crashed her car, she was unhurt.

As a result of this, the police advised all the company's staff to remove themselves from the electoral role to make it difficult for the protestors to get their address details.

So now, not only do they have to keep looking over their shoulders for fear of being 'targetted' by these lunatics, but they have lost their democratic rights to vote, along with all the other issues that entails, such as credit approval problems.

nej

The police advised what???? That's insane! They should catch these idiots rather than telling the victims to hide!

Animal rights protestors are terrorists. Plain and simple.

I'm not saying testing on animals is nice, but it's a neccessary evil. These morons are so blindsided by their ridiculous moral stance they can't see the actual point.

I wish someone would start a campaign to go around cutting the brake lines on these terrorists cars, throwing bricks through their windows, digging up their dead relatives and so on.

The government could make it so easy, though. Classify these groups as terrorists (or at least an illegal organisation) and make membership of such illegal. Anyone belonging to one of these groups could then be locked up and the world made safer for the remaining, sane population.

MORPH3US

Coveredinbees!!!! wrote:

I think animal rights activists should all volunteer for human testing if they feel so strongly about animal testing, see how many activists there are then.

Well I think you should volunteer!!!

Coveredinbees!!!! wrote:

And while were on about it bring back hunting too.

In the same way that "animal rights activists should all volunteer for human testing if they feel so strongly" maybe you should volunteer to dress up as a fox and get chased after by packs of dogs and idiots on horses. Then get torn to pieces after being chased for miles on end!!

M

MORPH3US

nej wrote:

The government could make it so easy, though. Classify these groups as terrorists (or at least an illegal organisation) and make membership of such illegal. Anyone belonging to one of these groups could then be locked up and the world made safer for the remaining, sane population.

You claim it is wrong for people to target other people working in / for pharmacutical companies etc, but why should everyone who is an Animal Rights Protestor be labeled a terrorist and be persecuted because of their opinions and beliefs - very similar to Hitlers views abd we all know about that.

Not everyone who is an "animal rights protestor" believes that peoples grandparents should be dug up from their graves and that peoples brake lines should be cut!!

M

MrSmartprice

nej wrote:

The police advised what???? That's insane! They should catch these idiots rather than telling the victims to hide!

In fairness, what was probably intended is that they removed themselves from the public register. This does not involve losing the right to vote. It just means that you only appear on the full list kept at the town hall. It is standard procedure for people like police, celebrities, crime victims etc and has been possible for about 5 years.

As for these animal rights lot, how come they never seem to protest about halal and kosher killing? :mad: Perhaps being politically correct overrides the suffering of animals for no good reason