This has been a very difficult decision for me, because I have such good friends in the group. I thought I could stay with the group because she does give me fodder for the blog. And like I said, I love the other people in it.
Then I read more about what's happening at the New Iberia Research Center in Louisiana. Here's a post from Animals and Politics.
Here's my email to my closest friends in the group....
I think the time has come for me to leave the book club.
I want to give you three a heads up about this. For at least a year, I have had a serious problem with XXXX and, specifically, her position on animals. I won't go into the list of problems I have with her, but I don't think I can be in the same room with her for much longer.
This is a link to a recent scandal at a primate center in Louisiana. http://hslf.typepad.com/political_animal/2009/03/primate_investigation.html. I don't want to go into details, but it's bad. And it's only one of the few we know about.
She supports this. She has no issues with vivisection either. And researching the company she works for makes me wonder whether the clinical trials she sells actually include animal experiments. I understand the realities of medical research, and I have recently audited companies in which non-human primate studies are a "cost of goods sold," but the lack of interest in pursuing an alternative and the coldness of her reasoning makes me sick to my stomach. I am a hypocrite to my beliefs by associating with her.
These are core issues to me that are an integral part to who I am as a human being. I can be friends with Republicans and fundamentalists (and I am!), but not with this. I can't tell her what I think of her because of respect for my friends in the group whom I dearly love.
I am so sorry because I do enjoy the group and you three are so dear to me. But there comes a time in life when you must be true to your principles, even at a painful cost. And I can't do it anymore...
:-(
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