sirdarksol

An off-hand remark in another thread reminded me that a bunch of people here might want to know this.

You may think that you're doing a pet and a family a favor by going the "free to a good home" route when adopting a pet out, but often it isn't the case. Many testing companies (drugs, cleaning chemicals, makeup, soaps, etc...) have people who watch local ads for such offers, pretend to be the owners of a good home that is being sought, and promptly bring the animal to be subjected to awful tests.

The best route to go in such cases is to go through a local pet adoption agency, which uses the income from adoption fees to rescue more animals.
Another way could be to require a fee (the amount would depend on the animal, go with what local adoption agencies charge), and have the fee go toward some type of care for the animal (spaying or neutering, shots, etc...) and/or directly to an animal rescue agency. This way, the money is going toward the animal or a good cause, and since those companies are looking for free animals, they won't bite on offers like this.

inuyasha_lover_21

We usually put in a ad for the cats but we put them as $20. My chickens are up for free on a website and I get to check out this ladys farm cause she said she has 25 of the same ones that I got.

capekate

Hi Sirdarksol
you are so right! Good topic to post, and bring awareness to this problem. ~ kate

tan.b

major drug companies to run a legal regulated test on animals have to have animals saught from a place where their full genetic history is known, date of birth etc etc. the same is true when the drugs go on to human trials to test...they need a full medical history and background and people of a certain age bracket and to know of any genetic traits which would taint the results, so drug companies use animals specifically bred for the purpose. thats the case for the UK anyway. they cant use any animal of any age. dont get me wrong.... i dont agree with animal testing, but i know how it works as i used to do in vitro testing and develop replacements for in-vivo, and was involved in the human trials too. i would love a world of no in vivo testing and no human testing! i still reckon we should just test the prisoners!! apparently there's some human rights issues and ethics :. they should lose their rights when they harmed someone!! but thats a whole other issue!

sirdarksol

I'm sure that there are similar laws in the US, but think about how difficult that law is to enforce. Hundreds (thousands?) of labs, each one with hundreds (thousands?) of animals, with many dying off and being replaced every day. It would take quite a bit of resources to maintain track of this sort of thing. Further, it's not just drug companies that do animal testing. Shampoo, makeup, sunscreen, cleaning products, etc... Anything that will come into contact with a human is tested first, to make sure that, say, Chemical A in the shampoo and Chemical B in the conditioner don't combine to make chlorine. Besides, it's unlikely that the government (at least here in America) is going to spend overly much money or time worrying about creatures that roughly half of the people in government believe were put here for the sole purpose of our use.

COBettaCouple

i think the people in government don't care anything about animals or things like illegal testing.. after all, how much money are they getting from the animals?

sirdarksol

I'm sure that helps, too, but I think that the number one issue in this case (and in many other animal-related issues) is that many fundamentalist Christians have this notion that because God gave us custodianship of the planet and everything that lives on it, we've been given free reign to abuse planet, animals, and plants in any way that we want. I've had conversations with these types of Christians before, and they've told me that they don't see any problems with torturing animals if it makes human life just a little bit more comfortable.

COBettaCouple

those type of "Christians" need to read up on what God told us to do, but people are people and i guess every group has all kinds in it.

My viewpoint as a Christian is that we should take good care of the animals and we're both major softies for animals. We're supposed to have a loving heart and i don't see how a loving heart can enjoy senseless torture or suffering. If someone can't care for an animal, how can they care for another person like we should? I can't understand how someone could enjoy making an animal suffer for their amusement. How can you look in the eyes of an animal and then procede to torture it or execute it or make it fight another animal for some sick thrill. i can't even pass a stack of betta cups without wanting to take them all home and pamper each one.