Kitten eyes and silly people

There's been a lot of fuss about some scientists at Cardiff sewing kittens' eyes shut to investigate what happens in people's brains when they have 'lazy eye'. 

Without even considering the fact that sewing an animal's eyes shut is horrible, why do they think that finding out what's going on in in the brain when someone can't see is anything to do with having a lazy eye?

Then we have the question of whether or not what happens in a kitten's brain is anything remotely similar to what goes on in a human brain. Probably not.

And THEN there's the problem of how you treat whatever it is they discover. Suppose the ideal 'cure' is aspirin. Well they won't ever know that because ASPIRIN KILLS CATS! Using cats as test subjects is already a blind alley. (Sorry about that. It's not supposed to be a joke.)

Let me say again. Stop testing things on animals because:

• the results you get are NOT relevant to humans
• the methods are NOT the best way, let alone the only way
• there are plenty of cell-based and tissue-based alternatives
• 'just because you'd like to know' isn't a good enough reason to hurt animals

Help FRAME to overcome these dreadful tests by making a donation today. Click on my Just Giving button on the right.

Of course it's not only the scientists who are being silly about this. Some of the people who are against animal testing don't help the cause by being rude, suggesting that the scientists should have nasty things done to them, saying that we should test on criminals and paedophiles. That is just as wrong as the animal testers. Sorry - but it is!

Learn the science, people. Talk to the researchers in terms they understand and respect. Then MAYBE we're in with a chance!

Why are animal experiments so important?

Why do we keep being told by scientists that animal experiments are so important?  They always say that

we'll never have a cure for cancer or diseases like that if we don't use animals. But if they are so sure that's the way to find them, why don't we already have all those magic cures?

They always ignore the fact that nine out of ten potential treatments that have passed animal tests are TOTAL failures when they are tried out in humans. Some of them are downright dangerous.That's because animals and humans aren't alike.

No animal is ever going to provide the perfect model for human diseases. and when you point that out to the researchers they say "oh yes well, that's true, but it's the best we've got". But NO IT ISN'T.

The best we've got is human stuff. Human tissues and human cells, and human blood samples and even human volunteers. Donated stuff from people who understand what's happening to them and can make an informed decision to help.

But the majority of scientists just keep doing the same old things to animals without ever finding those promised cures. They never even think of using a different way because theyare too stuck in their little ruts to think of better methods.

Help put those scientists on the right track. Please make a donation to FRAME today by clicking here. and tell them Mitch sent you.

Lots of support

Hello everyone. I've been getting a lot of support from people on Twitter but so far nobody wants to give any money. I'm not asking for much. Just a few pounds.

The work that FRAME does is essential. There's a law that says that alternatives to animals in labs have to be used if they're available, but there's no law that says anyone has to look for alternatives. So scientists just go straight to the animals every time instead of thinking about how else they could do research. FRAME is supporting people who look for alternatives!

Every year just lately more and more animals are being used in labs in the UK (and in other parts of the world) and a lot of those animals are my relatives. They don't use great apes in Britain (that's animals like me - I'm an orang utan but other apes are chimpanzees and gorillas) but they still use loads of monkeys.

And the Americans use apes! Do you know they were going to send some chimpanzees into space? and you you think that they had plans to bring them back? 

Do you know about Laika? She was a Russian dog that was sent up to space and scientists said it was a great achievement. But not for poor Laika it wasn't. She died before she reached orbit - terrified and alone. What kind of achievement is it to send a dead dog around the earth in a tin can? Just remember that when scientists say that you have to use animals to find new drugs and treatments for things.

It's not right.

How can you help?
Click here and make a donation. Leave a message about what you want your Memoriam notice to say. as soon as Just Giving clears it, I'll put your notice on the special page here.

Or you could just visit http://www.frame.org.uk/ and click on the Donate Now button or you could just click here (which will take you to the same place). Tell them Mitch sent you!

Why I set up this blog

I learned about what happens to animals in laboratories a few years ago when I went to a conference in Rome. There were all kinds of people there who are working on finding ways not to have to use animals to test things on.  One of the best is FRAME. They have a laboratory where scientists try to find ways to do experiments without using animals. They helped to develop some of the new ways to test cosmetics that have meant the law can be changed so that no make-up or perfume sold in Europe can be tested on animals any more.

But there is still a long way to go. Please help me to help FRAME find more alternatives so that fewer animals are used in labs in the future.