I'm not reblogging the post because it made me really really angry but:
Laika was not a noble hero who sacrificed herself so we could reach the stars. She was a dog that was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered for essentially no scientific gain.
I assume the reason she is treated as a symbol and a hero and other victims of unbelievably cruel scientific experiments are not is that she was a dog. Interesting how you can ignore how fucking evil an experiment was if the victim is voiceless.
Probably another aspect is something something Space Is Sacred? Everything associated with space gets instantaneously mythologized and no one is ever allowed to pause or criticize because It's Space How Could You Be Against That.
of course if anyone stopped to think about it it would be obvious that Laika was an unwilling participant, she was a dog. But they don't do that, because now Laika is an icon and not, you know, an actual dog they grabbed off the streets of Moscow so they could kill her. Or maybe people think that this was an extremely important experiment and no one could have gone to space otherwise? Bruh even the scientists who worked on it didn't think that.
or maybe you think that Laika was an accidental victim, that something went wrong and that's why she died? no, Sputnik 2 was not designed to even be retrievable. They knew she was going to die, they just needed her to survive long enough for them to get some readings.
the Laika experiment would not even remotely pass a modern ethics review. if you suggested it then not only would you get denied you'd probably be fired, and you'd deserve it.
anyway tldr that Laika was a random dog tortured and murdered by the Soviet government as part of an international dick measuring contest. Celebrating her as a hero or pioneer is a disgusting mockery of her actual story. I realize I'm never going to be able to spread that message very widely but maybe I can at least tell all my mutuals and then ill never have to see this shit again