Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-11-28

save many times that number Of human
lives. They are your protection against some
of the most deadly diseases. They also pro-
tect you against fraudulent serums and anti
toxins. The doctors feel that they are just
as much justified in killing these animals
to save human life as the farmer is in kill
ing animals and sending them to market
to maintain human life
In some cases the animal must suffer, .it
is true. But 1t is a question Of whether
the animal Is to suffer or human beings
are to die.
When you want quail on toast, you do not
debate whether the quail had as good q right
to life as you. When your wife buys fur
piece, she not only deprives a fox of life,
but she indorses the intiicton of consider
able suffering on the trapped fox. Daily
we sacrifice animals to our own purposes.
We must do so to live. Often we sacrifice
them somewhat ruthlessly, causing them to
suffer more than Is necessary, as when we
take animals in traps that do not kill Ami
mails used for experiment in medical science
are allowed to suffer little possible
If your child was bitten by a mad dog,
and threatened with the horrible death which
hydrophobia causes you would not hesitate
to send him to a. Pasteur institute for treat
ment. The Pasteur treatment would save
his life and it is the only thing that could
possibly save his life.
Many animals were sacrificed to perfect
the Pasteur treatment, and many animals
are sacrificed to make the material for the
treatment Yet you would never debate the
question whether these animals had good
right to life as your child. Thus argue
the doctors.
They also bring an impressive array Of
evidence against the contention and that
viyi-section has accomplished nothing. They
specially value the right to vivi-sect
| dogs because the dog lives under much
the same conditions OF food and shell
ter does man. Modern intestinal sur
| gerry is based largely upon experiments with
dogs. So is knowledge of the heart and of
the c1rculatOry system. A doctor would not
venture to suture a stab wound in the heart
but for the experiments that have been made
on dogs. Defense against poisonous gases
during the war was dependent on dogs.
| Goats were tried, but 1t was found that a
| goat would not even stop grazing because of
| a poisonous gas. Dogs affected by it
| like men, and the defensive mechanisms and
treatments were perfected by experiments
! with dogs. Cerebral surgery, including the
treatment of brain tumors and Of brain in
| jurtes, was developed by experiments on
! dogs. The transportation Of vital organs
was perfected in the same way.
| Chinopodinm is the only drug that cures
! the deadly disease of hookworm. It varies
| unaccountably in its composition and effect.
| Each fresh lot which is used by the doctors
must be tested on dog first. In some cases
1t kills the dogs. If this experiment were
not allowed, it would have to be tested on
|
man.
The bureau of chemistry in much the
same way has to use dogs in the testing of
drugs in order that it may properly enforce
the pure food and drug act. The chief of
the bureau OF chemistry says that he could
not carry out the provisions of that law
without the use of dogs for experiments n
| the bureau OF animal industry, dogs are used
for experiments with certain parasitic dis
eases, which are communicated to sheep and
cattle by dogs. 1t would have to abandon
its experiments completely IL it were for
hidden to use DOS.
The answer of the observation-disclosures to
all this is simply that no real good has been
accomplished by vivi-section, and that man
| has no right to int1ict upon the lower
animals any suffering whatsoever. One oil
these gentlemen who appeared before the
committee said that for this reason he had
not eaten any meat for five years, and that
he never permitted the castration of animals
introduced into the United States senate m
| on his farm