Laika, Rest In Peace

Forgive, if you can, my sentimentality. This will be brief.

Last night, I watched a wonderful movie, My Life As A Dog (1985). It's a coming of age movie from Sweden. I won't spoil it for you if you don't know it. The movie made many references to Laika, a dog launched into space by the Russians in 1957, who died or was killed on her short Sputnik voyage. The movie has one view; Wiki, another.

All day today I've been wondering about what kind of people end up catching stray dogs and then killing them in the name of science. It doesn't matter to me whether Laika was euthanized during the space flight, or whether she died of exposure to heat or whether she starved or whether some other calamity befell her. What pains me is that her certain death--there was no re-entry technology at the time-- didn't stop her being launched in the first place.

What could these "scientists" have been thinking?