Trout Republic: Product testing on animals

It seems these days that no matter where you go you can find people on some kind of soapbox ranting and raving about a “cause.”


The phrase “up on a soapbox” came from the days when a person who was trying to get a message out about a new snake oil elixir or the second coming

of Christ would grab a wooden soap box and stand on it to give a big speech in the public square.
And it’s about the same nowadays albeit the soap boxes are the Internet and social media has re-placed the press and we all are subjected to a daily dose of rants.


Like it or hate it some certain “evils” that have been done in this world have saved or bettered countless millions of lives. One of those evils is product and medical testing on animals.


While Ol’ Dutch can certainly see how that practice can be seen as cruel, it also has made society a safer place to live in with advances in medical science and cures found only through experimentation on live subjects.


The same can be said for new products as until they can be proven to be safe, the powers to be are not going to let Proctor and Gamble market their latest hair soap to you and George. And thank God for that small favor or we all would be dead from unscrupulous marketing of poisons.


Not wanting to be part of the problem but instead to be part of the solution, has led Ol’ Dutch to his own form of experimentation of chemicals and products.


This came about not on purpose, mind you, but out of either necessity or laziness on my part.
It all started out innocently enough long before Miss Trixie when Ol’ Dutch embarked on his forced exile to singledom. I found myself responsible for getting all the groceries and taking care of the laundry and oft forgot to get certain items at the store.


Standing in the shower one afternoon before a very important date with a beautiful young lady, I was faced with the fact that I was out of soap of any kind. A certain panic set in as Ol’ Dutch had been fishing all day and smelled like Mount Vesuvius after a recent volcanic eruption.


Looking through the drawers I came upon a bottle of shampoo I had forgotten about and thankfully used it without glancing at the label.


The date went off without a hitch and it was not till later I found out I had used my dog Cooper’s shampoo. Suddenly I realized that on the date, the lady had kept stroking my hair and scratching me behind the ears. Now, it all made sense.


Seeing the success of that little experiment and liking the scratching not to mention being too lazy to go to the store, Ol’ Dutch kept using the dog shampoo for the next week resulting in not only additional hair strokes but I even got my belly rubbed a time or two.


This got me to thinking -- a dangerous proposition according to Miss Trixie -- that maybe some of the products we normally use on our pets would be a good choice for ourselves.


I can recall when people found out that application of horse liniment relieve aches and pains and they began to liberally apply it to aging bodies. And it worked too although the users would often nicker and graze through salad bars like a lawnmower on steroids.


Ol’ Dutch has long wondered how he was able to snag Miss Trixie and had thought that his hand-some looks and vibrant personality were somewhat to credit with that success.


But after seeing her love for dogs I have to wonder if my liberal use of Cooper’s shampoo was the straw that broke the camel’s back in getting her on board.


I guess we will never know as I still run out periodically of my own body wash and have to revert to pet safe soap which most likely is like a booster shot to Ol’ Dutch and helps him in keeping Miss Trixie around.


As long as she keeps stroking my head and scratching my ears, all is well. But I am starting to wonder who the bark collar is for in our Amazon shopping cart?

Kevin Kirkpatrick and his Yorkie, Cooper, fish, hunt, ATV or hike daily. His email is [email protected]. Additional news can be found at www.troutrepublic.com or on Twitter at TroutRepublic.