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Space Dogs: a documentary about Laika and the dogs of the Soviet space program
#1
Space Dogs will be out later this month. It is a documentary that tells the blunt truth about the dogs of the Soviet space race. These dogs were not treated well and the movie is clear about that. Laika died in space. The blunt truth is that they hadn't planned to bring her back alive. It is not going to be an easy movie to watch, but sometimes knowing the truth is more important than sparing our feelings.

https://www.wired.com/story/space-dogs-l...cumentary/

I know the dogs and all the other animals used in the space race were really just lab animals.  Admitting that and honoring what they did is far more respectful than trying to sugar coat it now. Maybe as we think about these animals we will consider the fate of animals that are still being used as lab animals, most for reasons a lot less significant than a space race.
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Catherine

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#2
I was a young boy aged 7 at the time and remember it well. I asked my mother, "Will the monkey come back safely?" She replied that she doubted it. It was known that the technology did not exist at that time to re-enter the atmosphere safely. I was upset and said, "But that's not fair! The dog will die!"

Let us be clear: the Soviet scientists knew that this dog would not return. This is appalling. This is a classic example, where humans *think* that they have the moral right (as *allegedly* intellectually superior beings) to use other species as "cannon fodder" for their experiments. As a teenager, I sometimes posed the question to those defending using animals for experiments: "But if intellectually superior beings from another world came and used humans for experiments, would that be OK?".

The reply was usually either:
"There is no life elsewhere" - which is what many believed at the time, but is now shown conclusively by science to be false;
or
"Ah, no. We are humans. We are intelligent. They couldn't do that to us." - but modern science has now shown that animals also have considerable intelligence. You can read the famous Cambridge declaration by scientists here: https://do-animals-have-souls.info/cambr...ation.html

BTW, I found this good article on Wikipedia. It gives a good summary of all use of animals in space exploration. The Americans did not callously, deliberately, send a dog to its death, but there were many losses:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_in_space
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#3
Quote:Let us be clear: the Soviet scientists knew that this dog would not return. This is appalling. This is a classic example, where humans *think* that they have the moral right (as *allegedly* intellectually superior beings) to use other species as "cannon fodder" for their experiments. As a teenager, I sometimes posed the question to those defending using animals for experiments: "But if intellectually superior beings from another world came and used humans for experiments, would that be OK?".
You hit right at the heart of the issue. Is it ethically okay for us to experiment on animals and would it be okay for others to experiment on us.
To say there are no others, aliens, is just trying to  evade an uncomfortable question. The issue is not the existence of alien life, the issue is the ethics of experimenting on living beings.

From the Wikipedia article you posted clearly humans did quite a bit of experimenting on animals during the space race.
They sent animals into space before they had developed recovery systems.  Having them return was not part of the experiment so it didn't matter to them.
(I notice that the  roach not only  survived, she also reproduced.)

The space race attitude towards using animals  was  in line with the overall understanding of our relationship to animals. It was accepted that animals and the whole planet existed for our use. At that time and earlier, science and medical science  in particular also experimented on humans often without their consent or knowledge. There is a whole history of experimenting on humans. Often poorer humans who were considered inferior where the subjects of experiments.

How they treated the dogs and other animals was just part of an attitude of superiority. Concepts like informed consent or animal rights are really  very new and not universally accepted.

Documentaries that expose this attitude are very much needed right now.
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Catherine

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