What Is Animal Testing? | Facts | Pros & Cons | Alternatives
Animal experimentation has been the topic of argument, and many people believe that it is unethical but it is necessary to find the cure of diseases and save lives of both human and animals. Many cosmetics you use are made from animal testing. Want to know more? Just give this article a read.
Animals are suffering as a result of testing in a wide range of areas, including biological research, testing chemicals, medicines, and even cosmetics. But these studies have contributed a lot to medical breakthroughs and help us live a healthier life.
You might have heard about animal testing but perhaps you are still unsure of exactly what is involved in the process. There are many terms used for the process like animal testing, animal experimentation, or animal research, whatever you call it, it refers to the experimentation that has been carried out on animals for decades.
Animal testing has been used in scientific research, drug development, health, and medical research and cosmetics manufacturing. About 85% of experiments are conducted on rats and mice only. Because animals have similar physiology to human, scientists use them in their research to gain a better understanding of how the human body will react to certain substances.
However, animal testing can be debated on many grounds of both moral and ethical reasons, it doesn’t deny the fact that it is currently happening. While medical researchers take it as a necessary practice, many animal activists call it unethical because it involves the suffering and torture of Animals.
Here I am going to discuss animal testing, why animals are used in research, the pros and cons of the procedure, and the alternatives, based on proper analysis and research.
Let’s delve more into it and get to know everything about animal testing.
What is animal testing?
It is a process in which a living animal undergoes on testing that causes them suffering, pain, or lasting harm for research. To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of medication, cosmetics, or understanding how the human body works or find the cure of diseases scientists perform animal testing.
Why animals are used in research?
Well, this is the broad topic to discuss, many people ask the question of why do scientist use animals in their research, they are not even similar to humans. That’s correct, animals are not identical to humans, but there are some biological as well as psychological similarities between humans and animals.
We share about 98.4% of our DNA with chimpanzees, a Veterinary surgeon Dr. Andre Menache said that.
When asked from Dr. Simon Festing, in an interview at understanding animal research, he said that,
“There are notable similarities between animals and humans; we share about 90% of our genes with a mouse, and many of our major biological systems. The digestive system and cardiovascular system of animals work the same way as humans.”
It is evident that animals do suffer from scientific experiments, but suffering is mild and temporary. They suffer to save the lives of humans. They have a short life span so they can easily be studied throughout their whole life-span or across several generations. That’s why they make a good research subject and scientists prefer to use animals as a part of medical research before implementing any cure.
Here are some reasons to further elaborate on the use of animals in research.
- improve scientific research
About 31.1% of animals are used for basic scientific research, and 11.9% in translational and applied research. Scientist uses sick animals to find a cure for a disease because animals get similar diseases to humans. In the study, they use different methods to find a treatment for certain conditions.
We share the same basic cell processes and vital functions like hearing, breathing, digestion, sight, and reproduction with animals. To find the treatment of a specific disease, doctors and scientists must need to figure out how healthy body works. This investigation leads to an understanding of what happens to the body when we fall ill and how the illness can be a cure.
For example, to understand Multiple sclerosis (MS), scientists moderately paralyze the animal, which will wear off after the experiment. The researcher then watches the animal see how the disease affects its movements around the cage.
To understand the function of neurons researchers gains knowledge from the giant squid axon. Scientists then further apply the information obtained from the research to higher animals and humans to gain a better understanding.
Animals are often subjected to simulate human psychological disorders in specific psychological research. Scientists use animals to seek the answer to questions regarding human behavior like addiction, pain, food deprivation and maternal separation.
- As models to study disease
You share the same genes to a mouse than you might think! I am not saying that research says that. Today, scientists use animal models to study genetic diseases. These include mice, flies, worms, rodent, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, and many others.
Animal models are of the preferable to research diseases because of their similarity to humans in terms of anatomy, genetics, and physiology.
A majority of genetic studies, especially those involving disease, have employed on mice, not only because of the genetic similarity, but also because of their availability, high reproductive rates, ease of handling, and are cost-effective to use.
Rabbits are used to study atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), emphysema, and congenital disabilities (birth defects) like spina bifida. Dogs can be used to research about cancer, diabetes, cataracts, ulcers and bleeding disorders such as hemophilia.
- To find the potential forms of treatment
Animal science have contributed a lot to medical revolutions. Today, scientists have found the treatment of many diseases and infections, like cancer treatment, managing heart disease, brain disorders, and prevention of genetic disorders in babies, arthritis, polio vaccine, and transplantation.
About 70% of the Nobel prizes for physiology or medicine have concerned with animal research. Many award-winning scientists said that they could not have made their discoveries without animals.
Researchers use animals in their experiments to learn more about a particular disease, and then find the cure after performing specific tests. In this way, they discover new therapeutic techniques and apply surgical procedures on animals before implementing it on human patients.
- To perform safety checks
Before introducing any new medicine or prescription drugs, it requires a safety check to measure both the beneficial and the harmful effects of a compound on a whole organism. Scientists use an animal model before clinical trials in humans. About 23.7% of animal testing is used for safety checks, quality controls or toxicological tests under the legislation on medicines, chemicals, drugs, and food hygiene.
Who performs animal testing?
It is no news that biomedical researchers primarily perform animal testing. But it is also used in many places around the world. Here I am sharing some areas in which animal testing is being performed.
- In Universities for teaching
Many medical schools and universities are at the forefront of research and use animal testing to better understand the anatomy of the human body, disease prevention, and treatment. Apart from performing animal testing, medical schools also support animal testing alternatives whenever they feel it an appropriate option.
- Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies
The pharmaceutical industry has conducted significant animal research to find the next breakthrough drug. Drugs are an essential tool in healthcare and use in therapies after experimental evaluation.
Any new drug requires rigorous pharmaceutical testing to ensure its safety, and before performing any human clinical trials, drugs need preliminary testing on animals.
The researchers in the pharmaceutical industry use animals to understand how the drugs are metabolized and how effective they are to various body systems and what are the risk factors associated with it.
- Military Defense Establishments
You might be thinking of how military defense establishments perform animal testing? Let me tell you; perhaps you don’t know that animal testing occurs quite regularly in Army, Navy and Air force. Military researchers perform animal testing for the following purposes.
- To develop weapons and defensive tactics by using animals. They evaluate the effectiveness and promote the treatment to prevent and successfully handle the consequences of any virus attack.
- For wound testing where the researchers examine how various weapons create wounds and how they heal.
- To advance the surgical techniques and gain better patient outcomes following combat.
However, with the evolution of technology, there is a reduction in the use of animals in military testing. According to the Defense Health Agency, a new bill has passed and it would replace the military trauma drills on animals with more effective human simulation models in the coming days. This bill has got the support from The New York Times editorial board and other veterans’ organizations.
What animal species are used in the testing?
More than 100 million animals are protected under the federal law of animal testing every year, and licenses are needed to perform experiments on these animals.
Mostly mice make up more than half of the animal testing because they are genetically modified. Larger animals like dogs, monkeys, and guinea pigs, account for less than 2% of the animals used in research. However, Chimpanzees, gorillas, and orang-utans have not been used in the medical examination for over 25 years in the United Kingdom.
Several other animals used in the testing are rats, frogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, fish, birds, insects and tiny worms like nematodes.
Asher Perker
It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.
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