The main case on tonight's "Boston Legal" featured an animal rights activist brought to court for allegedly assualting Bella, a recurring character played by Delta Burke. She was basically dyed blue for owning a company that tests cosmetics on animals.The activist featured in the show denies being part of the incident, but supports the act, and recommends a second coat of blue... Bella still argues that his organization harasses her unfairly with their protests.
Once in court, his lawyer, Bethany--who is Bella's daughter--describes in detail the procedures applied to rabbits, defending her client's allegations that Bella's company tortures animals. Bella tries to defend the use of animals in testing cosmetics for safety, but Bethany gets a good dig in when she asks "What's human suffering to you? Going without blush?" Bethany points out that Revlon, Avon, Clinique produce make-up without testing on animals. And she sums up by saying "At some point, people have to stand up and say, 'this is wrong.'"
Candice Bergen, whom I've often seen referred to as vegetarian, represents Bella, though only because she's a senior partner at same firm as Bella's beau, Denny Crane (William Shatner). In her summation, she brings up horse racing totally out of the blue, describing their use on the track and their end-of-life disposition to the slaughterhouse. All this is to say that, "despite our proclaimed love of animals, they really exist for our pleasure." She ties it back into her speech by asking where we draw the line. In order to make a point to her unpleasant client, she makes the preposterous, if mocking, argument that the rabbits and their families can take comfort in that they're serving their country, which prides itself so much on beauty.
And the judge's verdict (spoiler!): The coalition receives a restraining order preventing them from getting near Bella, but the judge upholds their right to protest the animal torture going on at her corporate headquarters.
Compared to the treatment of animal testing in a recent episode of Veronica Mars, this was a surprisingly light, and at times glib, approach to the subject, but at least a couple of David Kellyesque, quick-witted speeches made their solid hits. And, hey, I can't be disappointed when the arguments of animal rights activists are made fairly convincingly on television.
What's weird is that earlier today I wrote about both Barbaro dying and the successful introduction in Israel of a ban on testing cosmetics on animals. Just goes to show you how topical the issues are. Hopefully the episode gets fans thinking about them more deeply.
Labels: animal ethics, animal testing, TV
