[jjacob]

I know animal testing is a necessary evil for many new (sometimes important) drugs and treatments, but at the same time I think companies and colleges can go way too far with it. There are reports monthly about unnecessary animal cruelty in labs (as in, neglecting the animals after they've outlived their use, or setting them free to die a slow and miserable death). Plus I think there ought to be strict laws about this sort of thing, preventing cosmetics companies to make use of animals for testing their products (coincedentally, that's also where the majority of the unnecessary cruelty is reported to take place), as there are perfect alternatives to animals for testing something unessential as cosmetics.

But at the same time I can understand your point of view Lacey - animal rights activists can go way too far as well (Pim Fortuyn, one of the first political murders in decades in the Netherlands, got killed by an activist because he intended to transform the bio-industry by building skyscrapers for keeping and slaughtering pigs, making it more 'efficient'). Breaking into labs and setting the animals free can do more harm than good, as the animals will die anyway (perhaps less humanely) and the company/lab will just get more guinea-pigs to finish the job. Too bad though, that for every piece of preventative legislation, a company moves their labs to a country that doesn't have clear legislation yet. I think it'll be quite some time before unnecessary (or cruel) animal testing will be a thing of the past, sadly.