Ryan Connor, Brad Smith, Isabel Diaz
Ryan Connor, Brad Smith, Isabel Diaz
DR. Schnackenberg
IDS 3303
10 February 2005
Testing on Animals
When did testing on animals begin? How does testing on animals help science? What kind of technology is used on the animals that are being tested? How do people’s ethics and religious beliefs affect the future of testing on animals? These are just some of the questions that we hope to answer in the following paragraphs.
Before we can tell you about testing on animals you need to know when it began. The second century A.D. is the earliest documented evidence of testing on animals for medical research purposes. Some of the earliest accomplishments in animal testing include Stephen Hale’s first measurement of blood pressure in a horse in 1726. Then in 1796 Edward Jenner develops the world’s first vaccine against smallpox’s using cow parts. The word vaccine comes from the Latin word vaccinus meaning, “coming from cows.”
In England during the Eighteenth century public opposition towards testing on animals begins and in 1870 animal welfare bills where being presented to Parliament.
However animal testing still continued and from the years of 1902-1998 sixty three Nobel prizes have been given to scientist for discoveries in medicine made possible by animal testing. Robert Ross won the noble prize in 1902 for showing how malaria is transmitted by using pigeons. In 1955 the polio vaccine is introduced after being created in 1949 by Salk and Sabin who tested the vaccine on monkeys. In 1964 the first coronary bypass surgery is done on a human by Dr. Michael DeBaky thanks to techniques perfected on animals.
How many animals are used for testing each year and where do they come from? It is estimated that 17-23 million animals are used for testing in the U.S. per year. Rats, mice, and birds make up 80% of the animals used. When it comes to dogs the beagle is the most commonly used because of its small size and good nature. Animal dealers or breeders are the main source for libratory animals. These dealers have to be licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). To obtain dogs and cats dealers and laboratories must comply with detailed record keeping and waiting period requirements. Shelters and animal pounds are prevented from providing dogs and cats to research facilities by state laws and local policies. Dealers specifically breed animals for laboratories however they are no different then any other animal you have at home. I think it’s almost the equivalent of a baby being born into a concentration camp during WWII.
Animal Testing is a very common practice in the biomedical and commercial fields. Countless number of chemicals, household products, cosmetics, experimental vaccines and even surgical techniques are tested on animals. Every year, thousands of new cosmetic, personal care and household products are introduced into the marketplace. Virtually all of them have been animal-tested at various stages of their development. Long before they appear on the shelves of your local supermarket, these products have gone through a long and complex testing process that leaves millions of animals mutilated, burned, poisoned and gassed in outmoded and unnecessary tests (). Cats, dogs, bunnies and mice are common animals used for testing. The animals used for these purposes have to endure extreme pain, shock and stress. Ultimately they are put to death once the experiment is over.
An example of a test that animals are subjected to is the LD50. This test is designed to identify the toxicity level of household products like drain cleaners and detergents. This test is performed in the sake of product safety. LD stands for Lethal Dose, 50 for fifty percent ( Regan, 167). The test tries to find out what amount or concentration of the product it takes to kill fifty percent of the test subjects. The test can be administered orally or it can be applied to the skin. We will discuss the oral version.
Each animal is forced to swallow a measured amount of the substance. The substance will be more or less concentrated. The animals will be observed for a period of one to two weeks. By the end of the observation period, fifty percent of them will have died. The animals subjected to these tests get very sick; they suffer from convulsions, diarrhea, and bleeding. These animals go through inhumane torture to say the least.
The surviving fifty percent will be killed and dissected to see the effects of the substance. According to the results, the substance will be labeled harmful or fatal if swallowed.
Most people think that experimenting with cosmetics and household products on animals is incredibly cruel. If all of these products are for human beings personal use, then why aren’t they tested on people instead of animals? It’s disgusting what they do to animals just to better human’s lives. These animals that they use to do experiments on didn’t do anything to us and still we use them for scientific purposes and torture them.
Lets not forget that even though animal testing can be labeled as cruel there are advantages to its use. The Polio and Hepatitis B vaccines were developed using animal testing. Antibiotics, insulin and cancer treatments were also developed using animal testing. Many experimental drugs and treatments are tested on animals before they are administered to humans. This research is vital for the development of drugs that can ultimately save human lives, i.e. a possible HIV vaccine. Surgical techniques like heart bypass surgery and organ transplants were also derived from animal experimentation.
There is no doubt that animal testing is a crucial tool in modern medicine. Many of the medical advances we have today could not have been possible without animal testing. That does not mean, however that we should disregard the suffering of the animals. The scientists conducting the tests recognize that the methods in use are cruel but necessary. For this reason many researchers are trying to replace animal testing for alternate forms of testing.
An alternate to animal testing is the use of cell and tissue cultures. A cell culture consists of living animal skin cells. The desired substance can be added to the culture and the researcher can observe the effect it has on the cells. The experiment is easy to repeat and the best thing about it, is that the animal is spared from pain and suffering. Computers are another alternative. There are computer models and programs that are able to simulate the results of an actual test.
Still there are tests that can only be done on animals, so scientists continue to experiment on them. Gale says; forgetting the just plain daft experiments, there are tens of thousands of experiments that cause enormous suffering to animals every day in the name of medical research. Gale gives some examples:
• At Rockefeller University, experiments have forced cats to vomit up to ninety-seven times in three and a half hours after severing the connections between the cats’ brains and spinal cords.
• At the University of Iowa, pregnant rabbits have been given daily doses of cocaine, and baby rabbits were shocked in the head to study “maternal drug abuse”;
• At Louisiana State University hundreds of cats were shot in the brain to show that such wounds “impair breathing”;
• University of Illinois researchers cut open cows’ stomachs, inserted bags of newspapers into them, then checked the bags to see if cows can survive on a diet of 40 percent newsprint;
• The tobacco industry has forced dogs and mice into smoking masks and compelled them to inhale tobacco fumes twenty-four hours a day for years;
• Half a dozen universities have kept cats awake for days at a time, forcing them to balance on narrow planks above water-filled tanks or lowering their cage temperatures to well below freezing.
Take an animal that you have and love say a cat or dog. Give it to a researcher so they can torture it with chemicals or sever the connection between your cats’ brain and spinal cord. How would you feel watching your cat vomit up to 97 times in three and a half hours? It would make you totally sick to your stomach. Or imagine watching a dog being forced to inhale tobacco fumes for 24 hours a day for years through a smoking mask. All this is done for the sake of humanity, or so they claim.
Do the ends justify the means? That is a question that we should all ask. Are the medical advances worth the suffering incurred to these animals? Also is it ethical to cause so much harm to an animal that cannot defend itself? According to some people, a human life is more valuable than an animal’s life. Therefore the testing is justified because it is for the betterment of humanity. To others harming any living being is unethical and unacceptable. It is up to us to decide whether animal testing is ethical or not.
Annotated Bibliography
“Animal Experiments” Science and Nature. bbc.co.uk 17 August 2004.
This article is featured on the BBC website, it’s a good source of information and its also reliable. The source is respectable and reliable. The article gives important statistics regarding animal testing, its uses and its faults.
“Animal Testing” ASPCA Animaland. 2004.
This website is published by The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The article in this website regarding animal testing is very thorough and accurate. The website is informative and educational.
“Animal Torture Testing and Vivisection.” AAVS. 10 March 2004.
12 February 2005.
The American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS) is the oldest organization in the U.S. dedicated to eliminating experiments on animals. Founded in 1883, AAVS is credited for the majority human movements in the testing of animals. There goal is to completely stop the testing going on with animals. This website gives knowledge and statistics about the cruelty that is going on with the testing being performed on helpless animals.
“Foundation for Biomedical Research.” FBR. April 8, 1999.
12 February 2005. .
The Foundation for Biomedical Research (FBR) was established in 1981. FBR chairman is Dr. Michael E. Debakey president and chancellor of Baylor College of medicine. This web site gives a brief time line of the history of testing on animals contributions to the medical community. The site also offers a section of commonly asked questions about animal testing.
Gale, Thomas. Animal Experimentation. Michigan: Greenhaven Press, 2004.
Provides opinions and facts about animal experimentation. This book gives different situations where many different animals have been used for experimentation. Many of the things discussed in the book were very mind boggling and it makes you sick to your stomach. It’s unbelievable the kinds of experiments that are tested onto innocent animals.
National Anti-Vivisection Society. “Animals in Product Testing.” 12 February 2005.
This website covers more of the cosmetic and household products side of experimentation on animals. It talks about the side effects that these products have on the animals that are being tested. National Anti-Vivisection Society provides educational programs and developing alternatives to the use of animals for testing.
Regan, Tom. Animal Rights, Human Wrongs : An Introduction to Moral Philosophy.
Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc 2003
A great book detailing the morals and ethics involved in animal testing. This book is reliable and its filled with great information about our topic.
Regan, Tom. Empty cages: Facing the truth about animal cruelty in America. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.
An excellent book dealing with various forms of animal testing. The book explains the views of the Animal Rights Activists and why they think the way they do. The author explains his views on the subject of cruelty towards animals. This book is a good source of information.
Sherry, J Clifford. Animal Rights: Contemporary World Issues.
Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-ClIO, 1994
Clifford J Sherry has worked with many groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and Animal Liberation Front (ALF). This book gives information about U.S. federal legislation involving animal rights including scientific experimentation and animal harvesting. There are many opinions and arguments of animal rights activist and supporters of testing on animals.
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