Lab Dog and Community (Volunteer Submission)
As our community expands and word spreads about Kindness Ranch, there are questions. Often more questions than answers. Many of us were not familiar with the phenomenon of biomedical research on animals (the scientific term is vivisection) until we came into contact with, and fell in love with, a tattoo-eared beagle.
Inevitably, the question arises: What was done to them? What were they used for in the lab? The questions are met with silence. For Kindness Ranch to do what they do with such adeptness, they need to hold secrets. We will never know exactly what the animals in our care have lived through. We will never know exactly what they were used for.
But one doesn’t have to speculate too much to know that these animals suffer. Even in the best of lab environments with compassionate caretakers, they are in sterile, unnatural environments and cannot live out their instinctual lives. They live with pain and discomfort and they cannot thrive.
Some arrive at Kindness Ranch very scared and skittish. Others arrive confident and seemingly ready to face the challenges ahead. Like us, they have their own, individual constitutions which makes the adjustment smoother for some. But one thing is consistent. Over time, as they are treated and cared for, they learn that they are safe and they begin to trust. There is a mutual element of affection in gaining the trust of an animal for whom one is caring. Love builds as we nurture and care for another. And nowhere is this more evident than when a former research animal gets attached to the human that is changing their life.
In Lab Dog, Melanie Kaplan takes on the enormous task of educating herself—and her readers—about the history and evolution of animal testing in laboratories and educational settings. After adopting Envigo-born beagle Hammy, she set on a course driving around the country to visit the various sites that constitute the pieces of the laboratory animal puzzle, and to interview the people involved. It is a fascinating, eye-opening dive into the world of animal testing, and though she optimistically reports on the technologies that could make the phenomenon obsolete, it is a hard read.
One way or another, be sure to pick up the book and go straight to chapter 7 in which Melanie records her time spent at Kindness Ranch, capturing the place and the mission beautifully. Then, if you can stomach learning more about vivisection, read it from cover to cover. The news isn’t all bad.
We’ve come a long way, and Kindness Ranch will forever have been a key component in the journey into the future where animals can live fully as the beautiful sentient beings that they are.
Written by and Submitted by - Jean Unger