> anybody that willfully places an animal in such conditions just to see what damage will occur ought to be shot
Are you talking about sadism or scientific curiosity? I detest the former but I'm comfortable with the latter.
Not to sound pedantic but you do realize that those two qualities are not necessarily mutually exclusive in people right?
If we condone such cruelty to other living beings in the name of scientific curiosity, there is no limit to it. It's not ok to go around torturing others because one is 'scientifically curious'.
Our society is built on the backs of the less fortunate. We live in a country we've taken from weaker humans, we feed animals in factories until we're ready to kill them because it's cheaper than treating them humanely. We get our energy from coal mines where hundreds of thousands of workers have died and we stand by as genocides and famines wipe out entire regions. We buy products made by children who work all day every day in factories.
Given the circumstances, cruel experiments on animals (or even humans) to speed up scientific progress (and therefore welfare) looks like a really good deal to me.
Victims of science are just another statistic.
Well, then I hope for you you never become a statistic!
When moving back from Canada to the Netherlands we took our dogs that we had acquired while in Canada back with us. Sarah, a three year old Irish wolfhound and Lisa, a 2 year old labrador / husky mix.
They went by plane, in crates specifically designed for the purpose.
On arrival the wolfhound had completely lost it, didn't recognize any of us and was totally out of it for at least two weeks, after which she slowly recovered. That was just 8 hours in a crate, not even close to the 'pit of despair' shown in the article, and anybody that willfully places an animal in such conditions just to see what damage will occur ought to be shot.
If I had had any idea something like that could have happened I would have gladly taken a boat with her, no matter how much longer that would have taken. It was incredibly sad to see her in that state, eventually she completely recovered though.
The other dog didn't show anything strange at all and took the whole thing in stride.