The Animal Rights Summit

The Animal Rights Summit
By David Leonhardt

Is it just me, or is society becoming increasingly polarized? It seems like for every action there is an equaller and oppositer reaction. For and against war. For or against the environment. For or against the family.

Consider the role animals play in society. No, I am not referring to politicians, TV producers or Janet Jackson. I mean animals like rabbits and mice and bears.

Some people will even lay down their lives for animals, protesting against the use of animals in laboratory experiments. They stridently oppose the testing of chemicals and makeup on innocent rabbits and mice. I suspect they would secretly rather the chemicals and cosmetics be tested on certain humans instead.

Meanwhile, another large contingent of society has no interest in testing makeup on animals, because they would much rather shoot them. I mean the animals, not the animal rights protestors. On second thought, they might want to shoot the protestors, too.

I thought about this great divide when I looked at the label of a new "powerful" anti-dandruff shampoo we just bought