Animal Testing.?

Question

Do you agree or disagree with animal testing?

Just so you know, we DO have ways to test without using animals, yet we continue to do so.

I disagree with it personally.
What are your views on it...and WHY?

How can the results be more accurate? An animals' system works differently from ours, doesn't it? We do not have the lungs of a cat or dog, do we?
We do have ways to avoid testing on animals, by not testing them on live humans. We have found ways to do so.

Answer 1

i disagree on animal testing because it is cruel to animals not to mention it's not an efficent way of testing animals. They work completly differently than humans and we shouldn't be using them to see what's good and not so good to use on humans

Answer 2

i think it's absolutely appauling. I wont be as blind to say that it hasn't been useful, and that some good discoveries have been made, but i don't see why animals should suffer so we can save our own skins. Surely they can feel whats happening, just because they can't talk to us they become an inferior species. I am shocked that in todays society we are willing to harm so many animals to ensure the safety of humans. If someone used my pet to test on i would go crazy, all those animals locked in cages and mistret so badly. If a person was locked in a cage and experimented on it would cause international controversy and many arguments. But it's an animal so we don't care......

Answer 3

Animals are cheaper and results are more accurate.

You want cheap b/c you can run more tests with same budget.
And you want accurate because next step is testing stuff on humans, you really do not want to harm humans (well, maybe you do , but I don't)

If you want to feel good about yourself, go help a homeless person get a job.

Answer 4

I disagree with animal testing. We have other ways to test things and it is very cruel. I love animals and would free them all if I could from those terrible experimental places.

Answer 5

Disagree.

Answer 6

Bad bad very bad as is eating animals. There are many animal rights activists yet they eat animal flesh which supports animal slaughter. Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita "As long as their is animal slaughter their will be war and famine." So anything that supports the killing of animals is wrong and one will have to suffer what ever suffering they caused to those animals including eating their flesh because it supports slaughter. For info christianveg.com also harekrishnatemple.com read Bhagavad Gita as it is By Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada- tells the laws of Karma, reincarnation, and vegetarianism

Answer 7

Depends on what were testing for. For stuff like makeup and other cosmetics no. But for medical purposes yes as I do not want to be a test subject nor do I wish that on anyone else.

Answer 8

Wow, i just did this for my final exam question for Biological Psychology. The question was 'To what extent is non-human animal relevant to understanding human functioning?'

First off, let me explain why animal research can be relevant:
-our human brain shares many deep brain structures as many animals. These deep brain structures have very fundamental and basic survival functions and are remarkably similar in function across species. They are not as different in animals and humans.
-Such areas include the Amygdala, which is related to fear/danger processing (and emotions in humans). Animal testing shows how amygdala damage can affect how one behaves in dangerous or fearful situation, and is similar to behaviour in humans with real brain damage to the amygdala.
-Other areas include the Hippocampus for memory, Pons and Medulla for controlling life-preserving functions such as controlling the heartbeat, Cerebellum for posture, balance, and rhythmic movement.
-Another important area is the Hypothalamus which controls release of hormones, circadian 24 hour cycles, and basic sexual behaviour, and Autonomic Nervous System (changing physiological body reactions to Fight or Flight situations or Rest and conservation situations). The function is automatic and depends on feedback from body and environment. Similar in humans and animals.

-In fact, almost all our knowledge of how the brain nerve cell works came from award winning research on a Giant Squid neuron which is the longest and biggest neuron. Human neurons are too small to plant electrodes even for current technology.

---Research on these areas are very relevant and highly important to humans, because of their survival functioning. Also, brain damage to these areas are extremely rare, and the only other way is to test with humans and that is not possible voluntarily.
-usually researchers resort to rats and mice due to the similar functioning of these basic behavious, so that 'higher' species are not compromised. Researchers will try to use the lowest species possible and relevant to their study.
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-The Cerebral Cortex, the area of the brain that has been called most 'human', is one which has controversial studies. Very few animal species have cortexes that are similar in relative size to humans, such as certain species of Chimpanzees. Research in this area involves language processing as certain species of chimpanzees have language processing areas that are similar to the Broca's Area located in the frontal cortex in the left hemisphere of the brain, and also the Wernicke's Area in the left temporal lobe.
-The Frontal Cortex, the area involved in controlling impulsive behaviour in humans, is also tested in animals and shown to have some similar results in social behaviour of the animals and humans. Because damage to this area is also rare, with the hallmark of rare human examples as mr Phineas Gage, who had an accident which damaged his frontal lobe many many years ago, animal research in this area has been relatively useful.
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Two more areas of animal research that is useful because they are unethical to do so in humans are:
-Drug testing:
because brain cells of animals and humans are similar (they are both animal cells with similar structure), they release similar neurotransmitters. Acetylcholine (ACh) for muscle movements and also related to disorders such as Obsessive Compuslve Disorder. Gamma Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) for inhibitory responses usually related to fear and anxiety, and also for Huntingdon's disorder. Dopamine which is related to pain responses, and also to Parkinson's Disease.
Drugs can mimic certain neurotransmitter activity in the brain and researchers can use this to create 'shortages' or 'abundances' of neurotransmitters in the brain to help find a cure for these diseases and also to find biological causes for other diseases. These drugs have similar effects on brain nerve cells on animals as humans do.

-Genetic research:
Currently, nothing is more influential than the new research on genes. So many disorders are genetic and are mostly fatal such as Huntingdon's Chorea. Because the DNA of animals and humans come from the same proteins formed by the similar animal cells, some genes in humans are also present in animals. In fact the only difference in DNA between animals and humans is only 1% of the genes. Therefore only such a small difference accounts for us being humans. 99% of the DNA of animals and humans are similar in genetic composition.
Important research on animals have been done on sex chromosomes to find out certain developmental disorders and abnormal sexual behaviour.
Other research include the effects of gene mutation on certain genes.
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Now that ive explained so much, im sure you can tell how many ways animal research is irrelevant, especially for areas such as higher cognitive processes, advanced memory, creativity, intelligence, and moral behaviour. Also, you might be aware that the human brain is more complex, and even basic brain functions such as fear/danger processing, Autonomic Nervous System action and basic memory are all altered by interactions with higher cognitive processes and complex human emotions.
Also, neurotransmitters work in more complex ways in the brain that we humans can understand. Even the most advanced research on humans and animals still could not explain how the brain uses all the neurotransmitters and convert it into information like long term memory and intelligence. Although animal drug testing has been useful as a cure or treatment for certain human disorders. As for genes, even that small 1% difference matters as these 1% account for millions of unique human genes that cannot be tested on animals because they do not have these genes.

--Thus, there are pros and cons.
Although i would like to know what are the 'other' ways to test without using animals.
The only other ways i know of are finding the rare patients with brain damage. Imagine how hard it is to find 50 patients with brain damage ONLY to the left amygdala, and 50 more patients with damage ONLY to the right amygdala and do testing on them to see if theres a difference between left and right amygdala dysfunctions. Also, whether or not the patients will agree to do voluntary research when they are suffering from their own impairment is another issue.

The best way of course is cloning humans, you can create many perfect clones of humans and manipulate them in many ways to create the perfect research results.
But as you already know, there are moral implications on this, and even i dont approve of this, despite its answer to the perfect human research value.