‘No Rescue in Bill to Save Pound Animals’

The Trull article missed the entire point of the bill to end pound seizure (prohibiting the use of pound animals in medical research).

Shelters were originally designed to protect animals. Sending animals to research, where they undergo painful experiences and spend the rest of their lives in small cages in social isolation is hardly my idea of protection. These are animals that have had good home and loving families and that have trusted humans.

Many people, having become aware of this practice of pound seizure, now have lost trust in the shelters and face a major dilemma. Where can they take an animal and be sure that this animal won’t be used for research? Where will this animal be safe? The answer is nowhere.

The point about pound animals dying anyway, so why not make them “useful” for humans is ludicrous. There is a big difference between falling asleep and never waking up again, and having to undergo undue pain and stress and then dying. Experiments are not always done with anesthesia, and many can be likened to the horrors done to humans during the Holocaust. Can we put non-human animals through this torture and still maintain a clean conscience?

K. MICHELE DEUTSCH

San Diego