Animal Welfare NGO

I found an NGO related to Animal Rights and thought this is really interesting.This NGO is called "Angel eyes" and it respects animals life and I personally really like it.
The vision of this NGO is that every animal and bird has as much right to live, to experience freedom and to feel protected as does any human being.
They uphold Triple-A (Action, Adoption & Awareness)approach towards animal welfare and currently has its effort.
Action:

Animal Birth Control (ABC) Measures

Assistance To Sick/Injured Stray Animals & Birds

Anti-Rabies Vaccination Camps

Adoption

Adoption Of Indian Breed Dogs

Adoption Of Abandoned Pets

Community Adoption

Awareness

Educational Documentary

Awareness Activities

Publication

Siddharth, Choudhary Angle Eyes. NGO, n.d. Web. 5 Jul 2012. <http://www.angeleyes.in/

Financial Benefits and Disadvantages

In this post I would like to discuss the financial benefits and disadvantages of companies that claim they have an anti-animal testing policy. You don't see many companies in Japan that actively promote they have this policy, but in the UK and in the EU it is a big trend and they proudly display an anti-animal testing logo on their products.


Here is an example which I found out.
When The Body Shop started campaigning that they do not put animals through cruel experiments in developing their product, this brought an enormous profit to their company. Meanwhile, Boots (a big rival drugstore company in the UK) lost many customers because they weren't a company that said their products were not put through tests. Boots had to change quickly. A knock on effect was that all suppliers to Boots had to change too. It suddenly became very unfashionable and unacceptable not to display an anti-animal testing logo.


This shows that, at least in the UK, promoting that your company has an anti-animal testing policy will bring financial benefit.


Although this sounds as if there is no down side to it, what happens if a customer has an allergy reaction to the product and he/she sues you for not having their products tested with animals? This could be a HUGE disadvantage for the company.




Putting this in mind, do you think it is good that a company has an anti-animal testing policy or not?

Cruelty-Free Companies and Animal Testing Companies

For this post, I would like to introduce you to companies that do NOT put animals through cruel experiments in the process of making or improving their products.

I would like to tell you which cosmetic companies have a cruelty-free policy, since cosmetic companies are the ones that have the biggest share in animal experimentation.

I was surprised to find there are so many companies that don't do any animal experiments! Here are some major companies which you might know.

· Bath & Body Works

· Lush Cosmetics

· The Body Shop (L'Oreal)

· Victoria's Secret

On the other hand, these are some companies that unfortunately do animal experiments.

· Johnson & Johnson (Acuvue, Band-Aid, Clean & Clear, Neutrogena)

· Unilever (Comfort, Dove, LUX, Ponds)

· Procter & Gamble (Downy, DOLCE & GABBANA, Dunhill, Herbal Essence, Joy)

· L'Oreal (Lancôme, Kerastase, Maybelline)

You might have heard some of these products. I was shocked. Many of the products I use in my daily life were on the list of products/companies that carry out animal tests. Although this was shocking news to me, now that I know I can be more careful in choosing what kind of products I should buy and choosing which shops I should go to.

There was one thing that I thought was interesting in doing this research: I found out that there are some companies, such as L'Oreal, that have non-animal testing products in their portfolio while at the same time allowing other products in their range to be tested on animals. 

These are just a few that I spotted, for more information please go to the PETA(People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) website! http://www.peta.org/living/beauty-and-personal-care/companies/default.aspx They will show you not only cosmetic companies but also clothing companies, living supply companies, medical companies (even candles!) that do or do not allow animal testing as part of their policies on their products.

Vivisection

In my previous 15 questions, there was a question I mentioned about vivisection. Today I would like to explain what vivisection is and would like to talk what I feel towards that. First of all, vivisection is an animal experiment tested at schools and universities in the purpose of students to dissect animals. "Every year, tens of millions of animals are dissected, infected, injected, gassed, burned and blinded in hidden laboratories on college campuses and research facilities throughout the U.S. Still more animals are used to test the safety of cosmetics, household cleansers and other consumer products. These innocent primates, dogs, cats, rabbits, rodents and other animals are used against their will as research subjects in experiments and procedures that would be considered sadistically cruel were they not conducted in the name of science." What I honestly thought when I read this is that I had a doubt if vivisection is really needed at schools. Without sctually testing and dissecting animals, they might get to learn from watching the actual videos of it. I thought that might help at least half of the animals that are killed. Of course I am not saying that vivisection isnt in need, indeed it is nesesary to train talented people. I just thought that there might be ways that tens of millions of animals won't be killed.

yahoo groups

I found this yahoo group called greenvibrations. This is a group for animal lovers, eco warriors, environmentalists, flower people, conservationists, vegetarians and vegans.
Vivisection, the Ivory Trade, GM Crops, Animal Cloning, Animals in Circuses, Bloodsports, Nuclear Waste Dumping, Animals in Sport, Endangered Animals, Fur, Global Warming, Animal Experiments, Exotic Pet Trade, Over Fishing, Whaling, Factory Farming, Transport of Livestock & the Meat Trade, Domestic Pet Issues, Deforestation & Habitat Destruction, Wild Animals in Captivity, Pollution, and any animal/environmental are mainly disscused here so I thought it might be good to join this and know more about animal rights.
Total mebers are 614 and ithis group was founded in Aug 7, 1999 and the spoken language is English.

Introducing Yahoo! Groups

I'd like to introduce you a very good public Yahoo! Group that I found.
It is called Ethological Ethics. The founder of this group, Marc Bekoff, regularly updates with his blog posts on various issues on animal rights. He is a professor at the Colorado University and lectures on issues of animal behavior, the ethology on animal minds, and behavior ecology. The last post of his was "Do Dogs Really Feel Pain and Are They Really Conscious?" This could be related to our topic on animal experimentation.

I thought this was a good group because there are up-to-date posts and all of it contains of NO SPAMS!!! It is hard to find public Yahoo! groups with no spam messages. I joined a different group that required a membership because I thought if they require you a membership, they would post some real and useful information, but I was wrong, all they had was spam posts, which was really disappointing.

word clouds

I made a word cloud based on the text of web page I found about animal rights.

The word, animals, rights, respect, happiness are conspicous.
Reading this word cloud, you could know that this web page I found is pro animal rights.

Munoz, G. "Animal Rights." /library.thinkquest.org. Oracle, 1999. Web. 14 Jun 2012. <http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Philosophy/animal_rights.html>.

Word Clouds

I made two word clouds using two different websites that have different opinions about animal experimentation. These word clouds were both made at Wordle <http://www.wordle.net/>

The first word cloud I'd like to show you is this one.

If a word is emphasized, that means the word is used frequently in the article that I used to make the word cloud. In this case the word "research" is emphasized. This article I used to create a word cloud was from website that supports animal experimentation, Pro-Test. They are claiming that animal experimentation is necessary for medical improvement and that they are using a minimum amount of animals.

Pro-Test, . "Benefits of Animal Research." Pro-test. Pro-Test, 2006. Web. 14 Jun 2012. http://www.pro-test.org.uk/facts.php?lt=c.

The next word cloud is from a website that despises any kind of cruelty towards animals. You might have heard of this organization if you are interested in this topic, PETA. Unlike the word cloud above, this one contains lots of negative words, such as, suffer, fear, cruel, pain, blood, and etc. They feel any kind of experiment on animals are cruel and should be forbidden.

PETA, . "Animal Used for Experimentation." Peta. PETA, 2012. Web. 14 Jun 2012. http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/default2.aspx

What is AWA?

In one of my previous questions, there was a question said, "what is AWA?". Now I'm going to explain what AWA is. First of all, AWA stands for Animal Welfare Act and this protects certain animals in certain facilities. The AWA is a federal law that was passed in 1966. It empowers the Animal Care program of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to issue licenses and adopt and enforce regulations. The AWA applies to facilities that breed animals for commercial sale, use animals in research, transport animal commercially, or publicly exhibit animals. (Including zoos, aquariums, research facilities, puppy mills, animal dealers, and circuses.) The regulations adopted under the AWA establish minimum care standards for animals in these facilities. (Including adequate housing, handling, sanitation, nutrition, water, veterinary care and protection from extreme weather and temperatures.) “Any live or dead dog, cat, monkey (nonhuman primate mammal), guinea pig, hamster, rabbit, or such other warmblooded animal, as the Secretary may determine is being used, or is intended for use, for research, testing, experimentation, or exhibition purposes, or as a pet.” according to the legal definition of the AWA. On the other hand, The AWA has exclusions for birds, rats, mice used in research. This is because 95% of the animals used in research are mice and rats and because the nine billion land animals slaughtered for food in the US every year are exempted, the vast majority of animals used by humans are excluded from the AWA’s protection.

Ansering one of my questions

I’d like to answer one of the questions which I posted previously. The question was “Are there any religious reasons why they shouldn’t do experiments on animals?”. I will be writing about the relations between the different beliefs towards animal experiments and religion.

Let’s start off with Buddhism. Buddhists think that lives of human and non-human should be treated equally. This comes from the perspective that a soul may be reborn either in a human body or in the body of a non-human animal and, therefore, animals should not be killed. Though Buddhists feel it is morally wrong to do experiments on animals if there is any harm to the animal, they also understand that experiments are beneficial for human health, so they accept animal experiments in cases such as 1) if it is for a good purpose, 2) if it is only on animals where there is no alternative, 3) design the experiment to do as little harm as possible, 4) avoid killing the animal unless it is absolutely necessary, 5) treat the animals concerned kindly and respectfully.

Jews have a similar way of thinking towards animals. Animals are part of God’s creation and should be treated with compassion. They accept experiments on animals in conditions when 1) there is a real possibility of a benefit to human beings, 2) There is no unnecessary pain involved.

On the other hand, Christians think that human beings are greatly superior to animals and people could harm them as badly as people wanted to. (Modern Christians are not so brutal minded) They think that animals don’t have any pain, or if they did it is not as bad as we humans feel and because animals are less important than human beings, it is natural to think that animals should be used in experiments for our benefits.

While Buddhist are more friendly and Christians are more heartless towards animals, Muslims have a sort of mixture of the previous two religions. They say to treat animals with kindness and compassion, and at the same time, they also say that animals exist for the benefit of human beings. Animals should not be treated badly, but they could be used for human benefit.

From what I researched there aren’t religions that forbid animal experiments, they consider it OK if there is little harm to the animal.


BBC, . "Ethics Guid." Animal ethics. BBC, 2012. Web. 7 Jun 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/animals/>.

useful website

This is a useful website I found. There's articles about animals rights so that you could know what's going on in the world right now.
Vivisection, Factory farming, Animal Rights Myths, Wild life and so on..

. "Animal Rights." The new york times company. About.com, 2012. Web. 31 May 2012. <http://animalrights.about.com/>.

15 questions about animal experiments

1) Why is it nesessary to do experiments on animals?
2) Are there any countries that forbid experiments on animals?
3) Are there any religious reasons why they shouldn't do experiments on animals?
4) What kind of experiments do they do?
5) Are there any groups/authorities that try to stop these experiments?
6) What kind of animals are mainly used in experiments?
7) Where do they get these animals?
8) What do people working at these laboratories feel/think when doing experiments?
9) Do they use anesthesia before doing an experiment?
10) What do they do with the animals after used in a experiment?
11) Without animals to do experiments on, can people make new medicines?
12) Which country has the most animal useage in experiments?
13) Do animals show any special behaviour patterns before thery get tested?
14) Are there any groups/authorities that support animal experiments?
15) Are there any companies that guarantee they don't use animals in developing products?

website

I personally, didn't like this web page. It has too many harsh pictures and you can't concentrate on the actual context of the site. "Animal Testing." . N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2012. .

useful website

This web page would be useful in doing some reaserch on animal experiments. There are many facts and information about experiments done on animals and oppinions from both sides. BBC, . "Animal Experimentation." Bbc: Ethics guide. BBC, 2011. Web. 24 May 2012. .

questions

These are some questions in order to understand animal rights more deeply.
1.How many animals do you think have been killed for experiments in a year?
2.What kind of animal have been used the most in medical research?
3.What do you think if there were no animal experiments?
4.What could be a substitute for animals then?
5.Do you respect in animals life? Why?
6.What is AWA?
7.How are they killed after used in experiments?
8.What industry use the most animals?
9.Even in schools animals are used, why do you think so?
10.Where do you think animals have similarity to human beings?
11.What kind of ethical problems do you think theres in this topic?
12.Show that this is controversial.
13.What kind of difficulities do you think there might be if there were not for animal experiments?
14.Why is it wrong to test  on animals?
15.What is "animal community as vivisection"?

a wife with an ill husband's point of view (example)

My name is Emily and I have a family who I love. My husband, Tyler and two daughters, Jessica six years old and Rebecca, two years old. My husband has a good job in the bank business and our daughters all both very bright and have lots of friends. Life was good. Until we recently discovered that Tyler has skin cancer. We were devestated when we first found out, but now we are focusing on curing it by using anti-cancer medication. I did a lot of research so I know the drugs used on him are safe. There are some side affects, but I found out that the medication used on him has been tested on animals and it is safe. I know this might sound very selfish, but I am glad they do tests on animals. If anyone who you love had cancer, or some serious deseaese and medication would be used on them, you'd want to know the drugs used on them are safe, right? I know animals are being done experiments on and killed afterwards for us human's own interest, but to be able to improve and develop, there has to be some kind of sacrifice. So I don't think the animals are just being used and killed. We should think of it as a needed sacrifice and we shouldn't use medicines like it is a normal thing. We should be more thankful for the sake of the animals used in experiments to make medicines.

a animal lover's point of view (example)

I am Daniel. I work at a zoo. I love animals. They are so fascinating. The way how each kind of animal is so different with another. How they adapt and evolve to the environment. There’s so much that we still don’t know about them and that makes them more special. The other day I was flicking through an animal magazine and came across an article about tests performed on animals for experiments. It said that over 100 million animals are being used in experiments every year. As an animal lover I was furious. After being used in an experiment most animals are said to be euthanized, but what does that make it any good? They have been tortured. Just because they kill the animals without pain, it doesn’t mean they didn’t suffer during the experiment. I think it doesn’t make any sense. If they are making drugs for humans, why test it on animals that are totally different from human beings? Even if it worked on mice, it might not work on us, human. So why not just test it on human in the first place? “No, that would be wrong.”, people might say, but I don’t see any difference in doing tests on animals and human. We might be a different species, butt we are all animals, just because we are a little stronger than them doesn’t mean we can use them like some kind of natural resource.

The reason why we are healthy

Negative
On the other perspective, some might think that animal experiments are nessesary for us to live. Without those medical resarchs on animals, we wouldn't have any medicines to get when we are sick. Thanks to animals that we could live healthy. They are not born to just be a "tool" of an experiment, they were born to help us. People who are opposed on animal experiments says "Respect their lives", but actually we are respecting their lives by having their lives to make humans life a better one. They are not killed for no reason. Think about it more flexibly. "Their mission in life is to make us happy." Thier dealth wouldn't be useless, moreover those would be a meaningful one.

respect our life(example)

Affermitive
The topic "Animal Rights" is really difficult to understand and so controversial that it is discussed for a long time with no solution. In one perspective, it is said that it is essential to use animals life on experiments for stuffs like medicines, but what about their right to live? They are also a living thing just like us, human beings. They were born to live their lives. Do we really have a right to kill them? Is animal experiment nessesary?
In one point of view, it is NOT nessesary to kill them for medical research. Most animals used in experiments are caught in wild or purposefully made. No one would like to be born  just to be used as a "tool" of an experiment.
The most reason that animals are used for experiments is because they share the same structural and functional features with humans. But, if you think of it, they aslo experience pain and suffering that are similar to humans.Why animals that have to be treated like this? Of course, I am not saying that we human beings also have to be experienced, it is almost impossible. But I just wanted to respect their lives. Animals also have a will to live, right to live. Why don't we let them free?

Animal Rights Blog

This is our first post of our Animal Rights Blog. We are mainly focusing on animal experiements and we think this topic is controversial.
In my opinion, I actually am neither negative nor affermitive to this topic, since animal experiments are essential for us to live, such us making new medicines, but on the other hand , I think it is not nice to just kill them just because their brains share structural, functional features with human brains. They also experience pain and suffering ways that are similar to humans.
Well, hope this blog would change the world ( a bit!!).