Milking Rabbits May Treat Genetic Disease

[grabit]

The babies being routinely slaughtered at birth, and the adult females being kept in a constant state of pregancy or lactation?

And yet how many of us drink cows milk and eat dairy products?

[poodlefan]

I'm against exploitation of any kind, regardless of benefits.

I pray for your sake that no loved one of yours ever suffers from insulin dependent diabetes.

The issue for me is not the use of animals but how humanely they are treated.

Funny how the RSPCA hasn't tackled live sheep exports head on - now THERE is an animal welfare issue that requires addressing.

[gundoglover]

I wonder if the RSPCA thinks milking Funnel web spiders is cruel.

Anyway the RSPCA is very good at milking themselves, as we all know.

No, I don't think that it counts as an animal unless it has a backbone & is cute, preferably fluffy. Not too many people are interested in donating money to stop the 'exploitation' of spiders & insects (eg, bees, that are 'robbed' of their hard work by people). In the same way, people don't care about the distress experienced by plants that are being eaten, cut or cooked. Aspirin (derived from a plant) works to reduce this plant "pain":

"Aspirin, the researchers discovered, interrupts the production of a key compound that plants produce in response to physical injury in much the same way that it interrupts in animals the production of the compound that tissue produces when it is hurt, leading to the pain reaction. The function of aspirin in animals is to block the production of prostaglandin, which triggers swelling and pain. Aspirin binds to the active site of the enzyme that is critical to producing prostaglandin. "It essentially renders the enzyme dead and prevents prostaglandins from building up and creating a reaction," said Backhaus. In plants, aspirin blocks the production of jasmonic acid by similarly binding a critical enzyme. "Jasmonic acid is a hormone that is made when plants are in distress. It signals the production of plant-defense compounds -- it works a little like a shot of pain, warning the plant that it is under attack. It can also volatilize and warn nearby plants, a chain reaction that's like a warning signal to other plants." (from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/08/980806090010.htm)

[dingdongdell]

What about the unwanted chicks that are thrown into a crusher...ALIVE.

RSPCA NSW are aware and are supposedly going to discuss it with other states.

The law permits them to be either gassed or crushed.

These are chick produced by the producers,that are over the number of chicks they can house adequately.So are unwanted.

It has been suggested that some breeders of chickens then mix the crushed chicks together with chickens that die from other causes together with grain and feed that mix back to their other chickens.

People are eating chickens that have been fed this mix.

Thank goodness I am a vegetarian.

Edited January 31, 2010 by dingdongdell

[Alyosha]

And yet how many of us drink cows milk and eat dairy products?

I have worked on dairy farms and seen and been involved in the hand rearing of many precious female calves (male calves maybe not, but are usually hand raised and run on for a while before being used for meat), as well as watching heards of cows move in and out of carefully maintained pastures each day - not tied permanently standing tied up and strapped into a urine collecter and stall like these horses. Are you aware of the horse farms in Europe that I'm referring to??

My point being that the medical and farming industries are fraught with massive welfare issues as it is, now a new one? I daresay no-one is going to spend the time catching free range rabbits to milk each day when they can be kept in a small cage where they are easily accessible. Meat rabbits already live like battery hens, milking ones will be no different.

[♪♫LMBC♫♪]

It is my opinion that the life of a human is always worth more than the life of an animal. If milking rabbits can stop the suffering and pain of people with this condition, and improve their quality of life, then I can't see a problem with it. If it was your child or another loved on suffering from this condition, wouldn't you do anything to help them?

Animals are used to benefit humans all the time. I hope those who are against this don't ever eat meat, milk, eggs, honey or anything else produced from an animal, or use any vaccine or medication that has been produced using animals.

[sandgrubber]

It is my opinion that the life of a human is always worth more than the life of an animal. If milking rabbits can stop the suffering and pain of people with this condition, and improve their quality of life, then I can't see a problem with it. If it was your child or another loved on suffering from this condition, wouldn't you do anything to help them?

Animals are used to benefit humans all the time. I hope those who are against this don't ever eat meat, milk, eggs, honey or anything else produced from an animal, or use any vaccine or medication that has been produced using animals.

But would you pay a few percent more for the product to ensure that animals weren't abused? My answer is generally yes . . . though sometimes free range eggs are so expensive that I buy the caged variety anyway. I wouldn't complain if they outlawed the worst abuses on egg farms and I had to pay a bit more for eggs. In the case of drug production, where they spend 10 times more on advertisement and research than they do on production, I'd say tighten the screws and make the company pay to keep the bunnies happy.

[grabit]

And yet how many of us drink cows milk and eat dairy products?

Are you aware of the horse farms in Europe that I'm referring to??

Meat rabbits already live like battery hens, milking ones will be no different.

Yes I am aware of these farms... unsure about how i feel about such practices

I was acctually commenting on the disaproval of the practice of culling newborn animals by several posters..... why is there a percieved difference between culling a newborn and culling an adult .... a life is a life is it not?

I have to say the statement about rabbits raised for meat is a broad generalisation, there are farms which raise "free range" rabbits for human consumption they are raised in large enclosures, not all that different to the barns some egg producers use. It does however raise other issues as rabbits often fight, males often castrate each other and sometimes will fight to the death.

please do not take this as a personal attack, I am merely trying to show that the answers which are often percieved as the easy ones bring about a whole set of new ethical dilemmas.