Weekly Blog #2: Response to "Cruelty of Animal Testing"

I think that this post is going to end up being more of a response to the discussion we had about Zack's article than it will be about the article itself mostly because I was really surprised about how it went.

While reading "Cruelty of Animal Testing", I began forming a pretty specific scenario of how our classroom review of it would go in my head. I assumed we would all be on the same page. Don't test. Don't kill. I love baby seals. The massive difference between this mind-made, animal-lover's version of a conversation and the dehumanizing (okay, so animals aren't humans, exactly, but we sure treat them like it enough!), PETA-bashing ventilation that actually took place was startling. I could not believe what I was hearing--and not hearing, for that matter.

I'm not going to get into everything that was said because I don't want to offend anyone, or, worse yet, make myself more angry about it, but I have to say that there were definitely times when I felt like I was up against the whole class. Obviously, I wasn't--there's no way I was the only animal-adoring freak in there--, but I felt like no one who was, for lack of better words, "on my side" was saying anything.

I remember looking around at the faces of my classmates who were keeping silent during the discussion and wondering, "What in the world are they thinking right now?!" I wanted to know if they agreed with those who chose to describe lab animals as plentiful machines or if, like me, they disagreed so much that they couldn't be bothered to find the words to say so. I was very frustrated and confused.

However, I think the thing that really sent me over the edge was something that happened a little later in the class period.

We had just finished discussing "Death of a Fish," and Mr. Kunkle was wrapping up his story about how he handled the death of his own daughter's fish. Then, Isis went on to tell her story about her mother's parents feeding her mother her pet rabbit when it died, and how did people react to that?!

Well, after everyone got over the grossness of it, the room filled with "aw"'s and "that's so sad"'s. Aw?! That's so sad?!?! So now that it's someone's pet, it's suddenly upsetting that an animal died?! Perhaps people should consider the fact that animals used in lab experiments never have the chance to be pets. Perhaps people should consider the fact that animals used in lab experiments often die for human vanity and shady, consumerist morals.

But, of course, that doesn't matter. That's what they were made for, right?

So not.