Today, we saw photos of beagles forcefully inhaling cigarette smoke to determine whether cigarette causes lung cancer. Sure enough, the benign dogs were diagnosed with the disease. But why did we have to use dogs to test this? Why couldn’t we have done the same tests with humans? Well, most people would say: “You can’t do that to a human.” But why not? Why do we value the life of a dog over a human? The correlations between cigarette smoking and lung cancer were astounding. It’s not like we needed to test this through dogs.

But somehow, humans value the life of dogs over humans. I honestly can’t think of a justifiable counter-argument. Why would a human be considered ethically superior to a dog? Is it because our highly developed brains? Is it because we are the dominant species on the planet? Perhaps. But that doesn’t account for our lack of morals in suffocating animals which carcinogens. Dogs are equally capable of compassion, empathy, and love just as humans are. They feel physical pain and suffer in basically the same way that humans do. Can you imagine waking up every day to be forcefully and unwillingly suffocated with cigarette smoke so some ‘superior’ species can determine whether it negatively affects them? Imagine a species more intelligent and capable than humans doing this. Yes, they are ‘superior,’ but we have feelings too. This would be considered utterly reprehensible and downright evil. Yet, we don’t bat an eyelid when it comes to putting species other than our own under these tests.

I feel that we should reevaluate our position when it comes to animal testing. Quite frankly, this is simply unnecessary. There are ways to achieve knowledge and understanding of science without subjecting animals to torture.

People often see PETA as bleeding-heart liberal idealists, who are overly sympathetic with animals. However. I don’t understand how someone could watch this video and still support animal testing like what was done to these beagles, and countless other innocent animals. Look, I’m not telling you to empty your refrigerator and ‘repent for your sins,’ but where is basic human dignity these days? How can something be so important that it is worth taking the lives of those who never asked to be involved. This isn’t a matter of science anymore. We are locking these animals up in cages just to obtain some sort of superficial knowledge that could be easily accessed otherwise with all the latest advancements in technology.