Should animals be used in scientific and commercial research?

Should animals be used in scientific and commercial research?

Eudo J Suarez

ILAC

The controversy about animals being used for scientific or commercial testing has always existed. Research on living animals has been practiced since before 500 BC. Many kinds of species are used around the world, but the most common ones include mice, fish, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, farm animals, birds, cats, dogs, monkeys, chimpanzees, etc. It is estimated around 115 million animals worldwide are used in laboratory experiments every year. Animals are used to develop medical treatments, determine the toxicity of medications, check the safety of products destined for human use, and other biomedical, commercial, and health care uses. Proponents of animal testing state that it has enabled the development of many life-saving treatments for both humans and animals, that there is not alternative method for researching a complete living organism, and that strict regulations prevent the mistreatment of animals in laboratories. Opponents of animal testing state that it is cruel and inhumane to experiment on animals, and these animals are different from human beings that research on animals often yields irrelevant results. Animal experiments are widely used to develop new medicines and to test the safety of other products. Many of these experiments cause pain to the animals involved or reduce their quality of life in other ways. Despite all this, animal research has allowed scientific to make great medical advances that have saved millions of lives.

Animal testing contributed to the development of many cures and treatment for condition such as breast cancer, malaria, tuberculosis, etc. Also, medicine field has improved by animal testing, for instance, antibiotics, organ transplants, insulin for diabetes have been discovered through animal researcher. According to The California Biomedical Research Association states that “nearly every medical breakthrough in the last 100 years has resulted directly from research using animals”.  And Dario L. Ringach, PhD, MSc, Professor of Neurobiology and Psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles, he explains that:

“the contributions of animal research to medical science and human health are undeniable. When the majority of scientists see the work as scientifically justified, and so do the many professional medical and scientific organizations, the expert views cannot be simply dismissed based on wild claims of ulterior motives, self-interest and conspiracy theories”.

Another example of an important discover was the polio vaccine that already saved millions of lives and the cure and treatment for breast cancer was developed and tested in mice and actually it also provides Herceptin. Therefore, many women can be saved; however, animal testing is cruel and inhumane. According to Humane Society International explains that the conditions and different methods used for animals researcher are inhuman, “animals used in experiments are frequently exposed to force feeding, forced inhalation, food and water deprivation, long periods of physical restraint, the infliction of pain to study its effects and remedies, and killing by carbon dioxide asphyxiation, neck-breaking, decapitation, or other means". Also, Lindsay Marshall, PhD, Science Communications Officer at the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International (HSUS/HSI), she states that “Animal research certainly fails animals, in terms of the distress and suffering caused, and just as importantly, animal research often fails people, too, in terms of the slow, unproductive route to useful treatments. More than 90 percent of drugs that have passed animal trials for safety and efficacy are not successful in treating the human disease for which they are intended”. Despite animal research has helped saves human lives, this has been at the expense of the suffering and lives of these defenseless animals.

Another point is animals are similar to human beings in many ways. Animal research promotes scientists understanding of diseases and develops medical treatments, all this can only be applied in an equally complex system to the human being.  The Royal Society of Biology explains that “Chimpanzees share 99% of their DNA with humans, and mice are 98% genetically similar to humans. All mammals, including humans, are descended from common ancestors, and all have the same set of organs (heart, kidneys, lungs, etc.) that function in essentially the same way with the help of a bloodstream and central nervous system”. On the other hand, opponents of animal testing believe that even though animal are similar to human body, they are not 100% equal and this small different affect the results of these studies; in fact, most of the time these results are erroneous and their treatments fail when they are tested in human body. According to Kathy Archibald, Founder and Director of the Safer Medicines Trust, she explains that “Not only are animals poor models of safety for humans, but they are also unreliable for demonstrating the effectiveness of treatments too. Just as many drugs fail in clinical trials because they turn out to cause side-effects in humans, many others turn out to be ineffective in humans, despite performing well in animals”. Also, some scientific state that the anatomic, metabolic, and cellular differences between animals and people make animals poor models for human beings. In brief, animals testing is not trustworthy, because the animal body are not 100% similar with human body, effects in animals’ research can be totally opposite in humans.

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