For the good of mankind?

I've gotten into many a heated debate with people over the years regarding vivisection. Mainly, about being anti-vivisection. I've heard every argument FOR vivisection. Mostly, I hear, "But what if they found a cure for AIDS or cancer through testing on animals?"

Even though I am vegan, I should say that I would never refuse a medicine that was most likely tested on animals to save my child's life. I depend on an albuterol inhaler to breathe on occasion. But I also don't take antibiotics unless I can't function at all. So, I'm obviously biased.

But here is the thing. A lot of animal testing is NOT for the good of mankind. The article below is why I get so enraged about animal testing. A lot of people might say, "Well, you don't know what it feels like to be in chronic pain." And you know, that's probably true, but I fail to see how THIS kind of testing is OKAY:



http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,326355,00.html

Naked Mole Rats Can't Feel Burning Pain
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
By Charles Q. Choi


Rochelle Buffenstein/City College of New York

Even though it is sensitive to touch, the naked mole rat doesn't even flinch when inflicted with burning acid.

As vulnerable as naked mole rats seem, researchers now find the hairless, bucktoothed rodents are invulnerable to the pain of acid and the sting of chili peppers.

A better understanding of pain resistance in these sausage-like creatures could lead to new drugs for people with chronic pain, scientists added.
Naked mole rats live in cramped, oxygen-starved burrows some six feet underground in central East Africa.

Unusually, they are cold-blooded — which, as far as anyone knows, is unique among mammals.

• Click here to visit FOXNews.com's Natural Science Center.

"They're the nicest, sweetest animals I've ever worked with — they look frightening, but they're very gentle," said neurobiologist Thomas Park at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Scientists knew the mole rats were quite sensitive to touch — perhaps to help replace their almost useless eyes.

After probing their skin, Park and his colleagues unexpectedly discovered the rodents lacked the chemical Substance P, which causes the feeling of burning pain in mammals.

Acid test
The researchers discovered that when unconscious mole rats had their paws injected with a slight dose of acid, "about what you'd experience with lemon juice," Park said, as well as some capsaicin — the active ingredient of chili peppers — the rodents showed no pain.

"Their insensitivity to acid was very surprising," Park told LiveScience.

"Every animal tested — from fish, frogs, reptiles, birds and all other mammals — every animal is sensitive to acid."

To explore their pain resistance further, the researchers used a modified cold-sore virus to carry genes for Substance P to just one rear foot of each tested rodent.

Park and his colleagues found the DNA restored the naked mole rats' ability to feel the burning sensation other mammals experience from capsaicin.

"They'd pull their foot back and lick it," Park said.

Other feet remained impervious to the sting of capsaicin.

"Capsaicin is very specific for exciting the fibers that normally have Substance P," Park added. "They're not the fibers that respond to a pinprick or pinch, but the ones that respond after an injury or burn and produce longer-lasting pain."

Curiously, the researchers found that mole rats remained completely insensitive to acids, even with the Substance P genes.

This suggests there is a fundamental difference in how their nerves respond to such pain.

"Acid acts on the capsaicin receptor and on another family of receptors called acid-sensitive ion channels," Park said. "Acid is not as specific as capsaicin. The mole rat is the only animal that shows completely no response to acid."

Why so insensitive?
Scientists theorize naked mole rats evolved this insensitivity to acid due to underground living.

The rodents exhale high levels of carbon dioxide, and in such tight, poorly ventilated spaces it builds up in tissues, making them more acidic.
In response, the mole rats became desensitized to acid.

"To give you an idea of what they experience, we normally all breathe in carbon dioxide levels of less than 0.1 percent. If people are exposed to an air mixture with as low as 5 percent carbon dioxide, we'll feel a sharp, burning, stinging sensation in our eyes and nose," Park said. "We hypothesize that naked mole rats live in up to 10 percent carbon dioxide."

Researcher Gary Lewin, a neuroscientist at the Max Delbrück Institute for Molecular Medicine in Germany, noted, "People may say, 'So what — it's weird, but what has it to do with human pain?' I think that is wrong, unimaginative and short sighted."

Lewin noted that all vertebrate pain-receptor systems "are built in a highly similar way, so the mole rat may tell us how you can unbuild the system."

Help for people
Specifically, Park noted this research adds to existing knowledge about Substance P.

"This is important specifically to the long-term, secondary-order inflammatory pain. It's the pain that can last for hours or days when you pull a muscle or have a surgical procedure," he explained.

As such, these findings might shed new light on chronic pain. Park said,
"We're learning which nerve fibers are important for which kinds of pain, so we'll be able to develop new strategies and targets."

Lewin added, "We really do not understand the molecular mechanism of acid sensing in humans, although it is thought to be pretty important in inflammatory pain. An animal that naturally lacks such a mechanism may help us identify what the mechanism actually is."

Park next plans to study distantly related animals that dwell in similar circumstances, such as the Mexican free-tailed bat and the Alaskan marmot, which both spend large amounts of time in high carbon dioxide caves or burrows.

"How are they surviving down there? It'd be interesting if we saw some parallels there with the naked mole rats," Park said.

The scientists detailed their findings online Jan. 28 in the journal PLoS Biology.

• Click here to read the full journal report.

Copyright © 2008 Imaginova Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



Well, Dr. Lewin, call me wrong, unimaginative, and short-sighted, but this really chaps my ass.

If we replaced "mole rats" with "house cat" or "Golden Retriever", people would be appalled. But, no, it's okay to inject mole rats with a cold sore virus to see if, once injected, they'll react to the pain of acid.

This is not a cure for cancer. Or Parkinsons. Or spina bifida.

This is a bunch of scientists who get paid way too much to shoot up animals.

I realize that I am probably overly-emotional about animal rights 90% of the time. And this may very well be one of those times. And that is probably why this entire entry is so disjointed.

I'll be quiet now, and I'll come back when I am able to group sentences into paragraphs in a more orderly manner.

Judged

I guess that, aside from the hectic holidays, the reason that I haven't been as interested in blogging these days is because I feel judged. Not here. In other areas of my life.

The thing is, no one has said, "Wow, you suck. You're wrong." But I feel it. Don't worry, it's not you. It's me. And this is one instance where that might actually be the truth.

Unless you're a mother, you cannot imagine mother's guilt. It's crushing and overwhelming. And I feel like people think I'm a lackluster mom. Maybe because I feel like I've done a subpar job.

Do you ever wish you could rewind your life? Keep it pretty much the same? But tweak a few things?

I do.

Lately I've been living in a constant state of "If I knew then what I know now, I could've been a much better mom." And some days I would give anything to go back and do things over.

Does it have something to do with knowing that I most likely had one shot at this mom thing, and I didn't fully appreciate it? That I didn't take full advantage of it? Probably.

Well, you can have another baby and do it differently, you say. No, I don't think so. I'd feel like I was jipping Bean. That's a huge part of why I don't think I want another child. I can't stand the thought of Bean one day thinking that I loved her younger sibling more than I loved her.

So. Yeah.