🚀 go-pugleaf

"gtrgrrrl" <gtrgrrrl@nospamev1.net> wrote in message
> I dunno. I don't condone cruelty. And it would take someone
> with a stronger stomach than mine to experience what has
> previously been described in other postings about the treatment
> of the labcritters. There has to be an answer.  This is an old
> question.  Is it just that we haven't bothered to find another way?
> Or (unnecessary, avoidable, cruelty aside) is it the only way?

At this point in time, I'd say it is the only way. I think it is
ridiculous how people do not acknowledge what ground
breaking discoveries have been made in the past by way
of animal experimentation. Things that were learned more
than a couple centuries ago that we would *maybe* just
perhaps stumble across today or in the near future had
past research been free of animal tesing. It is practically
taken for granted, another reason why I refuse to take
a stance on this topic at the current time. We just don't
know enough to get out of the way of our own stupid
ideas and decisions. It's a rollercoaster and we are all
strapped in tight. Truthfully, can we renounce progress?
Especially when so much of the progress is engrained
in our day-to-day life in a manner we take for granted?

Coincidentally I've been reading a book on the history
of experimental psychology. As much as I am enjoying
this book, I have dreaded getting into discussion about
it on here. Here I am, reasonably informed with details
and still pleading my own ignorance when it seems like
everyone else is content spouting off what they think in
such a sure and absolute way. Just how in hell do ya'll
think the localizations of brain functions that any middle
school student studies in anatomy class was originally
determined? A couple centuries ago they began with
animals. They would ablate parts of the subjet's brain
and then nurse the animal back to good health and
run a battery of tests only to repeat the cycle again
and again and again till there was very little left. In
the final stages the animal was what we today would
call a vegetable. Then *after* that they started in on
human subjects. YES, human subjects and this was
not so long in the past....here is an actual account of
a U.S. experiment conducted 1874 where a probe
with a mild current of electricity was inserted into a
live an un-anesthetized lady, it is quite disturbing:

"Her countenance exhibited great distress, and she began to cry. Very soon
the left hand was extended as if taking hold of some object in front of her;
the arm presently was agitated by clonic spasms; her eyes became fixed, with
pupils widely dilated; her lips were blue, and she frothed at the mouth; her
breathing became stertorous; she lost consciousness, and was violently
convulsed on the left side. The convulsion lasted five minutes, and was
succeeded by coma."

The lady died before the planned repetition of the
experiment could be carried out. The process was
refined and in the 1930's began to net real results.
More carefully, various parts of the brain were
stimulated in epilepsy patients. When they hit a
spot that produced epileptic symptoms, they
removed that part of the brain and surprisingly
the patient's epileptic symptoms after the study
lessened by a degree that outweighed side-effects.

These are only a couple mentions of past stuff,
I don't think we can comprehend how many
other things we would look down upon today
but their occurance in the past is directly a
reason why we enjoy certain modern advances.

Let us all renounce advancement, lets burn all
of our worldly posessions and move into the
woods with our nothing but our wits. Come on!
Lets go! Who's with me? Whatcha waiting for?!

Yeah, heh, that's what I thought.