The following notes I took at the 1997 Bronte Creek Conference. The speaker was Leslie from Zoocheck Canada, an animal rights lawyer.
it's ok to use animals in research because we're smarter, rational, they don't have feelings - NOT!
there was (is?) a research going on in Ottawa which the public couldn't read about - aprox. 800 monkeys were kept in cages since the '80s. They had no social contact even though they're very social creatures
industries go out of their way for us not to know how they use animals. When info does leak out to the public, they quickly make excuses saying it's not half as bad, & it's justifiable.
animals have different skills that adapt to their natural environment
lots of Indians lived on the Plains, but after the American Civil War, industries wanted to develop the Plains, so the government hired Buffalo Bills to kill buffalos in order to "exterminate" the Indians. In 10 years, 10 000 buffalos were killed.
cattles are pumped with hormones, which we take into our bodies
Toronto passed a law keeping exotic animals out of the city; Garden Brothers Circus appealed and won - animals are kept in tiny cages when not performing in the zoo, and are treated badly eg. elephants have a hole drilled in their heads so they can put an anville in to control them
in Toronto, a dog slaughter house was going to be set up - people were outraged, but what's the difference between dogs and cows? Aren't cows (and other farm animals) animals too?
law says that all NECESSARY damage done to the animals is legal. That's like saying that, when slavery was around, it was ok to beat up slaves to control them. Whatever.
and how do courts determine what's necessary or unnecessary damage? - they go to the industries doing the damage and ask THEM if it's necessary. Do you think they would say, "no, it's not necessary"? Therefore they don't get fined or arrested.
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