It is only mice but......
@whiteheather39 (24403)
United States
September 28, 2007 10:38am CST
I think this is very cruel when there are alternative ways of testing. Am I alone or taking my love of animal too far? (My daughter did have pet mice when she was young).
Before stocking up on candy this Halloween, you should know that chocolate-maker Mars Inc.—creator of M&M's, Snickers, and other candies—continues to fund deadly animal tests despite the fact that the tests are not required by law and more reliable human studies could be used instead.
Mars has funded cruel experiments in which mice were fed a candy ingredient and forced to swim in a pool of paint. The mice had to find a platform to try to avoid drowning, only to be killed and dissected later. In another experiment supported by Mars, rats were fed cocoa and anesthetized with carbon dioxide so that their blood could be collected by cardiac puncture, a procedure that can lead to internal bleeding and other deadly complications. Mars also supported an experiment that involved cramming baby mice into small Plexiglas chambers and then submerging the chambers for nearly five hours in a chilled water bath to determine whether or not a chocolate ingredient affected the mice's breathing rates. In the second phase of this test, experimenters shoved tubes down mice's throats to force-feed them an ingredient in chocolate, deprived them of all other food, and finally killed them and cut them up for analysis.
http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/mars_animal_tests?c=weekly_enews
4 people like this
6 responses
@theprogamer (10534)
• United States
29 Sep 07
Its alright to feel this way Heather. You aren't crazy and you are not going too far with this. Granted I don't want testing on humans, but still testing on any lifeform is pretty sickening. I think its one reason I refused to go into the traditional medical research and experimentation fields. I'll still do things by book, but there was no way I'd be subjecting creatures through some gross experiments.
@arkaf61 (10881)
• Canada
29 Sep 07
Well, I"m halfway in this subject.
LIke another poster said, many tests are just ridiculous and even meaningless. There certainly is no point to it
On the other hand, some tests are important and can save lives and are justifiable.
I love animals, I do. But I think sometimes people tend to go to extremes in their efforts to protect them. How many people will come running to save the cute little white mouse in the labs and then call an exterminator to KILL the mice in their home. I don't see many people going around getting traps that can get the mice alive and then go to the trouble of taking them far away to release them. And I understand this too, because many of those released mice would not adapt to life in the wild anyways.
I don't want to start controversy, but we humans tend to forget to balance things, it's usually not caring at all, or caring to extreme. Animals don't go around creating coalitions to save other species. It's survival of the fittest. They can fight, they can be cruel, and little cute animals get hurt, eaten or die.
I am not cruel to animals personally - I have plenty myself - and I don't believe it's a nice thing to do, but ...have you seen a cat playing with a mouse?
The main point is... we need to keep things in perspective.
@CatsandDogs (13963)
• United States
29 Sep 07
Heck no you're not! It's a live being regardless of what kind of animal it is and should be respected at such. However if it were a mouse running around in my home, it would be killed humanely but never ever would it be tortured. I don't agree with that at all. I wish the government would step in and stop this kind of thing from going on but instead they turn a blind eye as if it doesn't happen or they just don't care. These people who do these experiments need to have it done to them to see how it feels to be taken over in such a horrid way.
@luluwow (165)
• United States
29 Sep 07
Respect all living creatures. Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on or be entertained by... period. Senseless and cruel animal testing and abuse should not be tolerated. Do your part by becoming aware of the good and the bad corporations and do not support cruelty.
