Free Elixir by Eric Walters Page A

practice.
    The Horror of Vivisection
    There is great debate across this country, across the continent, and around the world concerning the practice of vivisection. The proponents of this practice—often men of science and medicine— claim that these cruel practices are needed to assist man in the pursuit of science. They feel that anypain inflicted upon an animal is justified if it has even the smallest possibility of providing some increase in scientific knowledge. These men—and they invariably are men—have tried to convince the public that without these animal experiments the public health will suffer—that to improve public health and find cures for diseases in man, animals must be used. They claim it is nobody’s business what happens to animals as long as the individual researcher can say he is trying to increase scientific knowledge and pursue scientific goals. The position of the vivisector is that man is justified in inflicting any amount of pain on any number of animals if a shred of new scientific knowledge can be unearthed. They are wrong! These facts are false! These men are more monster than human and are lower than the life forms they experiment upon!
    Here are the true facts.
    1)  Most of these so-called experiments result in no new knowledge.
    2)  Human health is much more dependent on diet, proper sanitation, fresh air, and exercise than on surgery or serums. The practice of vivisection merely stops people from focusing on the true solutions to human health problems.
    3)  These men are not really dedicated to trying to cure human ills but are simply seeking fame andrecognition from other scientists in the research community.
    4)  Man has no superiority to any animal. In fact the act of inflicting cruelty on another species is practised only by man and surely demonstrates that we are inferior to other species.
    5)  What good is a healthy body if the mind practises evil? Nothing derived from cruelty can be good.
    Do you ever wonder why vivisection is practised behind closed doors? It is because the horrors that I speak of are the truth. Their practices cannot be allowed to be seen in the light of day because if they were, there is not a right-thinking woman—or man—who would permit such things. We must expose to oppose!
    My mind flew up to the third floor. I started thinking about that closed door. I didn’t know what was going on in there. I just knew that I heard the dogs calling out.… Were they calling out in pain? A shudder ran through my entire body. I turned back to the pamphlet.
    Pet Napping
    An entire industry has sprung up from the ground to provide for the vivisector. Just as a fire needs fuel, a vivisector needs animals. And, just as with the fire, the animal is completely consumed. Youmay have wondered where these animals come from. In many places there are laws that allow the medical establishment to get lost and abandoned dogs and cats from city pounds. This is barbaric enough, but think of those evil people who simply go out into the night and steal animals—dogs tied up in backyards, cats simply out for an evening romp—and then sell them to the vivisector!
    Is that what happened to Tabby? We’d let her out one evening and she never returned. My mother said that cats sometimes move on that way—after all, someone must have owned her before she came to our garden— but I didn’t believe she’d just run away. Tabby was my cat and she loved me.
    Is there anybody so naive as not to think that where money is involved evil cannot happen? After all, the love of money is the root of all evil. People, tempted by money, are stealing pets and selling these animals into a terrible life of unspeakable suffering, torture, and then finally, and at times mercifully, death.
    Imagine the torment of a young girl or boy waiting in vain for their beloved pet to return. Waiting, night after night, day after day,