Animals are used to develop treatments, determine drug toxicity, test the safety of human products, and for other biomedical, commercial, and healthcare applications.
Studies on live animals have been conducted since at least 500 BC.
Descriptions of dissections of live animals can be found in ancient Greek writings as early as around 500 BCE.
Vivisection (dissection of a living organism) was practiced on human criminals in ancient Rome and Alexandria, but the prohibition of mutilation of the human body in ancient Greece led to reliance on animals.
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Animal testing contributes to life-saving medicines and therapies for both humans and animals.
According to the California Biomedical Research Association, almost every medical breakthrough in the last 100 years has resulted from animal research.
To name a few examples, animal research has led to significant advances in the treatment of diseases including breast cancer, brain trauma, childhood leukemia, cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis, and tuberculosis.
Animal testing has also played a key role in the development of pacemakers, heart valve substitutes, and anesthetics.
Scientists racing to develop a coronavirus vaccine during the 2020 global pandemic had to run tests on genetically engineered mice to ensure the vaccine would not make the virus worse.
Nikolai Petrovsky, a professor at the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University in Australia, said testing a coronavirus vaccine on animals is “absolutely essential” and that skipping this step would be “fraught with difficulties and dangers”. [119] [133]
Scientists must conduct extensive testing to prevent “vaccine boosting,” a situation where a vaccine actually makes a disease worse in some people.
“The way you reduce that risk is that you first show that it doesn’t occur in laboratory animals,” explains Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College.
Animal treatments developed from animal testing also include pacemakers for heart disease and drugs for glaucoma and hip dysplasia.
Animal testing has also played a key role in saving endangered species from extinction, including the black-footed ferret, California condor and Brazilian tamarin.
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) supports animal testing to develop safe drugs, vaccines and medical devices.
Animals are suitable subjects for study because they are similar to human beings in many respects.
Because animals and humans are so biologically similar, they are susceptible to many of the same conditions and diseases, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
[9] [17] [18] Animals often make better research subjects than humans due to their shorter life cycles.
For example, laboratory mice only live two to three years, so scientists can study the effects of genetic treatments or manipulations for a lifetime or for several generations, which would be impossible in humans.
[9] [29] [30] In addition, animals must be used where ethical considerations prevent the use of humans.
Volunteers’ lives should not be unnecessarily put at risk when testing drugs for potential toxicity.
It would be unethical to perform invasive experimental procedures on humans before these methods have been tested on animals, and some experiments involve genetic manipulations that would be unacceptable for humans to be subjected to before animal testing.
The World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki states that human research should be preceded by animal testing.
[19] [20] A survey of 3,748 scientists by the Pew Research Center found that 89% were in favor of using animals in scientific research.
The American Cancer Society, the American Physiological Society, the National Association for Biomedical Research, the American Heart Association, and the Society of Toxicology advocate the use of animals in scientific research.
Animal testing is highly regulated and the laws are designed to protect animals from mistreatment.
In addition to local and state laws and guidelines, animal testing has been regulated by the Federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) since 1966.
In addition to setting minimum standards for keeping research animals (room size, temperature, access to clean food and water, and more), the AWA also requires regular checks by veterinarians.
The programs of most major research institutions are voluntarily vetted for humane practices by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC).
Animal researchers treat animals humanely, both for their well-being and to ensure reliable research results.
We want to give them the best possible life, treat them humanely.” At Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, dogs have twice-daily exercise breaks to meet their handlers and other dogs, and a “toy rotation program” provides opportunities for play.
Animal testing is cruel and inhumane.
Animals used in experiments are often subjected to force-feeding, deprivation of food and water, infliction of burns and other wounds to study the healing process, infliction of pain to study its effects and remedies, and “killing by carbon dioxide asphyxiation, breaking, decapitation or other means ”, according to Humane Society International.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in January 2020 that research centers used more than 300,000 animals in pain-related activities in just one year.
Also, most animal experiments are flawed, wasting the lives of the animals being tested.
Only 5% of animals used in experiments are protected by US law.
The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) does not apply to rats, mice, fish and birds, which make up 95% of the animals used in research.
The types of animals covered by the AWA account for fewer than one million animals used in research facilities each year, leaving approximately 25 million other animals unprotected from mistreatment.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which inspects facilities for AWA compliance, produces annual statistics on animal testing, but these statistics only include data on a small percentage of animals subject to the act.
Even animals protected by the AWA are mistreated.
Violations of the Animal Welfare Act at the federally funded New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) in Louisiana included the abuse of primates that suffered from such severe mental stress that they self-inflicted, infant primates were awake and alert during painful experiments, and chimpanzees were intimidated and shot with a dart gun.
Animal testing cannot reliably predict outcomes in humans.
94% of drugs that pass animal testing fail human clinical trials.
More than 100 stroke drugs and more than 85 HIV vaccines have failed in humans after successful animal trials.
Nearly 150 clinical trials (human trials) have been undertaken for a treatment to reduce inflammation in critically ill patients, and all of them have failed, although animal tests have been successful.
Drugs that undergo animal testing are not necessarily safe.
Thalidomide, a 1950s sleeping pill that gave birth to 10,000 babies with severe deformities, was tested on animals before being marketed.
Later tests in pregnant mice, rats, guinea pigs, cats and hamsters showed no birth defects, unless the drug was given at very high doses.
Animal tests of the arthritis drug Vioxx showed a protective effect on the hearts of mice, but the drug caused more than 27,000 heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths before it was withdrawn from the market.
In addition, animal testing can mislead researchers and ignore potential cures and treatments.
Some chemicals that are ineffective (or harmful to) animals prove valuable when used by humans.
For example, aspirin is dangerous for some animal species.
According to neurologist Aysha Akhtar, Fk-506 (tacrolimus), used to reduce the risk of organ transplant rejection, has been “almost shelved” due to animal testing results.
A report on the Slate.com website stated that “the source of human suffering may be dozens of promising drugs that are shelved when they cause problems in animals that may not be relevant to humans.” [105] [106] [127]
There are now alternative testing methods that can replace the need for animals.
Other research methods, such as in vitro tests (tests performed on human cells or tissues in a petri dish), offer the potential to reduce or replace animal testing.
Artificial human skin, such as the commercially available EpiDerm and ThinCert products, can be made from sheets of human skin cells grown in test tubes or plastic wells and can produce more useful results than testing chemicals on animal skin.
Michael Bachelor, Senior Scientist and Product Manager at biotechnology company MatTek, said: “We can now model human skin cells – keratinocytes – and produce normal skin or even a model that mimics a skin disease like psoriasis.
Scientists are also able to test vaccines on volunteers.
Unlike animals used for research, humans are able to consent to use in testing and are a viable option when needed.
The global COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has shown that scientists can skip animal testing and go straight to seeing vaccines in humans.
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1. 95% of animals used in experiments are not protected by the Federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which excludes birds, rats and mice raised for research purposes, and cold-blooded animals such as reptiles and most fish.
2. 89% of scientists surveyed by the Pew Research Center were in favor of animal testing in scientific research.
4. A January 2020 USDA report found that in one year of research, California used more cats (1,682) for testing than any other state.
More advantages and disadvantages of animals
Proponents argue that zoos educate the public about animals.
Opponents argue that wild animals should never be kept in captivity.
Proponents argue that dissecting real animals is a better learning experience.