My personal opinion is not that research should not happen, but that much of the research that is done on animals could (and should) be done using alternative methods. Those methods already exist and have a proven track record. I also feel that animals that have suffered and sacrificed for our benefit deserve some modicum of comfort, quality of life, and respect. I used to work at a local school of veterinary medicine in the gnotibiotic department. Colonies of research animals were kept for some eventual use and surplus animals were destroyed by cervical dislocation (because the tech I worked with was too lazy to walk to the next building and use gas). I would find living, paralyzed animals in the trash hours later. I also used to pick up destroyed animals from Charles River Laboratories (a supplier of research animals) to feed to the wild cats at a the conservation organization that I worked for. I would go into the walk-in freezer and pick up 600–800 lbs of dead mice and rats every other week or so (and ours was no the only facility that did this). These were unused surplus animals that were bred and then destroyed because they were of no value to the company. I don’t argue the need for research – I argue against the callous, uncaring attitude with which we treat those animals.