honestly this will probably be a Controversial Post so Don’t @ Me but
you absolutely should be pro animal testing.
against cosmetic animal testing is one thing. to be honest, if we were in 1955, i’d say it’s still necessary, but we’ve kinda sussed out our options. we have a good database. only the weird experimental bullshit is worth animal testing in the field of cosmetics.
medical animal testing, though? if you come for medical animal testing, i will fight you.
yes i know the pictures look gory, and mean, and creepy. but this is still the primary way we learn.
only a fucking fool says that we know enough about biology to model it all on a computer. biology is one of those subjects where it can look like we know what we’re doing in that big picture high school view, but SURPRISE ASSHOLE! WE KNOW JACK FUCKING SHIT. we just discovered a new organ, like, a couple years ago. there are layers of immune system so involved that we know humans probably have them but we just don’t fucking know how to spot it. and if you can’t spot it, if you can’t describe its behavior – how the fuck do you computer model it?
so what do you do? you use test animals as analogues. a lot of test animals are used because we want to study something, but we need it simpler, and more easy to spot. shoutout to fruit flies and zebrafish! and then there are some test animals where we want to see what it might look like in a complex critter with a lot of moving parts similar to ours – like mice.
in a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to do any animal testing. let me get this straight: i know that animals suffer and die so we can test on them. i know that. but even as i mourn them, i thank them.
we still need animal testing in medical science the same way a general needs foot soldiers. in a perfect world, there would be no war. but there is war yet to fight.
be grateful. be compassionate. fight for strict ethical standards. (for one fucking thing, bad ethics means bad fucking science, because you’re introducing additional variables into the mix and not being honest about balancing for them!) remember every single animal from chimpanzee down to fruitfly as a brave soul who gave their life for a greater cause.
but the cause is still great.
honor the sacrifice of these animals by supporting research, not seeking to make their deaths be in vain by saying you do not want the foundation of knowledge they gave us to be built upon any longer. they gave us a precious gift of knowledge for their lives already. it is not kind nor ethical to spurn that gift, because the war isn’t over, and the battles are not yet won.
remember these animals as brave soldiers. honor them. be proud of them. seek that those still in the fight are treated humanely. hell, make memorials! there is a lovely memorial in poland iirc dedicated to all the knockout mice that have helped us understand genetics, and it’s one of my favourite monuments in the entire world.
…but don’t disrespect their sacrifice.
(and if you need to care, on a more practical level, about the medical animal testing that looks ickiest to you because it’s cute doggies and kitties? ….where the fuck do you think new veterinary medicines come from, shat out by cherubim upon our heads? knowing that a medicine works for x illness in dogs isn’t just a stepping stone to human test trials, WE NOW HAVE A MEDICINE FOR DOGS TOO.)
it was unveiled in 2013, and is in Novosibirsk at their institute of genetics (same people that still are running the SibFox experiment)
i think we need more monuments like this. i would like to see one in every college that has a genetics department. thanking not only mice, but all laboratory animals.
seriously though whenever i’ve brought it up to people who are against medical testing on animals, there’s about 95% odds that they go “oh we can just test people who are in jail and on death row instead!!!”.
and then i always have a moment of being quietly exhausted at them. i feel like it’s a bad sign when my white as wonderbread ass has a moment of “oh god help you, i dunno if i have the strength to explain to you right now about racial problems”. it’s so above and beyond that when i think somebody is being too white, like when they complain about salt being too spicy and mayonnaise being exotic, like, they’re deep in the shit indeed
Imma toot my own horn and post a link to the poem I wrote about this.
I really love the OP, I really appreciate their reflections on the nuances of the issue. I really admire @vmohlere ‘s poem, it’s a really nice piece of craft. I really love @honoriaw‘s addition.
this is giving me so many good feelings about a nuanced, heavy, difficult topic. I’m so glad we could share them. This is such a hopeful and thoughtful approach.
and as someone who uses mice in my research (i study when breast cancer spreads to the bone during metastasis), i don’t enjoy it. watching animals suffer, and then euthanizing them one after another until you lose track of how many lives you’ve ended with your bare hands… it. never. feels. right. i hate every single moment. i wish we didn’t have to use mice; i wish we had other options; i wish we lived in a perfect world that didn’t needto sacrifice a life for knowledge.
but how else can we understand something as complex as cancer, let alone cancer metastasis? how else?? if your answer is “just don’t do any research that involves animal research” or “get rid of all animal research”, i want you to go to a hospital, find the oncology department, and tell every single patient you see that their life is not worth the sacrifices of animal testing.
HOLY SH*T. THEY FOUND NITROGEN-FIXING CORN BRED BY INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN MEXICO. @botanyshitposts
“The study found the Sierra Mixe corn obtains 28 to 82 percent of its nitrogen from the atmosphere. To do this, the corn grows a series of aerial roots. Unlike conventional corn, which has one or two groups of aerial roots near its base, the nitrogen-fixing corn develops eight to ten thick aerial roots that never touch the ground.
During certain times of the year, these roots secrete a gel-like substance, or mucilage. The mucilage provides the low-oxygen and sugar-rich environment required to attract bacteria that can transform nitrogen from the air into a form the corn can use.
“Our research has demonstrated that the mucilage found in this Sierra Mixe corn forms a key component of its nitrogen fixation,“ said co-author Jean-Michel Ané, professor of agronomy and bacteriology in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at UW–Madison. “We have shown this through growth of the plant both in Mexico and Wisconsin.”
…
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Researchers are a long way from developing a similar nitrogen-fixing trait for commercial corn, but this is a first step to guide further research on that application. The discovery could lead to a reduction of fertilizer use for corn, one of the world’s major cereal crops. It takes 1 to 2 percent of the total global energy supply to produce fertilizer. The energy-intensive process is also responsible for 1 to 2 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“
I’ve written about this before, this is one of those ‘saving the planet’ levels of discovery. No joke.
this is amazing! i want to see this developed for use here in minnesota, land of 10,000 algae blooms. fertilizer runoff makes a godawful mess of wetlands. the ‘land of sky blue waters’ turns into the land of green goop by june these days and it’s not great.
Concept: a robot character who’s just, like, hilariously nonchalant about physical peril because their “body” is a teleoperated drone and their mind is safely ensconced in a basement server room several miles away.
(Well, most of the time. Their usual body is disposable 3D-printed crap. They have a “good” body they bring out for special occasions, and they’re much more cautious when using that one – not in the “pain hurts” way, but in the “I’m wearing a really expensive pair of shoes” way.)
“Look into the face of a man who will kill you for a belief and your nostrils will snuff up the scent of abomination. Hear a speech declaring a holy war and, I assure you, your ears should catch the clink of evil’s scales and the dragging of its monstrous tail over the purity of the language.”
i spent christmas alone while my family got together and fought, and honestly i feel so good about this
i bought myself presents, cooked a big meal, drank wine and watched Home Alone 3 w/ my dog. I don’t feel sorry for myself at all.
meanwhile my sister threatened to disown my dad so he threatened to disown her, while my mom enabled and my other sister downed a bottle of wine to deal.
on the other side of the country, i was busy discovering, to my delight, that the that the 3rd installment of the Home Alone franchise not only stood up to the test of time, but contains some of the best oneliners and comedic timing I have ever seen.
honestly, keep toxic people out of your life. family isn’t everything, and bad family is often worse than no family. don’t be afraid to put in some distance, especially during high stress times like the holidays. you don’t actually owe them anything.
being alone for the holidays is so much better than being with people who make you unhappy.
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