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]