Should we be able to use animals in Pharmaceutical reasearch

[rbrophy2]

either that or we should breed a new race of people (all races together) and use them for scientific purposes.

 

i like the second one better.

How is that any different to breeding mice and testing on them?

That one has racism

[Maharg67]

Mr Ham and others!!!!

 

The intelligence of animals has never been totally or finally defined in relation to humans (we are animals!). Experiments have proven greater apes to be surprisingly intelligent, often more so than previous assumptions would have had them being. This has also proven true for other animals.

 

As for the idea that animals mimic more complicated emotions, I have done evironmental studies and have seen more than enough evidence to invalidate that idea. Animals are capable of quite complex emotions though some more than others. Why did a mother hippo try to rescue an antelope on the Nile from a crocodile and staid with it until it died? Yes, it happened as many people witnessed; this is far from the only such event that has taken place. Another was a pigeon that adopted an orphaned ape child; sounds crazy but its true.

 

Yes animal actions go along with instincts but so does much of our own behaviour, which is a lot less 'rational' than we would often like to assert.

 

There are animals that can learn, instigate and experiment, for example octopuses and chimps along with others. Members of the same species can show variations of intelligence and ability. Intelligence is not just a linear equation founded on IQ Tests; the concept has been under pressure for years now as it has become increasing understand that people can be more or less intelligent in various ways. A more practical intelligence versus a more theoretical intelligence might be one form of subcategorisation.

 

It has also become understood in recent years that many older studies of intelligence in animals were heavily biased and inaccurate, some to an amazing degree. The bias was towards seeing human intelligence as surperior and animal intelligence as inferior.

 

Greater apes have shown capacity for abstract thinking, especially gorillas. Amongst one of the amazing discoveries in more recent years of intelligence was that octopuses are quite intelligent. I saw interviews with fishermen speaking of the cunning, of frustrating way that octopuses could work against human made devices. Wild pigs have also shown an amazing ability to detect traps and to figure them out. Ask any experienced wild pig hunter. I would have scoffed at the idea myself before I saw the evidence.

 

The question of what is intelligence, how to define it and how to measure it remains as active today as it has ever been in the past.

 

Animal experiments should be banned because of ethical reasons except for very rare experiments where no valid alternative can be found. Too often animal experimentation is carried out because its cheaper than increasingly available hitech alteratives. Animal experimentation has often led to extreme cruelty and often for dubious reasons. Some that I learned about many years ago still manage to turn my stomach now when I think of them. So called pure scientific research has as often been a culprit as much as have commercially driven interests and I include medicine in this.

 

One say that my arguments are at least partly emotive in nature and I say 'fine' because I don't see so called rationalism as the only valid way to look at such matters.

 

:thanks: