I thought that might get your attention. Tonight I was watching a TV show about the Sputnik 2 mission in 1957 where the Russians launched a stray dog into space on a suicide mission. They put poisoned food in the capsule to kill her. She was chained to prevent her turning around. There were no windows.

Medical sensors placed on Laika indicated that during launch her pulse rate went up by a factor of three above its resting level.

At the start of weightlessness, her pulse rate decreased. It took three times longer than after a centrifuge ride on the ground to return Laika's heartbeat to pre-launch values, an indication of the stress she was suffering.

Dr Malashenkov also revealed how Laika died. Telemetry from the Sputnik 2 capsule showed that the temperature and humidity increased after the start of the mission.

After five to seven hours into the flight, no lifesigns were being received from Laika. By the fourth orbit it was apparent that Laika had died from overheating and stress.

Aside from laws, how is sending a stray dog on a terrifying suicide mission to space any different than sending an innocent 5 year old orphan child? Dogs have feelings too. They feel love, happiness, excitement, fear, pain and terror. I don't understand why some people think that animals are somehow different and that abusing them is more OK than abusing a human animal. I know several people who think like that. One of them will even slice the meat off a fish while it's alive and flapping around, and tell me that the fish doesn't feel pain because it is cold blooded. That horrifies and disgusts me.

I see stories of animal abuse on TV and in the newspapers once and a while. These stories make me want to become a lifelong contributor to the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA). At the moment WSPA is campaigning for Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare. I'll never donate to cancer and feed the hungry charities because everyone donates to those already. I prefer smaller, lesser known charities for causes that I believe in, and local charities.