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There was a time when it was believed that infants and young children did not feel pain, and that belief was used to justify not using any anaesthetics for major surgeries. Crying and thrashing were seen as automatic responses, not reactions to pain. Similar arguments are made today to justify the abuse of animals. For example, some people who catch fish say that a fish’s struggle is automatic, despite overwhelming evidence backing up the obvious: Fish struggle because they are trying to flee, because hooks hurt them and because they are afraid.
Decades ago, young children were used in factories, mills and farms and were subjected to cruel experiments
because they were easy to control and could not defend themselves against abuse. Animals are used and abused for the same reason: because they are powerless.
Children used as workers were often pushed to the breaking point, with little time to rest or eat. Many were disabled or killed in machinery accidents, and most suffered injuries or health problems from performing the same motions day after day in unbearable conditions. Today, animals used as labourers – such as horses who pull carriages full of people and animals who pull heavy carts – are worked long hours, sometimes until they collapse, and their injuries often go untreated. Their needs to socialise, rest and run free are ignored.
A 1939 experiment conducted by University of Iowa professors, called the “Monster Study”, used orphans to study the influence of psychological pressure on stuttering. The experiments, which involved intimidating and maliciously deceiving the children, caused them to become withdrawn and stutter. When the study ended, no remedial therapy was given to the children who had lost the ability to speak properly. “When I left that orphanage, that experiment was over for me”, one experimenter said.
Today, infant animals are taken away from their loving parents, who would otherwise care for and nurture them for many years, just as human parents do. Young great apes are forced to “act” and are used to elicit cheap laughs for TV, movie and circus audiences around the world. When they become too strong and uncooperative – at about age 8 – they are typically sold to dismal roadside zoos to live the rest of their lives in loneliness and squalor.
Just as people spoke up to turn the tide and end child labour and experimentation – as well as slavery and the oppression of women – so, too, must people who have a voice speak up for animals who can’t defend themselves against exploitation, cruelty, disrespect and violence.
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