Guinea Pig Farm

[january_bug]

I'm not sure if it's ok to start a topical debate, but I'm interested.  I guess perhaps there's someone to remove this if it's against the rules - sorry if that is so. 

What do you think about the animal testing story in the news at the moment?

Here

I like animals, but I also respect the dead and their relatives.  Do others feel that the protesters went too far?  Or is this an issue that is so important that such extreme steps are necessary to end animal testing? 

[Ding-Dong]

These people are utter scum bags - to grave rob was completely evil, these people are cruel vindictive cretinous A holes, who value a rodents life higher than a humans - it is idiocy in the extreme.

I'd love to see these 'people' test the courage of their convictions - if they or a loved one were in pain or required a drug to cure/alleviate a condition - and said drug had been perfected by being tested on animals, would they take it?

You bet ya - as they are inherently cowards anyway, they'd be screaming for the drugs from the highest rooftops.

Show me an animal rights 'activist' who says they wouldn't, and I'll show you a bare faced liar.

I have two Labradors - and have had dogs since I was a child - but if testing a drug on 100 dogs, or a 1,000 dogs, or however many (much less guinea pigs for F sake - they are rodents, get a grip you sad bunch of moronic bufoons), and said testing saved 1 human life, then surely it is worth it.

I hate these b45tards with a passion.

[Romeo]

Yes, the protestors certainly did go too far. I am all for animal rights and I hate seeing animals being cruelly treated, and if there is a way to avoid research using live animals I'm all for it. But in this case the protestors showed no dignity of emotion, no respect for the deceased. Ironically, they proved that humans are worse than animals.

[Loosehead]

Trouble is they don't actually care about animals that much. The UK has the strictest rules in the world for vivisection an unpleastant but sometimes necessary activity. So what do these nutters do? target uk vivisection and force it abroad to, you guessed it, underdeveloped countries where they have virtually no rules, result? More animal cruelty. Well done guys, remind me not to let you look after my pet rabbit.

[Oneeyedvic]

Totally agree with Ding Dong.

 

In america there is a society called PETA - People for the Ethcial Treatment of Animals. This is the link to the UK arm: http://www.peta.org.uk/cmp/a-guide-11.asp

Bear n mind whilst reading about their humanity that their employees kill animals and dump them in waste bins: http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20050722-085338-5284r.htm

Personally, I think these people (and I mean the activists who are terrorising people) should all be rounded up and tested on themselves.

[january_bug]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks they went too far!  Interesting to remind us of the other side though oneeyedvic - thank you for the links. 

I look forward to reading more comments as and when they appear. 

[woofgang]

I am against animal testing, think that it is an important issue and don't think that enough is being done to develop alternatives. having said that, any protests should be legal. Violence and nastiness make the protestors no better than the thing they are protesting against.

Ding-Dong, its not so much the life that I value as my feeling that these animals should not be made to suffer, much less that they should be bred deliberately to suffer.

When you read the ads for lab dogs that say that they are delliberately bred to be cheerful and obedient to make handling then easier....well isn't that horrible??

[Miss Zippy]

These people are just mindless thugs who use their animal rights activities as an excuse to indulge in sickening behaviour. If it wasn�t animal rights, there would be some other excuse they would use to harass and terrorise. Loosehead makes an interesting point about vivisection being forced to other countries where, perhaps, animal welfare is not as well protected as it is in the UK.  

[sandbach99]

I think that the names and addresses of every protester that has targeted farms, shareholders, financial institutions, building companies etc should be listed. this list should then be passed on to every doctor who would then be barred from prescribing any drugs or other treatment that has been tested on animals to these protesters.    When they found how little treatment was available to them they would soon decide that their life was more important than a rodent.
I fully agree that animals should not be used to test things like make-up, toiletries, cleaning products etc  

[undercovers]

they are scum and i think we should go picket their workplaces, vandalise their homes and intimidate their friends and family... and then them die of an ear infection or some other minor ailment

[mullein2]

they went to far..without a doubt..allthough i dont like animal testing myself..its just horridble.for the animals..these people that protest could find other ways of getting themselves heard..

[january_bug]

Time to add my own thoughts. 

• I totally disagree with animal testing for products other than medicines.  I think we know enough basic formulas now that testing can be done just on humans without too high a risk. 
• I have taken, do take, and would take, prescribed drugs that had been tested on animals.  I'd prefer that it wasn't necessary but I take the tablets anyway.  Furthermore, I'd be happy for my family to do the same if it would benefit them. 
• I agree that peaceful and legal protest should be permitted. 
• I think that the digging up of that lady's body was sick and the perpetrators should be punished. 
• I feel that many of the "techniques" used by these protestors are too extreme and if not already, should be unlawful.
• I fear that, like "football "fans" these groups may have been "infiltrated" by people who just want an excuse to be involved in mindless violence and that for them, any excuse will do. 

Thanks for your continued input.  It's really interesting! :-)

[El D]

Nice post january;

I would also add, having listened to a debate on radio 2 many moons ago, that by applying collective guilt to those that merely work on the farm they really tar all animal rights protesters with the same bruch and this should logically prevent any animal rights protests from taking place (according to their logic) as they use illegal methods. These people are morons with no logic behind their argument, merely sentiment.

[Romeo]

January bug - well said!  Undercovers - I assume you are being ironic.  OK people, I think we should calm down. Calling animal rights activists verminous scum isn't helping anyone, human or animal.

[chrisl25]

Ok, so I love animals, but I realise the need at times to test certain medicines on animals not a nice thing I know but as long as it is done in the most humane way then it has to be done.

If these protesters are that against it, then they should be denied all access to grug etc, that have beedn tested an animals. Perhaps they should donate themselves for medical research/testing, put themselves to good use rather than taking the reamins of an innocent woman. I hope that they return them now. How many people have been made redundant because of the farm stopping the medical breeding thing? bet they don't think about the people who make there living working on the farm do they?!

[sglazier]

I have heard that the exhuming the body 'stunt' was a copycat of an incident in 1984 when fox hunting protesters threatened to dig up the Duke of Beaufort and actually attacked the grave but did not go through with it. Several people were imprisoned for it.

[sandbach99]

My paper quotes an animal rights protester as saying that they will continue to attack this farmer because he intends to return to traditional farming, and they object to him rearing any sort of animals.  This means that unless he grows vegetables he can not work at all, and presumably if he does give up they will then target another innocent farmer.

If they have their way no-one will have any animals for testing or eating and there will be no cows in the fields, sheep and lambs on the hills then what will become of the land?,  of course this could be a way of freeing up rural land for building and that is why the government let the protesters get away with their terrorism

[january_bug]

Wow - that is HUGELY cynical.  The logic follows, but a bit too paranoid to convince me I'm afraid - not that that diminishes your opinion at all sandbach99. 

I feel that the police (and the government) do their best to work against protesters, but they are also restrained by freedom of speech laws etc. 

I realise there are a lot of people who hate the government and can logically link any issue to the concept that the government should be overthrown, so I won't attempt a debate that goes that deep. 

Seems pretty crazy to want to stop the guy from farming at all.  If we got rid of all the animals, what would they have left to protest about?

[sandbach99]

The animal rights people do state that no-one needs animal products to live, and therefore see all farmers as legitimate targets,  Most farms are fairly isolated and therefore would find it difficult to stay within the law and see these people off their premises. Apart from some farmers changing to market gardening the fields would be unused no-one could keep a herd of cows as pets, or for townies to visit at weekends.
I am lucky enough to live in the country with cows in the field at the end of my garden but nearly every week some building company files a speculative planning application for houses or offices somewhere in the area.

[sandbach99]

cont.

If the fields are unused it will become harder to object to these plans on the grounds of the land being good arable land.

Yes I am cynical I think this is as result of growing older, and yes I eat meat and do not want to change to a vegetarian.
sorry this is not really an answer to your question   

[january_bug]

I wasn't asking if you're vegetarian or not.  Nor was I judging you for being cynical.  Age has little to do with it.  Some of the most cynical people I know are far younger than me, well, teenagers still at least. 

As I said, your ideas have logic.  Your entirely entitled to the views.  It's not you personally, I'm just tired of the anti-government stuff.  I just find it tedious now.  The only thing that interests me really, is if you voted.  Not HOW you voted, just THAT you voted.  And I'm sure I'll hear that you did, and that you either voted not Labour OR, you voted Labour because on balance their basket was the most attractive/least awful, but that you don't like all their policies but accept that it's just the way the system works.  :-)