May
1996
Editorial:
There Are Cats and Then There Are Cats
By Martin Rowe
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When a mother cat returned over and over again to rescue each one of
her kittens from a burning building recently, the North Shore Animal
League received thousands of offers of homes and support for her and
hers. As newscast after newscast and commentator after commentator opined:
such devotion showed more than animal instinct; it was true mothering
[read, human mothering) that made the mother cat risk death each time.
In the same month, the March of Dimes held another walkathon —
WalkAmerica — which over 25 years has taken in nearly $700 million
for research into human birth defects. Some 10% of the funding raised
does not go directly to human research. It is used to test on a number
of animals — including primates, dogs, rabbits, pigs, hamsters,
ferrets, guinea pigs, sheep, birds, and, yes... cats. I will spare
the
more squeamish of you the details of these experiments, the cost of
which, according to Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM),
total several millions of dollars. Some experiments involve exposing
pregnant rats to prenatal nicotine (even though a report has just been
issued which collates many studies of the effect of smoking on human
fetuses and, surprise surprise, suggests that it is harmful). Others
involve transferring organs between species, as well as experiments
on fetuses in monkeys.
As to the cats: one study involved suturing a cat’s eye shut for
a year and rearing kittens in the dark from birth to three to five months,
after which they were killed. Experimenters found that, according to
PCRM, "an antigen on cells in an area of the brain that carries
visual pathways (lateral geniculate nucleus)" decreased in level
after the suturing and deliberate blindness. This somewhat unremarkable
conclusion was one of a series of experiments that took three years
and cost about $225,000.
Whatever your opinion about the scientific value to be gained from
experimentation on animals, you will no doubt recognize the cognitive
dissonance all
of us should feel, if we have any ability to make connections, between
the outpouring of sympathy for the cat in the burning building and
the
silence which continues to greet the suturing and light starvation
of the kittens whose mother couldn’t release them from certain
death even if she wanted to.
People walk in good faith in WalkAmerica — if they were informed,
honestly, about what goes on, I believe they would be more careful about
where their money was pledged. I also believe that March of Dimes believes
honorably in what it is trying to do — which is prevent suffering
and avoid defective babies. But that is what the mother cat was also
trying to do; and we humans could learn a great deal about mothering
(read non-human animal mothering) from her. And you don’t need
one eye sewn shut to see it.
If Theodore J. Kaczynski is the Unabomber, as the media already seems
to have concluded, prepare for more of the kind of crime (and not just
guilt) by association that has already been suggested by ABC World
News
Tonight. This robust channel of truth indicated that Mr. K was a member
of Earth First! and went on to link Earth First! with violently destructive
acts against people and property. This will be just the first salvo
in criminalizing through innuendo all those who question our pellmell
pursuit of a capitalist, technological utopia and who are trying to
stop the larger violence against this planet. Satya does not support
any activity which threatens or endangers the life of any animal —
human or non-human. The Unabomber was wrong to kill and maim and he
or she should be locked up. But all of his or her ideas shouldn’t
be locked up as well. Let’s discuss.
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