She nodded her understanding, and got lost in her own thoughts for a bit. After I'd taken another sip of my drink, she came out of it and asked "What do YOU think about all of this? What I was doing, and who those folks are, and such?"
"I don't fault you in the slightest for your desire to help abused animals. I know that there are still too many places that don't follow the 'rules' about how they treat the animals they use. One of the arguments used by animal rights people is that animals are animals and people are people, and that there's nothing to be learned from using an animal to try and find cures for human problems. Except that any biologist will tell you that there are similarities between humans and some animals. So while finding a treatment for heart disease that works on, say, a pig isn't an exact cure for a human, it's certainly close enough to let them know whether or not to at least try it on people. Another part of the deal with them is that they try to lump all animal researchers together, so that if or when they find even ONE that abuses animals, they can use that as justification for going after all such research. Before you went to that place tonight, what did you know about them?"
Embarrassed, Bonnie admitted "Not much. Nothing, actually, except what the others told me."
"Think back about how the animals looked tonight, and decide whether or not they looked 'abused' to you."
She did, and when she was done, she told me "They didn't – not even a little bit. They were all friendly, and seemed to be pretty happy, and in good shape."
"That's because the place you went to does behavioral research, not medical. You probably missed the newspaper article some months ago that told how that facility even has what they call a 'Care Critters' program to take dogs and cats into hospitals as therapy for some of the patients. All they ever do with the animals they have is try to figure out why the animals do what they do; none of them is ever given any kind of drugs or chemicals, injected with anything, operated on, or anything else. In fact, there's a waiting list of people that want to adopt their test animals when they're done with them. Does that sound like the kind of place that was worth the crimes you committed? Trespassing? Breaking and Entering? Theft? Burglary? Or any of the things that the other folks with you started doing?"
The look on Bonnie's face was all the answer I needed before I continued "I'll bet you feel some affection for Cleopatra, here – maybe even love her. But if your daughter was sick, and the doctors told you that the cure for her might – not would, but just 'might' – be found if they could do some experiments with Cleopatra, what would you do?"
Again, Bonnie's expression was answer enough for me to continue "What a lot of people don't think about is that when the animal rights people say that the rights of the animals counts for more than the results of the medical and scientific research, those groups are saying that the rights of the animal count for as much – or even more, since they don't want the animal involved – than those of the people who would benefit; and when you boil it all down, that means that they're saying the rights of an abstract animal count for more than the rights of an abstract human being – which is the same as saying that they don' t think that people count for as much as animals, never mind more. So the same animal rights people that steal animals from research facilities are stealing the futures of the people that depend on that research to stay alive. In essence, they're saying that the life of this cat on my lap counts for more than the life of your daughter. Are those really the kind of people you want to associate with?"
After taking another sip of my drink, I finished "If you really want to help abused animals, then fine – help abused animals. Make sure of who you're targeting, and what they're doing. And do it legally; letters to the companies, telling your friends and neighbors, that kind of thing. Hell, organize a protest outside their company, if that's what it takes. But the minute, the second you try to deny those people the rights to their property, then you're effectively forfeiting your own."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"You told me you're an accountant?" I asked. She nodded, and I said "Research places get their animals one of two ways. Either they have to buy animals with specific characteristics, like lab rats that have been raised in a sterile environment and don't have any antibodies to diseases, or they get ordinary animals from the open market, like breeders or even shelters. Either way, they have pay for the animals. So when somebody comes in and takes the animals away, they're stealing them. When those folks were trashing that facility tonight, and planting those devices, they were destroying someone else's property. They did all that because they thought it was right to do something illegal because they thought their reasons were 'right'. Now, if it's okay for them to do something like that, why wouldn't it be equally right for someone that doesn't like accountants – remember, there are some accountants that are involved in organized crime, for example – to do the same thing to your company? Or even you? What's the difference, if the only justification is the intensity of the desire to correct what they perceive as a wrong? Isn't that the whole reason we have laws? To protect ourselves from that kind of thing?"
Bonnie sat silently as I added "I've got a pretty simple way of deciding whether some action on my part is 'fair', or not."
"What's that?"
"I just switch the whole thing around to look at it from the other direction – how would I feel if this was happening to me? Would I be just as happy with how things turn out if I was on the other side, knowing what I know now?"
"For example?"
"Okay, how about something like gay marriage. Most of the people saying it's wrong are straight, and in the majority. Let's turn the whole thing around, then – gay people are in the majority, and they're trying to pass a law that only gay marriage is legal, and that heterosexual couples can only have 'civil unions' and such. Would that be fair? No? That brings up something that far, far too many people aren't willing to do – just leave other folks alone. If you don't want people interfering with your life, then you have to show them the courtesy and restraint of not messing with theirs. You don't have to like it, but if you want others to respect your rights, you have to respect theirs – which gets us back to deciding whether or not something is 'fair'", I finished.
Bonnie was silent for several seconds before asking me "How the hell did you get so smart?"
I had to laugh before I answered "I'm not smart. If I was, I'd be a hell of a lot richer. No, I've had to study, and think about what I figured was important, and what it meant."
"What are you, some kind of philosopher or something?" she asked.
"Or something", I answered – which prompted her to ask what I meant, followed by my having to explain how I'd dropped out of college while studying for a Philosophy degree, and settled on driving cabs. By the time I was done, I could see that she wasn't entirely sure that I wasn't just pulling her leg, or making it all up. We sat there for several minutes with her contemplating me as we sipped our drinks. She finally broke the silence by telling me "I think I'm going to have to believe what you just told me about yourself. What you said, and the way you were explaining things… it all sounded just too damn… well, philosophical. But how does that 'applied philosophy' thing work?"
I had to smile as I told her "You tell me. That's what I was doing when I was talking to you about what happened tonight, and the people you were with. Did what I had to say help you any?"
Slightly chagrinned, she answered "Yeah, it did, as a matter of fact."
"Was that what you wanted to talk to me about?" I asked.
"Yeah, it was. And I was right about you being the person I needed to talk to, too."
I smiled before telling her "That's nice to hear. It's getting a little late, and I think I'd better head home before Demosthenes starts thinking I've abandoned him."