Do you think animal testing is acceptable?

Question

ill treatment of these animals? poor living conditions? brain damage? etc
wat do u think?

not only rats - monkeys are tested on as well...

and rabbits

Answer 1

I believe that testing on animals for medical reasons is an unfortunate necessity. We all want advances in science to cure terrible diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Cancer, HIV etc, and without the use of animals for this purpose we will never be able to achieve this.
Animal testing will continue until a new model could be found. The use of Cell and Tissue culture is used for drug testing, but medicinal drugs are not allowed on the market until animal testing has been completed. This is then backed up with human testing once the drug is deemed safe. This does fail, and people can get hurt (eg thalidomide) but without the animal testing these cases would occur more frequently.
Also laboratories for testing on animals have to work to highly stringent guidelines, and are frequently checked by officials that the animals are not being mistreated. In the UK at least.

Answer 2

All experiments involving research conducted using animals have to be passed by an AEC (Animal Ethics Committee) which is compromised of people with experience in animal research, veterinarians, people involved with animal welfare and members of the public. If the experiment can pass the requirements put forth by the AEC then there should be no animal welfare issues as the job of the AEC is to uphold the code of practice for the care and use of animals for scientific purposes (which is enforced by the law). Animal testing is required for some research, this is a fact. Wherever possible scientists will employ the three Rs (reduction replacement and refinement) in order to minimize the use of animals with the methods that you mentioned. This is happening all the time with the new technology that's being developed. But you must understand that we can't always do this. Sometimes the use of animals is required, there is no other alternative. As somebody who is involved in the animal research industry, i see how the animals are actually treated. They live comfortable lives and have the proper mental and physical care given to them through the proper environmental enrichment, nutrition, housing... etc. The industry has come such a long way since the old days where the needs of the animals came second to the research. And in regards to suffering, everything possible is done to minimize the pain and discomfort to the animals. I've seen how some of these animals die when it comes to the end point of a study and they need to be euthanized, and believe me... some of them leave this world in a much nicer and humane way than many humans do. I had the same position on animal testing that you did, before i knew about what really happens in the industry. There is a lot of anti-testing groups out there that really don't accurately portray what goes on. EDIT: I also wanted to add that like you, i am an animal lover. The reason i wanted to enter this industry is to make sure that the animals are treated humanely and given the respect that they deserve.

Answer 3

Whilst I am an animal lover, I have to say that testing on animals is an unpleasant necessity. We would not have the medical resources or drugs available if we couldnt, I dont agree with testing things like cosmetics and skin creams, Im pretty sure scientists and cosmetic companies know what is and isnt safe by now.

But I do agree with medical testing, though its awful what the animals have to suffer, but if it wasnt for animal testing, we wouldnt have the miraculous drugs and cures we have now.

If someone I loved what seriously ill and doctors said that they wanted to give a new drug but it needed testing on a monkey first, I would say 'strap down the monkey and start testing' Im afraid.

And also, just to point out that yes, animal biology is different to ours, but its still the closest thing weve got. Scientists are able to tell from an amimals reactions how similar it would be in humans. No, the dont always get it right (thalidomide for example) but medicine isnt an exact science and never will be. Even different people react very differently to the same drug, simple drugs like antibiotics can cause severe allergic reactions in some people, so saying an animal is different isnt really the point. There are close enough similarities to warrant the testing.

I know a lot of people are absolutely set against it, but im fairly sure that if they were facing death or an horrific injury which needed skin grafts, or brain surgery, they would not turn round and say not to do it because the drug or technique was founded by animal testing.

Sorryif my view offends anyone!

Answer 4

Yes, we need to do testing on animals in order to figure out how stuff works - it's that or on humans, and we place much more value on human life than animal life.

Scientists who work with animals don't get a kick out of hurting them. The animals aren't badly treated (except the experiment parts), they are housed reasonably, and we don't really think there's much of a brain there to damage, for the most part.

Remember, there's a good chance you (and a good portion of your family and friends) wouldn't be alive today if we couldn't test new medicines, vaccines, and ideas on animals. Without animal research, we lose 90% of medical research. Would you rather have a rabbit or your mother?

Answer 5

Hmmm. It may not be ethical, or fair, but without animal testing, I think that progress in the medical field would be dramatically slower. Testig cosmetics on animals is just bad and wrong though - don't do it kids!

Answer 6

With the technology we have nowadays building bombs and guns, it's unacceptable that these companies do random tests.
I am not totally against animal testing. I just think there are lots of products that could be tested differently.
Testing labs are fooling us and cutting corners to get more profit.
It's cheaper to ill treat a rabbit then to by a proper machine and pay people.
They don't fool me!!

Answer 7

No, its nots acceptable, animals systems are totally different to humans so i fail to see how the reaction an animal has to something can have any bearing on the reaction the same thing will cause in a human. It all has to be tested on humans before its licensed any way so what is the point in testing it on our wee furry friends in the first place?

Answer 8

I think testing cosmetics on animals is stupid because there it's just hurting animals for no good reason.

However, I am for testing medicines on animals. Testing new medicines on humans can have disastrous results like those 5 men a few months ago that developed horrendous reactions and were in coma's etc.
Humans at the end of the day are more important than animals. All our medicines have been tested out on animals to make sure they are safe enough for us to use.
As long as they are put in good environments and aren't mishandled then I have no complaint about it.

Answer 9

For cosmetics it seems harsh...
But for medicinal reasons quite frankly I'd rather kill a million rats/rabbits/monkeys than humans. We've all seen in the news what happens when they're too quick to test on humans.
It simply has to be done.

Answer 10

i think that the problem lies in the common link between ugly women being stupid..women who feel like they need to wear makeup at the sake of some pour animal dying in a cage slowly as its lungs will with soap and its own blood women who use the products should be whipped..if you are too lazy or braindead to search for products not tested on animals you should be drowned in a bucket