Declined friends request to sign petition

The actual benefits of animal testing are pretty flimsy, in a lot of cases.

The best results they could say is that mice/dogs/rabbits/monkeys respond in a certain way, to a drug.

There's some experiments that could be done on placentas, or more controversial human matter, and there's a lot of unnecessary cruelty in labs.

Its not something I'd just sign, because I don't know enough.

I did post the video a while back of chimps first time ever of seen the sky after 26 years in a lab.26 bloody years!!!

My friend has completely opposite views to me on religion, politics, refugees, Brexit, Vaxx etc. But she's a lovely person, kind caring and generous so as I've known her for 18 years I just avoid these subjects. Best way I think. OP probably best to say you will look through it and decide later. Although I put any petition I've signed on FB then people make up their own mind.
Thing is without animal testing we wouldn't have insulin, vaccines, heart meds etc. But it's not fool proof look at thalidomide.

rafichagran

Seakay

Perhaps your friend is upset because rather than saying that you needed to inform yourself about the current methods and the alternatives before deciding if you could sign, you used your current ignorance as a reason to do nothing

Completely disagree, if the poster does not want to sign she does not have to. No explanation nessasary, it's a democratic society.
The friend has no right to get upset, it's her passion not the OP's. Who does this person think they are. No one should expect someone to sign a petition if they do not want too.

Agreed, rafichagran.

We all have a right to our passions, but not to expect others to follow them and fall in line. People have very different ideas about the usefulness of petitions anyway, and not everyone is comfortable with signing them. I sign them, but have no idea whether the things in the ones that appear to have succeeded would have happened anyway or if it is just coincidence that there was a petition - I have certainly signed many that have made no difference at all.

Seakay

Perhaps your friend is upset because rather than saying that you needed to inform yourself about the current methods and the alternatives before deciding if you could sign, you used your current ignorance as a reason to do nothing

Completely disagree, if the poster does not want to sign she does not have to. No explanation nessasary, it's a democratic society.
The friend has no right to get upset, it's her passion not the OP's. Who does this person think they are. No one should expect someone to sign a petition if they do not want too.

Anyone remember chain letters? I never carried them on, to the annoyance of some who had sent them to me. I don't respond to Facebook requests to like certain things and I make my own mind up about on-line petitions. Your friend should respect your decision not to sign.

Whiff

I sign.petitons but only for things I agree or believe in. People get very annoyed when out if I won't give money for animals or religious organisations. I believe in people first and I am atheist. Plus I wouldn't give to organisations that get tax beaks from the government so Oxfam ,red cross etc. But I do support local charities,st John's ambulance,air ambulance ,lifeboats and the like . My brother is very political I am not but never fall out over our different views.

We all have a brain ,common sense and a conscience. Everyone is unique. If everyone agreed with eachother we might as well be robots.

Many charities do the govt's work and so get contributions towards it. When I volunteered for Save The Children, before moving to France, the charity had set up visitors' centres at prisons so that families could visit prisoners and also child care centres. SCF would set them up and then local volunteers would take them on when they were up and running.

Some people may be shocked at the visitors centres but it should be remembered that SCF is for the children and not necessarily the adults.

A person I know sends me petitions for various causes.. I ignore them and pass no comment to her. So far she has not remarked on my lack of response

I have a friend who often asks me to sign and share petitions. I sign if I agree with them, but don't often share as some people don't like receiving petitions. I fell out with one or two friends who voted for Brexit and still feel uncomfortable around others who voted for it but try to avoid any discussion on the subject.

I hope you and your friend stay amicable over this. Many of us or our loved ones wouldn't be here, painfree, today if animal experiments for medicines hadn't been carried out. During recent surgery, I was chatting to the anesthetist pre-op, and was comforted to know that I would be receiving a muscle-relaxant that I had been involved in testing about 40 years ago! Animal experiments are needed for medical purposes.

I never give out my bank details unless I am buying something from a legitimate company. Never on the street or if anyone knocks my door. Signing a petition is just that signing, most I do are online and they don't want money just your support.

I never sign any petition sent from anyone. I also would not ask anyone to do so. I think your friend is being over dramatic and churlish.

Whoops - error time - quoted the wrong post.

I do not accept animal experiments - even for health reasons.

petal53

You have to be true to yourself Cambsnan. I don’t think I’d have signed either. I deplore using animals unnecessarily in experiments, but I maintain that some experiments may still be necessary in the development of new medicines. I’d rather an animal was used than a human baby suffered bad side effects from an untested medicine.

Agree.

There are sometimes "lines in the sand" and this to me also is one.

I would think your friend probably doesn't have that many "lines in the sand" but this is one of hers.

I think many of us will have some sort of "line in the sand" and I've probably only got a couple of "do not pass Go" ones myself and that's probably fairly typical. I say nowt if someone is eating meat, has had "those" jabs, has had more than 2 children. But they have to accept I didn't do Lockdown, don't eat meat myself, won't accept experiments on animals and I wouldnt have dreamt of having more than 2 children (in the event - I didnt want any...so I didnt have any).

This is obviously one of her "line in the sand" things...

Even though a company claims its actual product is not tested on animals in many cases the ingredients are. So they are disguising the animal testing as they buy in the ingredients.

'I don’t know enough about the need for animal experiments for medicine so declined to sign.'

of course you shouldn't feel obliged to sign because of a friend. But, as a friend, if you don't understand the issues fully, a great thing would be to take an interest and then spend time studying the issues. and then make up your mind, with a better understanding of the facts.

Gillycats

Animal testing still continues. They banned it in this country for cosmetics but most companies import from places where it still happens. Testing for cleaning products is also ongoing. I can’t understand why people continue to buy from these companies, it’s abhorrent. Animals suffer so much, many tests are done on pregnant animals and newborns. There are plenty of make up, skin care and cleaning products that have the leaping bunny on them (M and S and Sainsbury’s own brands are good) which means they are cruelty free. As for animal testing for medical reasons I don’t think people realise that millions of animals have horrific tests conducted on them every year. The majority are unnecessary. The pharmaceuticals get paid phenomenal amounts to do this so they can make massive profits- it’s not in their best interests to find cures. They’d go bust and hundreds of thousands of people would be unemployed. These days great results come from using computers and many many more non animal tests. I recommend that people look at The Humane Research Trust.
I would add that Cancer Research UK have been in existence for well over a century, have tortured millions of animals to death and have spent hundreds of £million’s yet are nowhere near finding a cure. Meanwhile it’s still a leading cause of death. Two of my children have had cancer issues so I have an invested interest in why there is no cure. Petitions are down to personal choice but I chose to sign for the use of animals to be stopped. We need to be looking at other successful alternatives and not keep flogging a dead horse.

This 👆 I understand why your friend is upset with you. She probably feels like you have very different values in animal welfare. I also understand that you made your choice because, as you said, you didn’t know enough about it. I recommend doing a little reading-up.

Perhaps your friend is upset because rather than saying that you needed to inform yourself about the current methods and the alternatives before deciding if you could sign, you used your current ignorance as a reason to do nothing

I agree with Gillycats - where is the cure for cancer ? where is the cure for heart disease ? Many Drs are against animal testing

Your choice whether to sign or not but please don't fall for the hype that animals need to be used for progress in health.

Whiff

I sign.petitons but only for things I agree or believe in. People get very annoyed when out if I won't give money for animals or religious organisations. I believe in people first and I am atheist. Plus I wouldn't give to organisations that get tax beaks from the government so Oxfam ,red cross etc. But I do support local charities,st John's ambulance,air ambulance ,lifeboats and the like . My brother is very political I am not but never fall out over our different views.

We all have a brain ,common sense and a conscience. Everyone is unique. If everyone agreed with eachother we might as well be robots.

If someone asks you to sign anything when you are out and about, you should decline. They can be either wanting to get your bank details to steal from you, or collect money for themselves. They should have official accreditation. If anyone asks for bank details or address, turn the tables and ask for theirs. [ grin]

Well done for sticking to your guns!

You have a perfectly sound reason for not signing this petition.

If your friend cannot accept that you do not sign things on another person's say-so, but prefer to make an informed decision yourself, and if you either do not have time, or the inclination to study a subject, say, as you did, that you do not know the ins and outs of the matter, then she is very narrow-minded.

I have a similar "friend" who seems to have dropped me because I could not agree with her that the editorial in the Diocesian magazine was patronizing and ill-informed.

My reason for saying I could not agree with her was that I had not had time to read the said magazine, which I felt was reasonable grounds for saying I could not say whether her estimation was correct or not.

I have friends with differing opinions to me and they don’t mind reminding me of it regularly, nor do I hold back from telling them what I think, but we usually end up laughing and part on good terms.
Is the same with family, particularly my OH, he’s always been more conservative and I have always been more lefty, so our discussions are usually robust,
I think if I only ever wanted to be around people I agree with I would be a very lonely old trout.
Btw, yes we can get hot under the collar on GN, especially on news and politics but hopefully I haven’t pee’ed anyone off too much.
🤣

I wouldn't fall out with someone who disagreed with me or had different beliefs, unless they were immoral or truly abhorrent to me. However, I wouldn't be able to maintain a friendship where no difference of opinion or perspective could be expressed.

I would politely tell friend that I couldn't sign something when I didn't know the full picture and would want to investigate further before signing.
I don't agree with animal testing for cosmetics etc but do agree with it for medical reasons. How are drugs going to be tested, investigated even discovered without this? I would much rather drugs were tested out on animals (as humanely as possible of course) rather than them being tested on humans.

It's always a good idea if you don't know enough about the subject of a petition you are asked to sign, to learn about it rather than refusing. If something is important enough to warrant a petition then there's likely to be a strong argument, so I would never blindly say no unless I do forcefully disagree and then it's highly unlikely that any friend would ask because they would know already what my opinion was.

In full agreement with Gillycats - animal experimentation is just not necessary in medicine. There's plenty of academic research out there to demonstrate this but unfortunately those who have a vested interest in continuing (Big Pharma) blatantly ignore it.