Of Vegans and Mice

When a fellow decides to stop eating meat, I usually tend support it. And since I'm lactose intolerant myself, I'm used to the idea of not consuming any milk product.

So, It's not the part of not eating stuff that bothers me about vegans. From my point of view, not eating meat is a valid effort for people willing to do that. I do eat meat because I find it deliciously addictive and I already have problems enough trying to control my food consumption.

But what really pisses me off is when the "save the nature" cause becomes an excuse for fundamentalism and bigotry. Don't get me wrong, I totally agree that humanity should be living in a more sustainable way.

But most vegans I know end up becoming so irrational about our relationtip with other species that they turn a true cause into a radical religion. They gather every week on their ONGs [churches] where together they increase each other's love for the animals [pure souls needing to be saved] and theyr hatred towards mankind [the evil].

The worst dogma of this eco-religion though, is the "Stop Animal Testing" movement. It is so childish and so ignorant that it makes even creationists look smart. Both groups of denialists have no clue about what science is, how it works or what is it done for. They're all blinded by that sense of self-righteousness very often seen in born-again christians (and in almost every religious group).

Even if we ignore, just for the sake of argument, how every medicine and vaccine was developed, what are these eco-loons proposing? That we stop medical research? That we stick to the medical knowledge we already got and stop trying to improve it so no mouse has to be killed?

Let's say that I was a scientist and I was willing to find out if some specific substance is effective or not against diabetes. Instead of going the usual way and order a bunch of lab mice with diabetes from a supplyer, what should I do? Hire real ill people? But what if this medicine I'm researching about is not effective (I don't know yet) ? What about the side effects? People would shove a huge law suit up my ass and I wouldn't ever sit (or research) again in my life.

And this green religion becomes scary when you see public Universities here in Brazil [where people die from starvation and lots of third world diseases] getting pressed by these crazy ONGs to buy incredibly expensive artificial devices to emulate living beans. Imagine what a good scenario this might generate: a just-graduated Veterinarian (or Doctor, Biologist, ...) who has never delt with a real open body.

I don't see any of this ONGs gathering people to offer themselves as test subjects in order to save some animals. A "don't test in animals, test in me" policy would bring a lot more credibility to theyr churches.