• Question: Do you think it was cruelty to animals when they sent some animals up in rockets?

    Asked by aoifeomara to Arlene, Colin, David, Eugene, Paul on 21 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Paul Higgins

      Paul Higgins answered on 21 Nov 2012:

      Well, if I was an animal sent up to space, it would have been exciting for the first couple of hours, and then very distressing when I realised that I wasn’t going to be able to come home. So, as much as we learned about putting organisms in pods and shooting them into space (it made space travel A LOT safer for humans), yes, I will admit that it is cruelty to animals…

    • Photo: David McKeown

      David McKeown answered on 22 Nov 2012:

      The dogs the Russians sent up to space were stray dogs from the streets on Moscow. It is a pity that they couldn’t return from the flights and be someone’s pet (how cool would it be to have a space dog?) but I guess going to space might have been better life than being cold and hungry dog in Moscow. It is cruel on the dogs, but it is because of them we have manned space flight, they are heroes in the history of space exploration.

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