Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-24
SENTIMENT AND SCIENCE
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fusions of thought. l want to Olsen.
tangle what is at the root of the feel.
ings of the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., and not
to score controversial points. But
must call attention to the marked dis.
regard shown by the active spirits in
this agitation for any sort of expert
menting with animals, however pro-
ductive of pain, that does not produce
scientific results.
The world of pet animals Is
world of aimless experimenting
with life. The lives of the pets"
or careless women are for the most
part remarkable histories of wrong
and excessive feeding and fitful fuss
ing and negligence; and these crea-
lures are themselves in many of their
varieties products of a ruthlessly dys-
genie breeding industry which sacri-
fees vigor and vitality to minuteness,
quaintness and delicious ugliness.
But the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. has never
shown the slightest disposition to
couple this ugly trade in animal de-
formity with the pursuit of scientific
research. Nor does he show any an.
linus against the importation of little
monkeys and such like small, attrac.
tive beasts, dragged from their natural
environment to die EN- route or perish
miserably "but amusingly" in uncon.
genial and often terrifying surround.
ingS.
Indeed, a large part of the special
and financial support of anti.vivisec.
ton seems to come from just the sort
of people who sustain the breeders
and procurers Of animals for pet
ting"
But very probably the toy dog lover
does not realize the biological abomi-
nation of these practices. In his dis.
regard of possible pain and liscom.
fort in one case and in his ex-
aggeration of pain and discomfort |
in the other we find the clue to the |
fundamental issue of this controversy, |
The pet is to him a dear little thing |
and Its incessant struggles to breathe |
with its pug nose are considered to be |
funny; its fitful appetite is interpreted |
rs fastidiousness; it's manifest ill health |
is "delicacy"; If it is constantly wash |
ed and combed it does not smell and 1t |
is sweet creature. It's abject physi |
cal dependence on its owner, its terror |
and hatred of the world beyond the |
proprietary aura are very fiattering
and easily interpreted as love.
There is the same Discrimination to
see the realities in the case of the pet
dog as in the case of the dog in the
hands OF the experimentalist, but the
disinclination is set at a different angle.
The former leads life of general dis
comfort, but it is necessary for the pet |
owning and pet-protecting type to
think of it as eXquisitely indulged; the |
latter may not suffer in the slight |
est degree and may show the friend. |
Hest feelings to the man who has |
made it contributor to science or |
may jump on the table eagerly for |
the Injection that is followed by a pat |
and titbit of food, but it has to be re. |
garded as being thrillingly and out. |
rageously tormented.
X X X X
These, however, are honest delu- |
SONS, the outcome of peculiar men |
tai makeup, and the anti-vivisection- |
list is not to be charged with willful
inconsistency. His or her-it is more |
commonly her-intention is to pre-
vent and forbid the inf1iction in cold
blood and for a scientific end of any.
thing that looks like pain upon any
animal that can be imagined to suffer.
The hatred is not against pain as
such; it is against pain inflicted for
knowledge. The medical profession is
massively in support of vivisection,
and its testimony is that the knowl.
edge derived from vivisection has
made possible the successful treat
ment or many cases Of human suf-
tering. So far as we can measure one
pain against another, or the pain of
this creature against the pain Of that,
Vivlsectfon has diminished the pain of
he world very considerably. But the
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. will hear nothing of
that. They will hear nothing Of that
because 1t is not material to their con.
ception Of the case.
The peculiar animus Of the anti
vivisectionist is clearly against the de.
liberation and the scientific aim and
not against the pain in itself. The
general subjugation Of animals to hui.
man ends is not questioned. Many
anti-vivisectionists are, like their pets,
carnivorous. They will leave the
abattoir to go on when they have
closed the laboratory; they will rec
ognize the right and duty Of the owner
or big dog to beat his fortunate
tO'~''~'SANiA 1iItO 5OOu DCudflOT anu
keep 1t short Of food to tame it, they
would be indignant If they were re.
fused the freedom Of giving their pets
anything to eat that they fancied, pro-
Vlded always that no scientific knowl.
edge ensued from it's subsequent re-
actions. 1t is the quiet determination
or the handed man with the
/ scalpel that they cannot endure.
X *
1t is not that he is cruel, because
manifestly he is not cruel. If he had
a lust for cruelty the richly emotional
nature of the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. would
probably understand him better. 1t
is because he is not driven by his
feelings or cravings to do what he
does, but by a will for abstract lu.
cidity, that he rouses the antagonism,
the violent sense of difference, in his
'antis"
Vivisection is only occasionally and
incidentally the infection of pain and
| anti:vtvisection is not really a cam.
! palgn against pain at all. The real
| campaign is against the thrusting of
a scientific probe into mysteries and
| hidden things, which, it is felt, should
| either be approached in state OF awe,
! tenderness, excitement or passion, or
| else avoided
1t is, we begin to realize, a cam.
paign to protect a world of fantasy
against s-:Cnce, cherished and nee
essary world of fantasy. 1t is a coun.
ter.att: TX upon q treatment of ami