‘Is Animal Testing Morally Right? Is there actually Biblical Justification?’

Let’s start at the very beginning, the book of Genesis states that humans were Created as stewards of the animal kingdom, endowed by the creator with dominion and rulership over other species, but in reality isnt' our history and treatment of animals  more like that of exploitive tyrants. 

If Christ did not approve of animal sacrifice as an offering to God, he would definitely not have approved of sacrificing animals for medical or scientific research purposes. Josephus further clarifies the picture of the early Christians, showing that many abstained from even eating meat, if these were alive today then they would be teaching that medical research on animals is completely out of the question for a true Christian or  moral person. 
Actually before the time of Christ and his followers some of the Jewish sects who made room for reasoning in their beleif had already started to embrace compassionate living. So considering their example, there seems good reason to challenge the ancient tradition of animal exploitation.

Think about some of the things that those ancients would have been compelled to do if they adhered totally to the Old Testament.

Also those who profaned the Sabbath! 

Also those who wanted to leave the religion!

Acknowledging from Josephus statements that some of the sects challenged accepted traditions it seems to me truly regrettable that most of the nations in the forefront of animal testing these days are actually (Christian). Of those who claim to live by Christ,s Golden Rule, one might ask questions such as “ "for what reason have the sects of Christendom remained silent toward animal abuse and testing over the decades"? 

I would also like to point you toward some letters written by a holocaust survivor (Edgar Kupfer) whose incarceration taught him that animal kind are our brethren, and that as such they should not be imprisoned, abused, or used for medical research.

http://www.salsa.net/peace/conv/8weekconv8-1.html

How we came  to this view?

My personal views are moulded by hands on experience of working with animals stretching back nearly 5 decades to the time when I was a boy, firstly helping out on farms, then working full time and going on to agricultural college. I have also working on intensive poultry & pig farms,  and out on the fields with some of the biggest of animals used in agriculture, such as Shire horses.  One day though I sat in Church, and thought something is wrong here with with treating animals as we do, why has something not been done to change this? So I decided to help make the change myself.

I could do no better than to point you toward consideration of the Golden Rule

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule

Judging by this, If one could not do harmful things to powerless animals as abuse them, how could we ever do so to humans? The likelihood is extremely low. If one is disposed to kindness toward those who have no way of speaking out or protecting themselves, then I think we are going be better in our treatment of fellow humans. At this very moment there are many millions of animals howling and clawing at the cage doors to escape what are for them “the very gates of hell”, so I'm sure that by putting acts of abuse far from our minds and categorising them as an evil atrocity, it will help us maintain a good conscience no matter whether we be religiously inclined or a free thinker.

We have enslaved the rest of creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form!

WILLIAM RALPH INGE Professor of divinity at Cambridge.

In the light of these quotes I would also ask you dear reader to consider who you feel that history will record as heroes of moral existence, the animal abusers or animal liberators? I would also ask you to consider the aspirations of William Wilberforce and the abolitionist movement. Ok theirs was a different time and Wilberforce and others mainly laboured toward the freeing of humans; William  Wilberforce best known for his anti slavery campaigns also saw the need to liberate animals from cruelty, and to help achieve this end he co founded the RSPCA?. Did you also know that Abraham Lincoln believed in the rights of animals in addition to human liberation? Back then some abolishionists thought nothing of riding 1,000s of miles on horseback so that they could gather information to help end the enslavement of humans (which was no small feat I can tell you). Some today are striving in that very same spirit, this time to free  "animals" who are powerless to escape, and who without a voice we can understand are unable to tell us how they feel. 

Would you consider that its time for thinking people everywhere to speak out to help free animals from the tyranny of medical research?. 

Is the death/injury of an animal as a result of animal testing the same as the death/injury of a human?

"The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men."

Leonardo da Vinci, artist and scientist

"To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being."
Mahatma Gandhi, statesman and philosopher

 Should animal testing be illegalised in Britain?

I think that testing on animals should be recognized for what it is “as an abuse of the defenceless” and as such it should be made a criminal offence for anyone to take part in. Just as we saw fit to condemn and outlaw involvement in the trade and exploitation of humans, the next step for the ethical or moral individual is to widen his/her compassion to embrace other creatures.

“In the course of his development towards culture man acquired a dominating position over his fellow-creatures in the animal kingdom. Not content with this supremacy, however, he began to place a gulf between his nature and theirs. He denied the possession of reason to them, and to himself he attributed an immortal soul, and made claims to a divine descent which permitted him to annihilate the bond of community between him and the animal kingdom.
Sigmund Freud (1917)”

Shouldn’t mankind think it a tragedy that though they have developed the capability to walk on the moon, explore the depths of the oceans, split the atom and a million other things, that they still resolve to treat other beings with a brutal disregard reminiscent of ancient times? It’s my personal opinion that we should take the great step forward in moral and ethical evolution and pursue other methods of obtaining research information whatever the financial cost may be.

I believe that one of the greatest wrongs is to condemn the work of animal liberationists and advocates as contemptible as some judges have done in the past. Not that I advocate violence in liberation, but you might want to ask yourself this “who is it who commits the greater wrong”? Is it the Liberator who uses force in the interest of the abused animals to break in and free them, or the vivisectionists who use force and cause suffering to benefit themselves and their own kind? I will leave that to your own judgement while considering the following quote....

As you may be aware animal research is used extensively to determine the toxicity of chemicals, soaps, perfumes etc on humans, but ask yourself this do we actually need any more deodorants, floor cleaning agents etc? I think we have enough! Although some things have been discovered that benefit mankind , others have proved not only harmful but sometimes even deadly. 

It has been recognized for a long time that there is a bitter scost that society must pay for extracting information by acts of gross cruelty upon animal kind; such as a the tendency toward social and civil unrest. By acts of animal abuse we can only sustain a cold callous unfeeling society, one that is always ready to resort to violence to achieve an aim.

"If a group of beings from another planet were to land on Earth -- beings who considered themselves as superior to you as you feel yourself to be to other animals -- would you concede them the rights over you that you assume over other animals?"

Image left - George Bernard Shaw, playwright, Nobel Prize 1925

Have you noticed that films depicting aliens capturing experimenting on and eating humans are often categorised as monsters in horror movies?; yet when the very same things are done to animals, the films are categorised as entertainment or educational. Perhaps as Shaw contemplated, we are being watched from space by alien species or even God; then again we might actually be alone in the universe and therefore humankind themselves are the only arbiter of what is right and wrong. One things for certain, for the moment the choice to support or condemn animal abuse is ours not that of an unprovable God, but then we must also face the consequences. People might simply ask themselves a basic question; can an animal really suffer?, at this point “ might you be prepared to admit that they can”? Some as you may know rigorously defend their view that animals cannot feel pain like humans, but if the witnessed someone inclined to kick a dog wouldn’t they report them to the police for an act of cruelty, wouldn’t they even use violence to try to stop them?... 

The real question isn’t whether animals suffer as humans can, but whether the suffering in whatever degree they feel it, actually matters to them, I believe it does. Many worse things than kicking a dog are done absolutely legally every day by medical researchers, these are permitted to chain, maim, poison, electrocute, disable and kill animals without ever being viewed as abusers. Is this gross miscarriage of justice?. That’s for you to decide.

“Vivisection is a social evil because if it advances human knowledge, it does so at the expense of human character.

George Bernard Shaw, playwright, Nobel Prize 1925

Medical and scientific research on animals is only carried on because at present there is no authority, no law and no national will to stop them, not even the scientists own consciences can hold them back. That’s where you personally and millions of other voices come in, together the authorities must one day listen to calls for an end to animal exploitation, if that is what you really want to achieve.

We should always to try and treat other creatures as we would hope they would treat us  if they were in our position of power. (The Golden Rule)