Stop Animal Patents
I ran across the American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS) website the other day and found their section about animal patents.
Over 660 patents have been issued on genetically engineered, infected with a virus, injected with a toxin, or surgically altered animals such as cats, cattle, chickens, dogs, fish, chimpanzees, horses, monkeys, mice, pigs, rats, and sheep.
AAVA says:
“A patent was recently granted for rabbits whose eyes are intentionally damaged to serve as a model for ‘dry eye’ conditions in humans. AAVS has submitted a challenge to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for issuing the rabbit patent, requesting that the patent be repealed.”
And they wrote more about animal patents:
“Just like toasters, clocks, and other inanimate objects, animals are being patented as inventions in the United States. Private companies, universities, and individual ‘bioentrepreneurs’ have been granted over 660 patents on animals such as chimpanzees, monkeys, mice, rabbits, dogs, cats, and pigs who have been “altered” in some way, creating an incentive to profit from hurting animals. It [...] is an unethical and inappropriate use of the patent system to issue patents for sentient beings.”
More on why these patents are unethical:
“Animals are more than the sum of their parts. They are not inanimate objects, such as toasters or toilets, but complex beings who display emotion and self-awareness. Yet patents on animals typically contain overly broad claims including not only the process by which the animals are manipulated, but also the animals themselves who result from that manipulation.
Inherent in the patenting of animals is animal suffering, as the limits of what new suffering and pain they can tolerate are explored and violated. The ease in obtaining animal patents has essentially created a stampede to engage in every imaginable manipulation of animals. In doing so, experimenters have nothing to lose and everything to gain. This is hardly how a moral society should conduct itself.”
Here are some facts about animal patents >>
So I thought I’d pass the message along and see what other vegans have to say about it.
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