Biotechnology in Animals

At the Neuroscience Banquet Emily Anthes came and spoke about her book Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts. Most of the experiments that she talked about took place with animals and what stuck out to me was at the end of the talk when she talked about being pre-science and pro-animal. It made me think, how can people be so against testing on animals when it has brought such good things to the human race? Things like cures for diseases and vaccinations. It has even done things for veterinary medicine.

Since there are many animal activists that are against any kind of animal testing or anything they believe violates an animal's rights, I wanted to see what the benefits were for the animals. Since Frankenstein's Cat was about animals and biotechnology I focused on that when researching. We as humans have been using selective breeders for a long time. This is how we currently have so many breeds of dogs which are actually the most diverse species in the world (Anthes, 2013). Although there are some things that are bad for the animals, there are also benefits to selective breeding. One example is improving resistance to disease (BBC, 2013). This should be like music to an animal activists ears. Being a dog owner myself, I can say that I am happy that the selective breeding of dogs has helped create animals that can maybe be with us longer than they would have otherwise. Also, selective breeding can "remove characteristics that can cause injury" (BBC, 2013).

Therefore, I believe that some animal activists need to take a closer look at what some of this animal testing and selective breeding can do for animals and for people. It is the only way we can continue to progress in the medical and biotechnology world.

Anthes, E. (2013). Frankenstein's cat: Cuddling up to biotech's brave new beasts. (1st ed., p. 5). New   
          York: Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
BBC. (2013). Ethics guide: Biotechnology. Retrieved from  
          http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/animals/using/biotechnology_1.shtml