Karuna ( compassion) to Lab Animals during Corona
DIG(Dr) Sudhakar Natarajan
Veterinary Cadre, ITBP
The race for the vaccine is on at a blistering pace. The clamour for a vaccine against Covid 19 has reached its crescendo. The world in lockdown is restless. They want a vaccine in quick time.
During this difficult time, allow me to draw your mindful attention to the millions of guinea pigs and monkeys who are the unwilling subjects of research. They are also under lockdown in small cages in laboratories. But their lockdown is different. It is dark and cold. They are stacked one on top of the other in a battery of cages. They have fear and anxiety in their eyes. Many are either depressed or anxious. They are just a number tag . Nobody will mourn for them. They live for the welfare of humans. They will be sacrificed by drowning or high dose of anaesthesia to study the effects of the therapy/ virus during post mortem examinations on their lungs, liver, kidney or heart.
Large scale experiments have started all over the world. Can any good come out of giving pain to other non-human animals. Karma will come back. Pain begets pain only.
It is heartening to note that in this cesspool of animal suffering there is a breath of fresh air for animals. The Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research ( KPWHRI) Institute has done away with the tortuous and lengthy animal testing , and have started Covid 19 vaccine trials directly on 45 healthy human volunteers in Seattle for their immune response to an investigational vaccine. After getting a small dose of this vaccine the volunteers will go home. Then their blood samples will be examined for immune response. No great risk. No suffering. Then they will be called check their titre after 12 months. Remember they are not being infected with Covid 19, they are just being given a teeny dose of the non-virulent RNA strand , to see if there is an immune response or not.
It has been proved that animal models of testing are not always accurate when it comes to humans.
There are also some countries that captured hundreds of monkeys from their habitat and started testing the live Covid19 virus on them. It is not the virus that is the cause of suffering during lab trials , since thankfully the symptoms in monkeys are mild. The misery is being caged and the fear of the unknown.
It is extrapolated that the Covid 19 is a virus that shows perceptible symptoms in humans only and we are the only ones that can die form this virus. Performing vaccine trials on hapless animals defeats the purpose. Infecting them with the virus and studying the disease is a waste of time.
Spare the animals.
It is time to use ‘in vitro’ three dimensional models using human tissues and live humans for vaccine trials. There is no other option.
This is for the first time in human history, we face a disease that majorly effects humans only. And for the first time in history we cannot come up with a cure for this human disease at the cost of animal pain and suffering.
This time only humans can help other humans. Be it plasma therapy, where the blood from recovered Covid 19 patients are used or be it investigational vaccine trials.
Let’s earn good karma by showing ‘karuna’ to lab animals during this fight with Corona.
This also highlights to the larger issue of stopping animal testing for other ailments, especially cancer.
Do you really think human happiness can be derived from animal suffering.
Pain begets only pain.
This can be seen since dawn of civilisation.
