A lab in Iowa recently opened its normally locked doors to reporters for a tour of the “only internationally recognized bird flu testing program.”

While it may be comforting to think that public health and safety is being monitored, has animal testing become so acceptable that we no longer need to hide it? That, not only is it okay to mention such practices in an article—and to include a picture of the test-subjects-to-be—but to discuss it in the lede?

Maybe I’m reading what I want to here, but I sense that the writer of the piece is disturbed by what he or she saw and feels compassion for the poor sacrificial birds. One can only hope.

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