I personally see no fundamental difference between a lion hunting and a human farming.
I wouldn't compare so easily relation between human and animal to relation animal animal. The diffrence is that we have thing called consciousness, that we are able to understand terms like fear, pain, death therefore we should take responsibility for that knowledge and treat fellow creatures accordingly. Laws that rule animal world are not our laws - so using its by us as excuse of what we do is imho abuse.
Back to the issue of animal testing - I can't condemn people who do this or rather for doing this, because if I had to choose between life of person I care and life of an animal: monkey or rat i would be able to kill that animal. But I would do this fully aware that this creaturer's life isn't less worthy then life of that person ( or at least that I have no right at all to decide wether it is or isn't) and that choice I made was egoistical and that I did something wrong. But that's extreme example. The main problem is that modern science is founded on ethics that traditionally excluded animals, whatever you did to animal it was beyond good and evil. That has changed in last century, the fact that animals have rights is a huge step foreward; still in laboratories nothing changed, people that worked there are unaware of moral inclination of this situation and have no respect for life of these animals. The number of animals that are actually sacrificed to test the cures for some diseases are numerous in comparition to lifes of animals that are dying to prove some theory for purely academical reasons, and that's what bother me most. Heck, in course of studing medicine or biology and similiar stuff animals like rats are killed in thousands only to let all wannabe docs/scientists and such practicly learn truths already known and acknowledged by science. So what bothers me in animal testing is that behind it lies great lack of respect to life of an animal and no big words can change that.
@poltergeist: I guess the point I was making in the statement regarding lions hunting and humans farming is this: each animal uses what it has to survive. Humans are animals, and so are lions. There is no true fundamental difference in this respect. One can't possibly judge lions by a human standard, nor can humans be judged by a lion's standards. Farther back in our species history, we hunted in groups and foraged for edibles. Even then humans utilized traps, fire, and other cunning methods to attain a level of success that a pride of lions couldn't match. The only other four-legged predators that use methods similar to human hunting groups have themselves established a symbiotic relationship with humans: dogs.
I don't feel that self-consciousness is unnatural. Chimps and the great apes share this with humans to a lesser degree. Humans farming, developing medicine, and landing on the moon is as natural as squirrels storing up nuts for the winter. We have a place on the planet, and the planet itself is amoral. Death happens perpetually, as does birth. It was going on long before we rose to prominence. The only true issue here is to use common sense with our natural abilities and practice discretion in how we treat the planet - that is, if we want a beautiful planet to live on.
CYNIC, n.:
A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. -[url="http://www.alcyone.com/max/lit/devils/a.html"]The Devil's Dictionary[/url]
[QUOTE=poltergeist]So what bothers me in animal testing is that behind it lies great lack of respect to life of an animal and no big words can change that. [/QUOTE]
Simply put, but thats a very good way of putting how I feel in just one sentence. I've never been very good at short and to the point responses. I ramble.
"You can do whatever you want to me." "Oh, so I can crate you and hide you in the warehouse at the end of Raiders?" "So funny, kiss me funny boy!" / *Sprays mace* " I know, I know, bad for the ozone"
