EDITORIAL – We rescued 15 dogs; now let’s save millions of test animals

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

THE CASE OF THE DOGS seized from a Clearwater breeder in January continues to be in the news as their progress is reported.

SPCA officials said they were some of the most emaciated dogs they’d ever seen. “Horrific,” was one word used.

Three had to be put down but there’s been good news to share. The puppies have been adopted and the rest have regained their health and are now available for adoption.

It’s been such a big news story because we care about our four-legged friends. Yet, in other ways, we have far to go in how we treat animals.

An unheralded part of the latest federal budget could save thousands of animals from cruel deaths inflicted to make us look good.

The Liberal government plans to amend the Food and Drugs Act to prohibit the testing of cosmetics on animals. It’s been an issue for decades.

In order to prove the safety of their products, some cosmetics companies subject animals to terrible cruelty, rubbing chemicals onto shaved skin, dripping it into their eyes or forcing it down their throats without pain relief before they’re killed.

Add to that the tens of millions of dogs, cats, guinea pigs, monkeys, rats and other animals used in experiments of other kinds, including food, drug and medical testing, and it makes you cry.

At the least, we must draw a line in the sand on the makeup and grooming products we use for our own vanity. It’s simply not necessary in order to prove the safety of products. The law leaves it optional, and there are dozens of ways to test them without using animals.

Fortunately, many jurisdictions — in Europe and the U.S., for example — have joined the fight against using animals for cosmetics testing, banning the sale of animal-tested products. Here at home, the issue has been raised and dropped many times at the governmental level.

This time, please Prime Minister, make it happen.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.