Blog - Joyful Curmudgeon - Blog
A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 

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Rats – 20 September 2008
By Mary T. Hoffman

I just read in the October 2008 issue of National Geographic magazine about trained sniffer rats who sweep minefields in Tanzania and Mozambique in Africa, the continent with the most land mines in the world. The rats deployed for detecting these potential explosives are African giant pouched rats whose noses are very sensitive. Rats are also trained to screen human saliva for tuberculosis. The article mentioned that there are other jobs in the works for rats, such as finding earthquake victims buried in rubble.

Humans, for their own benefit, are quick to take advantage of the many special gifts that are increasingly being discovered in other animals. Yet rats are among the most maligned of all creatures and are among those who are not protected in any way from the most horrendous abuse imaginable in laboratories, for example.

Mice and rats are not protected by any anti-cruelty laws, nor are any research facilities required to account for any testing procedures on them. These feeling and social animals are left to the "mercy" of the researchers. Rats are locked in stocks for hours on end while experiments are conducted upon them without anesthesia.

Yet humans utilize their own “superior” abilities to build the most evil devices for the destruction of members of their own species, as well as God’s other creatures. If that doesn’t qualify for the label of “stupidity,” I don’t know what does!

It’s time for all people to admit that other animals have a right to live without arrogant human abuse.

Also visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/mice.html

Go on to: Letter to USDA about Rhesus Monkeys – 21 September 2008
Return to: E. coli and Manure – 19 September 2008
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