A Rats Life

This is something I wrote a long time ago for an online magazine Entelechy.

This is just the text portion, for the full preview of this issue, download here. My article is on page sixteen.

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We'd like to think we're the "better half" of sentient beings on this planet: the chosen, the superior, the entitled. Have you ever taken the time to consider the lives of the other half? And I’m talking about the OTHER, other half. The half that lives in sewers and streets, those who are tortured and mutilated for science, those who are torn to pieces for examination by those just like me and you. We are their worst nightmare, their most feared, and they are known as: the infamous rats.
Often thought of as the lowest of the low, they are not even protected by the Animal Welfare Act. [Editor’s Note:The 2002 Welfare Act (was first introduced in 1966, amended many times since then) states that the definition of "animal" excludes: "birds, rats of the genus Rattus, and mice of the genus Mus, bred for use in research, horses not used for research purposes, and other farm animals, such as, but not limited to livestock or poultry, used or intended for use as food or fiber, or livestock or poultry used or intended for use for improving animal nutrition, breeding, management, or production efficiency, or for improving the quality of food or fiber". That's a LOT of real, breathing, thinking, LIVING and loving beings that weren't (and by many loopholes, still aren't) even considered
more than root vegetables!] Which means as long as someone out there (be they scientists, farmers, politicians) claim the experiment has a good purpose, the rats and other "non-animal" creatures are doomed to whatever fate the scientists choose.Whether it be life circling in a cage, tubes shoved down tubes throat or into their veins, being torn to pieces bit by painful bit or much worse. Nothing is dubbed to be too cruel for a rat.The thing is… do you think these people ever actually looked into the eyes of these animals before they destroyed them? Do you think they even acknowledged them as living beings? Little chance, otherwise there would be no testing on animals. No man or woman in their right mind can look into the eyes of a rat or any animal for that matter and see their fear, their anxiety and sadness and then slowly torture them to death for their own benefit. For the money. These gentle and curious creatures are far underestimated by society, and they are often deemed as unclean vermin. But what society doesn’t see is when a mother rat carries her children, one by one, often over miles and miles of land to find a safer place for them to live. Society isn’t watching when a rat giggles happily while
playing with friends or family, or when a rat goes into depression when a loved one has passed away. That is who rats truly are: compassionate, loving and curious little creatures that want and have every right to live just as we do. Rats are a beautiful part of creation; on this Earth to be our companions, not for us to abuse so that we can have another candy bar in the check-out isle. Rats are not ours to use for experimentation, neither are they here to be harmed intentionally for any other purpose. They live, they want to live, and they love to live. Just like us.

Editing by: Ariel Garlow