Testing on Chimps...

This week in class we learned all about how chimpanzees, the animals most similar to humans, are being tested on for cures to assorted diseases.  A lot of these chimps are started off being raised to do other kinds of experimentation, such as learning sign language, or studied for their habits in behavior, emotions, and brain stimuli.  The sad part is though; many, many of these animals are then sent to a facility that infects them with Hepatitis C and HIV and uses them to try out cures for this disease given that they are the closest we can get to humans by similarity.  Not only is this method for coming up with a cure heartbreaking for these animals, but also seemingly is collecting incorrect data.  If they really wanted to test these possibly cures out, they would do it in a way where the chimps socialized with one another as well as being exposed to the outdoors.  People who are really sick with these viruses are not quarantined or kept in full seclusion from everything as these chimps are having to be, but they are out and getting exposed to other things as well that may change the virus.  So all in all, i think that animal testing in itself is horrible, and doing it on animals like Chimpanzees is even more horrible given that they have so much more to offer the world than being cooped up in a box poked and prodded with needles everyday.