Do your research before hugging trees

I must be a horrible, heartless, soulless person. That's the only thing I can think with some of the looks I get upon discussing or being questioned about topics like animal experimentation. 

In 2012, for example, a random group of people broke into a big research lab in Brazil to get out the beagles that were undergoing experimentation. Everyone was talking about it and had something to say about animal experimentation. "Oh, poor beagles. STOP animal experimentation. You scientists are horrible people. You use the animals and then KILL them."

It's very pretty to have this speech, to hug trees and try to save animals and the world - it's quite dramatic going out into the streets with a sign or body painting or whatever to show just HOW MUCH you want to change the world and save animals. But, let's be honest, most of the time the world isn't changed by posters, cliché sentences, and screaming your opinion at the top of your lungs. Actually, lots of the time this sort of thing disturbs me profoundly and I will tell you why. 

Have you ever seen someone do animal experimentation? Getting the animal, handling it for extensive periods of time, having it near you, trying to not give names and not grow attached to it in any way, and then have to sacrifice it... Have you ever seen that? No. Or someone getting a chicken embryo to study development? Seeing the beating heart when opening the egg shell carefully and knowing you are the reason why that heart is going to cease beating? No. You haven't. And you don't know what it feels like. 

People think that we are untouchable in our lab coats and fancy goggles, but we're not, we're human. I've seen scientists talk about how they care for animals, how they support animal shelters in an attempt to relieve their conscience of the fact that they quite often kill animals in the laboratory. I have seen people leave the room in lectures, be sick, nearly faint. It's not pretty, it's not fancy and it is definitely not cold blooded murder: you only know how horrible death is when you see it, but you feel the wait of it when inflicting it with your hands, and it is not a good weight to bear, it is not a weight we were made to bear. 

So, I'm imagining you are thinking "Well, if it's so terrible, then why do you do it? It just proves our point that there should NOT be animal experimentation!". Yes, you are right, there should most definitely not be animal experimentation. The same way there should be no murders, rapes, hunger or disease. BUT, we are in a world with suffering, with disease, and we intend to do something about it in research, and unfortunately our only closest model of your friend's cancer or your acquaintance's parkinson's disease or your grannie's arthritis is alive and is an animal model. We are working on other ways to do these things - cell culture, organ on a chip, all these things are being worked on, but none of them are fully functional yet. Therefore, we have to resort to animal models when the others do not suffice. While you want to promote life by screaming in the streets about how horrible we are, we are working long hours in the laboratory to try to develop a vaccine so that your child will not take ill, and a cure for your family relatives' cancer, parkinson's or alzheimer's. We are trying to change the world and promote life in a silent revolution. 

This finally begins to deconstruct the common scientist stereotype, that we do what we do because we are cold blooded: we do what we do keeping in mind that there is a bigger reason for what we do. Every time I pick up paraphormaldehyd, a scalpel, liquid nitrogen, a pair of scissors and nankin to dye an embryo I tell myself: I'm doing this for a reason. Maybe it's idealistic and naïve of me as an undergrad student, but it's the only way I can get myself to do it. In a way, one might say that because we hate seeing suffering and wrong in the world - because we feel the pain too much - that we inflict pain to stop it. You would be surprised at the number of people who go into research because of relatives with disorders in whatever they are working in. 

Now, defences made, I feel I must state something that may be very impopular, but that for far too many years has bothered me, and that is the fact that I do not know what all the fuss is about most of the time. Some people have very hateful speeches towards science, and I don't really know where that comes from. I do agree, for example, with the fact that animal models should not be used for experimentation in non-fundamental branches of research such as the cosmetic industry. However, when people are fighting so much to save the beagles, I can't help but laugh inwardly about how ridiculous the situation is, many times, for 3 reasons: 

1) People only fight for what they like (aka, think is cute)

When people broke in to the lab in Brazil, they went and they saved all the beagles (ruining YEARS of research) but left the rats and the pigs to die. You don't see anyone doing walks to defend the mosquitoes or cockroaches from insecticides or the sole of anyone's shoe. Although there are vegetarians, many animal lovers are not vegetarians and are not inclined to be in front of a butcher's saying he is a cold blooded killer. So, you just love the fluffy and warm animals but the rest can die (especially if they are tasty)?

2) People have no idea what they are talking about

People get emotional and people get stupid about things. They don't know enough about it, and because it seems to be a noble cause they go for it without thinking. Lots of people praised the beagle incident "oh, they SAVED the beagles!". Guys, the beagles were bred in certain conditions so as to have NO IMMUNITY. Three months later, the 'free beagles' all died. Please, get your facts straight before lifting up your posters and breaking in and destroying very expensive lab equipment.
Something else under this that I cannot go on without mentioning is the recent measles outbreak and the return of several diseases which should have been eradicated by now, but are not because of people who refuse to vaccinate their children.  Because of not searching for reliable sources and just believing any non-scientific nonsense, they are putting their children and other people who cannot be vaccinated due to health conditions at risk. This is why I highlight HOW important it is to get your facts straight and look for RELIABLE sources of information. 

3) Even the most energetic people against it have benefited from it

Every person picking up a poster, sign or talking for greenpeace or WWF or whatever non-governmental organisation, has in some way benefited from animal experimentation. Be it from direct use of medication and cosmetics which were tested on animals (or would you really refuse to undergo antibiotic treatment with an infection that could kill you in 2 days because a number of rats were killed in testing it?), or from indirect benefits like studies about infection that led doctors to use latex gloves, wash hands, use 70% alcohol and antibacterial soap. If you want to go back to living like there is no science or medicine, go for it. I'm not inclined to be there to see the bubonic plague coming back the same way measles is coming back because of recent anti-vaccers.

In a nutshell, I do not want to insult anyone or offend anyone; what I'm trying to say is that, yes, animal experimentation is something to be used with great care, and death (even of animals) is not something to be taken lightly, but our scientific and technological development is not ready to have it completely ruled out (though we are working hard towards it). However, whenever emotional involvement takes away one's better judgement and, therefore, makes facts and arguments disposable, caution must be taken even in apparently good causes: if you just think what everyone thinks, you aren't thinking at all. So, be you in favour or against animals, a vegetarian or a carnivore, let's be wise in pointing fingers and accusing anyone of being a cold blooded killer. We don't live in a perfect world, and therefore, we are not perfect - but let us work towards making it a better place, starting with listening and being loving, even towards the freaks in the lab coats.