Emily Hulsey | On 31, Dec 2013
When 25-year-old Italian veterinary student Caterina Simonsen wrote a Facebook post about how thankful she was to be alive, she had no idea she would get hate letters and death threats for it.
Simonsen suffers from four rare genetic pulmonary diseases that make her quickly immune to treatments. As a result, she is constantly undergoing new medical procedures, many of which were first tested on animals. This is what she said:
“I am 25 thanks to genuine research that includes experiments on animals. Without research, I would have been dead at nine. You have gifted me a future.”
Animal rights activists immediately went up in arms over Simonsen’s support for animal testing. However, their responses weren’t just critical; they were absolutely vicious. Here are some of the worst:
You could die tomorrow, I wouldn’t sacrifice my goldfish for you,”
“If you had died as a child, no one would have given a damn.”
“Is that the best you’ve got, Caterina? Have a good life then. I would prefer not to live if my life depended on the suffering of others or taking millions of lives, because their life is worth less than mine. Shame!”
Overnight, Simonsen became the face of Italy’s high-profile animal testing debate. She has since given multiple interviews trying to “put a human face” on animal research, but the hate mail isn’t slowing down. Police are investigating a total of 30 death threats and 500 insults that they consider particularly cruel.
Is it just me, or does it seem like people are getting crueler and nastier with what they say? Maybe it’s because there are no consequences within society, or that the disconnectedness of social media makes makes people feel gutsier. Either way, some of us, like these “Nazi animalists,” need to tone it down and think about what we’re saying.
http://www.ijreview.com/2013/12/105126-irate-animal-rights-activists-bombard-dying-girl-hate-mail-death-threats/
