by L A Myers-Campos

Created on: August 14, 2009

Depending upon how one defines 'environment', the answer is very possibly 'YES.' The answer for me, personally, is 'YES' because I am a seeker of unity with both the spiritual world as well as the physical. Everything that is in the carbon-based organic life-chain is inexorably linked with the planet upon which it thrives is, as a discrete micro-system, also an integral and irreplaceable part of the greater macro-system. The health of the system, as a whole, affects each part of the system. This is an inescapable truth, but also one that is often very inconvenient for many sectors of society.

Environment is defined, properly, 'The circumstances or conditions that surround one; surroundings.' This, also, for me, qualifies all animal life as undeniably a part of that which it is my environment. Everything that I, or anyone else, does, to any living thing, be it human, animal, or plant, becomes both a cause and effect in a perpetually circling life-cycle that automatically intertwines, within it, everything that emanates from the life it holds within.

If I senselessly or needlessly cause damage, pain, or suffering to any other living thing, then it will come back to me, one way or another, at some unknown point in my future. I cannot avoid this nor can it be diverted by even the one from whom its workings originated. Just as this principle applies to the individual, it also applies to the whole's relationship with itself. Balance is the force that ultimately sustains all life and to interrupt and disrupt the mechanism which maintains balance (karma) is a dangerous threat for not only me but to all life. This not only keeps the stability intact but also works toward our individual progress in life's lessons.

There seems to me to be absolutely no logical or necessary reason for testing products, that humans will possibly use in the future, on animals that will never have any use, or receive any benefit, from such products. Testing of anything designed for human use or consumption should be limited to voluntary, informed, compensated human test subjects.

We each have the free will choice to participate in such research, or not. Why shouldn't animals have equivalent freedom in such matters and be spared unnatural and potential harmful circumstances in their own lives?

My feelings on this subject extend also to any sort of scientific testing and research other than that which is directly and overtly aimed toward improving an aspect of the animal's life, in a natural way, upon which such testing would be carried out. I also must mention another ethical mistake that mankind made in the past, even though it is unlikely any situation would now occur that might demand a repeat of the same sort of abuse. What I'm referring to is the atrocious and inhumane practice of sending animals, monkeys and dogs, specifically, on test flights in space exploration and even extreme landspeed experiments such as was done in the 1960's.

We are to love our neighbors as our selves. GOD gave us pets and other animals for a myriad of reasons, all of which are meant as blessings both for humans as well as animals. To treat them as anything other than answers to prayer and divine gifts of love is surely one of the gravest offenses humankind can commit.

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