Leave it to blogging and the awareness it brings to my life, a skeptic’s journey while learning to think green. When it comes to animal testing how far do we go before we put our green foot down and say it’s unnaceptable?

I’ve been doing some research and even though they say they keep animal testing down to a minimum, they still do it, so it may be the end of most regular brands or products for me.  There are plenty of alternatives to it, and in this day in age, it’s simply not acceptable. For some reason though, I still think it’s ok to test a rat, but I’m not ok with testing monkeys.

What’s up with that? Where do we draw the line? Some people don’t draw a line at all and include all animals for testing. Last time I checked rats are very intelligent. They may not circle their kin when their kin pass, like elephants do, but hey, they’re still smart.

To determine which animals we consider acceptable for testing, should we decide which animals get a hall pass for life and escape cages, needles, and drugs. Or, should we consider which animals are classified as vector for disease? Maybe it’s unmanaged populations that fit a certain profile to be tested and included in the category of animals accepted for testing.

I don’t think we could ever test on intelligence and firmly know it was truth. From a butterfly to a panda bear, can we really know the depth of intelligence and whether being smart or stupid is the right criteria for making such an extreme decision? In my heart I kind of feel like we’re shipping one of our sweet peeps to Guantanamo Bay.

Since no one is willing to test intelligence to determine suitability for research, then perhaps it shouldn’t be done at all.

I gotta tell you, much like many other new found moments of staggering green information coming at me, I find myself once again hearing the call. The call is to get educated on what is truth on all subjects of green.

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