Mice Helping to Finding a Cure, but at What Cost?

     We know that many animals are used as "guinea pigs" for tests with new drugs, treatments, and experiments.  While some animals, such as mice, live in the comforts of a nice habitat in people's homes, others aren't so lucky. Because mice are mammals, easy to work with, and have large litters, they are the perfect test subject to do experiments on.

     Recently a new concept has been put into place for cancer patients. If a patient has an operable tumor, Doctors can extract some of the tumor, plant it in mice, and do experiments on the mice to see what combination of drugs wipe out the cancer.
      To get a good test study it takes about four months for there to be enough "cancerous" mice to get a good amount of data before giving the combination of drugs to humans.
     A 60-year-old New Jersey man with lung cancer said that, “you just look at it as a tool for saving yourself. From my perspective, the more that die, the better for me.”  To read more, click here. 
       This attitude could spark some controversy over how these animals are treated. Although this is life saving treatment, thousands of animals are giving their lives to research. The least we could do is give the animals pain medicines or nice habitats to keep them as happy as possible for their short lives on Earth. 
       This also made me think. Why is it that American's have such a huge place in their hearts for animals? For example, a puppy walking down the sidewalk is bound to attract lots of attention from complete strangers. There is nothing cuter than a fluffy dog or a cuddly cat. I pose two questions for anyone reading this article.
         1. do you think animal testing is humane?
         2. Why do you think we have such a strong attachment to animals?