April 7, 2009
Elizabeth Margareta Griffith
Examiner.com
Ferrets are energetic, curious, playful little animals. They
love the company of humans and other ferrets, exploring, and getting
into everything. Life with a ferret is never dull.
Ferrets have been working animals in the past, hunting rodents and
rabbits. The modern ferret may also be a working animal, in a
research laboratory. Ferrets are used to research canine distemper,
spine injuries, reproduction, ulcers, viral diseases, and gastric infections
(www.hsus.org/animals_in_research/ferret1.htm) Ferrets are particularly
useful for testing anti-nausea drugs, as they do actually have nausea
and vomiting similar to what humans experience. The Humane Society
claims that while the lifespan of
a domestic pet ferret may be as long
as twelve years, the laboratory ferret typically lives only five or
six. The Humane Society is also concerned because ferrets, being
fairly intelligent and very active animals, generally don't get enough
exercise or mental stimulation in laboratories.
Personally, I believe that laboratory research involving non-human
animals should be very, very. rare. And I use the word 'rare'
meaning 'I don't believe in it at all, but there is an exception to
almost every rule, so 'rare' will cover that. I'm aware that
there are decent people who interpret 'rare' more liberally. But
can we at least agree that the laboratory ferret's non-working hours
be under reasonable conditions for the species? Ferrets, when
not downing anit-nausea drugs, should have socialization and a stimulating
environment.
We need to think about just how badly we need to do animal experimentation
- the vast majority of animal research is not about lifesaving cures
for human diseases. I admit that mandating the additional effort
and expense of decent working conditions for laboratory animals would
have a side effect that I do support, making animal research so expensive
and inconvenient that we really could believe animals are used only
when there is no other way to get fairly important information.
Author:
Elizabeth Margareta Griffith
|
Ferret News 
Subscribe to this comment's feed
