ANIMAL TESTING

Experiments with animals Should animal testing be banned?

Elizabeth Brbara Borges Loredo 4C 15/12/2013

hat is animal testing? To begin we need to know what is it:

The term "animal testing" refers to procedures performed on living animals for purposes of research into basic biology and diseases, assessing the effectiveness of new medicinal products, and testing the human health and/or environmental safety of consumer and industry products such as cosmetics, household cleaners, food additives, pharmaceuticals and industrial/agrochemicals. All procedures, even those classified as mild, have the potential to cause the animals physical as well as psychological distress and suffering. Often the procedures can cause a great deal of suffering. Most animals are killed at the end of an experiment, but some may be re-used in subsequent experiments. Here is a selection of common animal procedures:

Forced chemical exposure in toxicity testing, which can include oral forcefeeding, forced inhalation, skin or injection into the abdomen, muscle, etc. Exposure to drugs, chemicals or infectious disease at levels that cause illness, pain and distress, or death. Genetic manipulation, e.g., addition or knocking out of one or more genes Ear-notching and tail-clipping for identification. Short periods of physical restraint for observation or examination Prolonged periods of physical restraint. Food and water deprivation. Surgical procedures followed by recovery. Infliction of wounds, burns and other injuries to study healing. Infliction of pain to study its physiology and treatment. Behavioural experiments designed to cause distress, e.g., electric shock or forced swimming. Other manipulations to create animal models of human diseases ranging from cancer to stroke to depression. Killing by carbon dioxide asphyxiation, neck-breaking, decapitation, or other means.

What types of animals are used? Many different species are used around the world, but the most common include mice, fish, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, farm animals, birds, cats, dogs, mini-pigs, and non-human primates (monkeys, and in some countries, chimpanzees).

Animal testing: Who defend it? On the first place we have the scientists, politicians and doctors who defend the animal testing for the development and progress of medicine: Tony Blair (British politician who was Prime Minister of the UK between 1997 and 2007. He was also leader of the Labour Party between 1994 and 2007.) has publicly defended animal testing and accused antivivisection extremists of stooping to "appalling" depths. His comments have been applauded by scientists, but criticised by animal rights campaigners.

PROFESSOR CHRIS HIGGINS, DIRECTOR OF THE MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL CLINICAL SCIENCES CENTRE "I think it's really important to get such public support from the Prime Minister. These people - scientists, researchers and so on - are doing fantastic work, and they have been scared to go to work. It's very important to get this support because you can't have fear and intimidation of people going about their work in medicine. I think one of the most important things to understand is that we have very tight regulations on experiments undertaken on animals. They are only undertaken when there is no alternative, and they are made to minimize any suffering.

"To not do animal testing would mean that we would not be able to bring treatments and interventions and cures in a timely way. And what that means is people would die," Stuart Zola of Emory University, which is home to the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, told AFP after the symposium.

Who are against animal testing? On the other hand we have animal associations, defenders of animal rights ...

ALISTAIR CURRIE, CAMPAIGN DIRECTOR FOR THE BRITISH UNION FOR THE ABOLITION OF VIVISECTION "The prime minister is rightly taking a tough line on extremists, but he is not looking at the problems of animal testing. He is mixing the two up. The fact is that the public overall are very confused about animal experimentation. They are in favour of medical progress but they are against the suffering of animals. The animal is small but the suffering is great."

"I get a lot of emails from animal rights activists, and one of them said, 'I have hepatitis C, and if you discover any drugs using chimpanzees that help hepatitis C patients, I'm not going to take them,'" John Vandenberg of the Southwest National Primate Research Center in Texas told AFP.

"If you want to test cosmetics, why do it on some poor animal who hasn't done anything? They should use prisoners who have been convicted of murder or rape instead. So, rather than seeing if perfume irritates a bunny rabbit's eyes, they should throw it in Charles Manson's eyes and ask him if it hurts." -Ellen DeGeneres

"Evolution does not condemn us. Only our choices can do that. It is imperative that we cherish, nurture, and endeavor to protect all life forms. That is the wake-up call of this generation. No environmentalist can be true to him/herself if they inflict pain on other creatures." -Michael Tobias

In conclusion I think it's cruel animal testing, but we must also take into account that have brought great advances in medicine, but I think they should find an alternative, because like us animals have certain rights. What is nothing necessary it is animal testing for cosmetics, where there are brands that do not because their products are vegetable (Yves de Rocher) and it is is outrageous that animals suffer and die just for aesthetic reasons today when there are alternatives for that .