Cruelty is a big topic when considering the rights of our animal friends, and science seems to be taking the lead over legislation.   The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in US v. Stevens that selling videos of dog fights and animal brutality and such is completely protected under our First Amendment rights.  (For the record, dogfighting is illegal in all 50 states and a felony in most.  The message here: apparently it’s not okay to harm animals, but if you just so happen to have video of the heinous crime, it’s totally fine to sell it for a profit.)  This is going on at the same time New Zealand is working to toughen penalties for those who harm animals.

Luckily, it looks like science is making some forward strides in animal rights when it comes to cosmetic testing and what I like to call Petri Pork.  Both take the animal out of the situation and use cells instead.   L’Oreal helped to fund research at the Hurel Corp. to create technology that uses lab-grown human skin cells.  There’s still a long way to go to make sure that the results are accurate, but if so, mice and guinea pigs could be spared.  That’s huge, since it’s estimated that 50 to 100 million vertebrate animals are used for testing each year (almost all die, either from the testing or euthanasia).  Is it worth it to manipulate human cells if it means sparing the lives of millions of animals?

What about stem cells?  Scientists in the Netherlands have developed a way to use the stem cells of pigs to grow meat in a petri dish.  They believe that, once embraced, the practice could alleviate world hunger, save the lives of pigs, and offer a green solution to raising livestock.  The only question is, who will eat Petri Pork?  While factory farming isn’t all that natural, either, meat from a petri dish may be a hard sell… what do you think? Take our poll at the bottom of this page!

If you have any news that you’d like to see shared with our replyforall users, email Johanna with your article, video, or link!  We’d love to hear from you.

Fight the Good Fight,

Johanna Hudgens

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Related articles to check out:

• Court takes up free-speech case of pit bull videos (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Lawmakers Forced to Choose Between Welfare of Budget, Animals (takepart.com)
• Animal welfare victories prompt farmers’ PR moves (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Food and Feelings: Animals and the Ethics Behind Eating (replyforall.com)