i'm going to reach a little, but... Even humans have been experimented on.
Ferrets and other live animals are no exception.  Ferrets, in fact, probably
have been sacrificed for saving the life of other ferrets.  By this I mean,
a pet which needs blood or some other enzyme might have gotten it from the
body of... yes... another ferret.  Makes me very upset, but this is true.
When a cat gets hit by a car, and the owner takes it into the vet, the vet
uses medications, blood, etc, which came from a donor.  YUK.  That is the
way of things.
 
People donate and endure pain and sacrifice themselves for the health of
other people and animals all the time.  Running into a fire to save an
infant is an example.  Donating a lung or kidney is another example.  People
with terminal illnesses die all the time under experimental procedures to
ultimately advance science enough to save a future human's life.
 
Animals and people, are essentially the same, and those with good lives
will often help someone in great need.  So, to perform experiments and use
animals for food, is ethically similar to the positive practive of self
sacrifice for the benefit of another being or animal.
 
But the real problem come in when the donor has to endure pain.  A donor for
food, health, or whatever, should be honored and respected... and allowed to
lay at rest in peace, without suffering.
 
That is the natural way of things.   I submit.
 
mark.
 
[Moderator's note: OK, I'll offer the argument that people choose to, for
example, donate organs or blood whereas ferrets cannot make that choice for
themselves.  If *I* don't say that here, I'll have 20 posts tomorrow that
all say the same thing... and this is already getting pretty far off the
topic of ferrets.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 2328]