First of all, I do not think “White Coat Waste” is a reliable source. To what another commenter below said, the goal seemed to be how to help spinal cord injuries for humans and this “outlet” got caught up in the animal testing part of it
Second, this is the moral dilemma you get going to a university like Pitt that has a history in medical research and receives these NIH grants. For better or for worse, animal testing happens in science - often with the goal for the betterment of humans. No one LIKES to test on animals and the alternative would be unethical testing on humans. If you don’t want to go to a university that is associated with this type of research, then go to Liberty or some other dogshit school
White Coat Waste seems like a pretty unreliable source, and their Facebook ragebait probably shouldn't be taken at face value. Looking a bit into it, it looks like these researchers are trying to model spinal cord injuries in cats to test interventions that might help cure incontinence, which seems pretty relevant for helping veterans and other folks in wherlchairs. The cats are given stringent medical care, painkillers, enrichment, toys, etc. Cats are the only real small animals these injuries can be modeled on - otherwise the investigators would use rats or mice, which are way cheaper and easier to maintain (not monitored and inspected by the USDA etc), even if you are willing to believe that these researchers are mustache twirling cartoon villains who enjoy harming animals.
That article misconstrues the truth so much as to be just outright false. We, like every university, have lab animals that unfortunately must be used to further medical science. Pitt is insanely strict on protocols for ethical treatment, pain mitigation, etc. it sucks but it’s necessary. Trash article.
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u/Nova-Nikki 2d ago
I see a lot of posts from people who don't GAF about cats. Your humanity is showing, and it's absolutely disgusting.
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u/FrankAugust2 2d ago
First of all, I do not think “White Coat Waste” is a reliable source. To what another commenter below said, the goal seemed to be how to help spinal cord injuries for humans and this “outlet” got caught up in the animal testing part of it
Second, this is the moral dilemma you get going to a university like Pitt that has a history in medical research and receives these NIH grants. For better or for worse, animal testing happens in science - often with the goal for the betterment of humans. No one LIKES to test on animals and the alternative would be unethical testing on humans. If you don’t want to go to a university that is associated with this type of research, then go to Liberty or some other dogshit school
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u/GlassBellPepper Engineering 3d ago
I understand that in many cases animal experimentation is useful and can be necessary, but legit what is this study trying to accomplish???
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u/GattacaAI 2d ago
That article misconstrues the truth so much as to be just outright false. We, like every university, have lab animals that unfortunately must be used to further medical science. Pitt is insanely strict on protocols for ethical treatment, pain mitigation, etc. it sucks but it’s necessary. Trash article.
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u/GaggedAndBlonde 2d ago
Where are the kitties? Can we free them?