General information:
An estimated 26 million animals are used every year in the US for commercial and scientific testing including mice, rats, fish, birds, guinea pig, farm animals, cats and dogs.
They are used to develop medical treatments, determine the toxicity of medications, check the safety of products destined for human use.
In additon, to the torment of the actual experiments, animals in laboratories are deprived of everything that is important and natural to them.
They are confined to barren cages, socially isolated and psychologically traumatized.
Most of the torture is legal.
Legal tests include: burning, poisoning, starving, forced, smoking, mutilating, blinding, electrocuting, drowning and dissecting without painkillers. They also get cut open without any painkillers.
The reality is that the majority of animal experiments do not contribute to improving the human health.
AGAINST the scientific and commercial testing
Many organizations try to follow the three R rules to improve the torment of the animals using for scientific and commercial testing:
Replacement
replacing animals with non-animals tests
Reduction
using fewer animals to do research
Refinement
emphazies the fact, that if companies are going to use animals for your research, they have to make sure that those animals are treated at the highest (ethical) level
Alternatives to replace animals in science:
- in vitro (test tube) test methods and models based on human cell and tissue cultures
- computer models and simulations
- stem cell and genetic testing methods
- microdosing (in which humans are given very low quantities of a drug to test the effects on the body on the cellular level, without affecting the whole body system)
Why is replacing animals in science much better than using animals for testing? Are there any advantages in non-animal testing?
Yes, replacing animals in science with different alternatives has several advantages.
It is cheaper, faster and companies can test more chemicals.
It is not only more effective for science, but also more reliable and more human.
PRO the scientific and commercial animal-testing
- Animals themselves benefit from the results of animal testing
- If vaccines were not tested on animals, millions of animals would have died from rabies, distemper, feline leukemia, infectious hepatitis virus, tetanus, anthrax, and canine parvo virus.
- Treatments for animals developed using animal testing also include pacemakers for heart disease and remedies for glaucoma and hip dysplasia.
- Animal testing has also been instrumental in saving endangered species from extinction, including the black-footed ferret, the California condor and the tamarins of Brazil.
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