The Case of Animal Testing –Farah Oueidat 1

INFORMATION ABOUT ANIMAL TESTING

I. Background on the Paper:

While medical science is meant to help improve human life by curing

disease and preventing deaths, it is sometimes researched on the expense

of the lives of other creatures: the animals. Indeed, animal rights are being

constantly violated through experimentations and tests which are done in

laboratories and sometimes legalized for the aim of producing medical or

toxic products. However, evidence has shown that such experimentations

can often be misleading, resulting in dangerous health effects on both

animals and humans and for a long time. In this paper, I will presenting the

case of this problem in detail in the first part, then I will talk about my

reaction on why I believe animal testing should be banned, in addition to

presenting some of the valid alternatives which can be used instead of the

abusive experimentations.

II. Introduction:

Animal rights are meant to protect animals from being exploited, mistreated

or hurt for profit and personal interests by human beings. Although these

rights are present and supported in many countries around the world, they

remain to be violated by several institutions and communities that refuse to

abide by them by conducting animal experimentation. Known as animal

research, experimentation and in vivo testing, animal testing is the use of

animals for experiments for the purpose of testing drugs, cosmetic products

and others. Around the world, there are from 50 to 100 million animals used

every year for that purpose. Examples are frogs, birds, rats, mice and

others. In the U.S, for example, there are around 80 million mice in 2001

alone. Most of the animals which are used are euthanized after the

experiment. Where do researchers get these animals? Some of these

animals are raised and prepared in the lab itself for the purpose of the

experiment, while others are caught in the wild or received from dealers.

III. Animal testing in history:

It should be noted that animal testing has been found throughout history.

The earliest experiments on animals are found in the records of the ancient

Greeks in the fourth and second centuries BC. Artistotle, for example, was

among the first individuals in history to do animal testing. Also, a physician

in Rome during the second century, called Galen,used to dissect goats and

pigs and has been known as "father of vivisection." Even in the arab world,

an Arabic physician called Avenzoar during the 12th century in Spain used to

practice dissection and introduced animal testing as an important method for

surgical procedures before they are applied on human beings

IV. Places for Animal Testing

Research and experiments for animal testing are done in places like medical

schools, university laboratories, defense establishments, farms and

pharmaceutical companies. Examples of the research includes

developmental biology, genetics, behavioral studies and drug testing. Those

who support the use of animal testing, like the British Royal Society, believe

that every achievement in the medical field ever since the 20th century

depended in one way or another on the use of animals. Other supporters

include the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research of the U.S. National

Academy of Sciences, which argues that the computers are not enough,

because they cannot model interactions between tissues, organisms, cells

and the environment, which makes it important to use animals for research.

But on the other hand, there are those who oppose the use of animals, such

as organizations like PETA and BUAV, which believe that it is poor scientific

practice.

V. The Problem of Animal Testing:

Many people around the world have pets in their homes, such as cats,

dogs, hamsters and others. They care about them because they know that

animals can be enjoyable companions and are not enemies of human beings.

However, many companies, institutions and even scientists around the world

exploit animals and harm them for pure experimentation and profit

purposes. Even some laws in certain advanced countries like the UK, support

animal experimentation. The British law for example, “says that any new

drug used for medicine, must be tested on at least two different types of live

mammal. One of these must be a large non-rodent type animal.” (BBC,

2004) According to the BBC website (2004), animal testing is usually used to

develop products such as: “Household products, Agricultural chemicals,

Industrial chemicals, Pesticides, Paint, Food additives” and others (BBC,

2004). This is a dangerous and unethical process which should be banned in

all circumstances, regardless of the kind of product being researched.

Dangerous evidence that shows how animal testing can actually be

negative and deadly comes from the 1960s and 1970s. It what was known

as the “Thalidomide Tragedy of the 60’s and 70’s”, a drug called Thalidomide

was produced by Germany after being testing on thousands of animals and

was considered safe (Bantwal, 2008). This drug was meant to support

breastfeeding mothers without harming them or their child. However, what

happened is that thousands of children who were born from mothers who

used this drug were actually born with deformities (Bantwal, 2008). An

additional example from actual implementation of such drugs comes from

Japan in the 1970s. At that time, a drug called Clioquinol was developed and

considered a very effective drug because it was also tested on thousands of

animals (Bantwal, 2008). Although the drug was supposed to cure diarrhea

in human beings, it proved to do the opposite: It failed to bring relief from

diarrhea and even provoked it in humans who did not have it (Bantwal,

2008). As a result of this misleading and unsafe drug, many cases of

paralysis, deaths and blindness occurred in the public. (Bantwal, 2008)

Types of animals used in tests

This is a cage in which differet animals are put for animal testing

Some alternative methods:

There are some who consider alternatives methods for animal testing.

Governments and scientists recommend that animal testing should be

limited because of its cruelty and because it brings suffering to animals. An

important step according to some researchers is having guiding principles to

accompany the research in most countries:

 The first principle is REPLACEMENT: It involves the use of non-animal

methods instead of animal methods whenever possible to reach the

same scientific result.

 The second principle is REDUCTION: Which allow the researchers to

have comparable levels of information from a more limited number of

animals, or receive the same information from the same animals.

 A third principle is REFINEMENT, which refers to minimize the pain,

distress or suffering which animals may go through during the

experiment, therefore improving their welfare.