Marc Bekoff: The State of Animals – The Good, Bad, Ugly, and Hope
Marc Bekoff: When this pandemic is over, the effects will be very long-lasting. The relationships between humans and nonhumans will be challenged and in a state of flux.
MARC BEKOFF: It’s clear that numerous, some might say countless, animals are suffering not only because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but so too, even when things aren’t so dire… the mistreatment of wildlife and how they’re used for food and medicinal purposes… research animals also are suffering during this pandemic and researchers might have to kill them because they simply can’t be kept in labs because of quarantines, lack of care, the inability for research to be conducted, and a lack of funds…
Two organizations that often are polar opposites on matters of animal protection have published stories about these sickening and deadly situations, and both are available online. The first essay, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) by science writer David Grimm is called “Respirators, quarantines, and worst-case scenarios: Lab animal facilities grapple with the pandemic.”
He begins, “The U.S. National Institutes of Health announced this week it is ‘deeply concerned about the impact of [COVID-19] on the ability of… institutions to support the well-being of animals and personnel during this public health emergency.’ And indeed, many universities are currently grappling with the best way to care for the millions of mice, monkeys, and other research animals they care for across the country, in addition to protecting the health of their own employees”… This is a bad situation that could get uglier pretty fast, and more people need to know about it because many do not and they’re shocked when they learn about it…
I’m pleased to say that there is some good news for lab animals that’s offered in an essay by Audrey Enjoli called “The First Coronavirus Vaccine Won’t Be Tested on Animals.” I was thrilled to read this essay given what I’d written in a recent piece called “It’s Time to Move on From Nonhuman Animal Models,” with the subtitle containing a quote from Stanford genomics expert Dr. Ron Davis: “Animals don’t ‘really tell you much about how the virus causes disease.'”…
The above two topics and numerous others need open discussion in an ever-changing world in which relationships between humans and nonhumans are being challenged and in a state of flux — some might say they’re in an unprecedented state of flux — and relationships among humans are being similarly and greatly challenged. We’re really all in this mess together—we’re all interconnected—and the best or only way out is for all of us to work with one another and to remain positive.
My humble suggestion is to limit doses of TV watching, especially oft-repeated news where there are extremely few positive messages. I know we need to know what’s happening, but when a friend of mine suggested, “We should go to the animals and nature at least 20 times more than we go to the news,” I thought this 20:1 ratio was a good rule of thumb…
When this pandemic is over, if it ever will be, it’s really generating a global social transformation and revolution — the effects will be very long-lasting. They won’t ever disappear totally and what we do today will influence how we and others adapt to a universe-changing and paradigm-shifting series of events. Let’s hope the future world will be far better than what we have now. Let’s hope for more compassion and empathy among all beings. SOURCE…
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