I recently read an article about animals being using for medical experimentation. It is a horrible practice.  However if the use of animals for scientific experimentation is morally wrong, what do you tell the people who suffer from incurable diseases?  People like me.  How do you explain to them that their suffering is not as important to the world as the suffering of animals?  How do you explain to the child that is unable to walk that we can’t look for a cure because animals must have their rights?  What about the rights of the child?

Every time there are complaints about the sins of medical experimentation they show the most adorable animals with sorrowful eyes and vulnerable demeanors.  Just once I would like them to show the eyes of the child that is dying of an incurable disease.  I would like them to show the demeanor of the man forced to watch his wife die slowly from a degenerative and fatal disease.  I would like them to watch a close friend deal with debilitating pain for which there is no cure.

I do not like animals to be harmed in any way.  In a perfect world all animals would be able to live their lives as nature intended – free.  Just in case you missed it, this is not a perfect world.  Our towns and cities grow and animals are displaced.  We slaughter animals for food and clothing.  We are predators.  We use animals in medical research and I can only hope it is done humanely. I may not like it but I will continue to support it.  I want them to find a cure and unless some of these activists are willing to take the place of the lab rats, I will continue to condone the use of animals.

I need to believe that there will be a cure for multiple sclerosis.  I need to believe that there are people who are trying to find a cure for this disease that has robbed me of so much.  I will not apologize for my disability as if I am an embarrassment to the healthy people of the world.  Listening to some of these activists it is if they want me to one day cease to exist and cease to be an embarrassment. Animals are important to this world in many, many ways.  But so am I.