The Science
The animal experimenter will claim that all testing is done for the benefit of human beings, whether that be for medical advancement or the toxicity testing of a food additive, nothing could be further from the truth!
Science now tells us that data from one species cannot be accurately extrapolated to another. Many scientists and doctors who are not profiting from animal experiments now oppose them on human health grounds.
Many studies show using animal tests to predict human outcome is worse than tossing a coin in terms of accuracy. (1)
According to the human health charity Safer Medicines “When researchers administer potentially useful substances to animals, they get plenty of feedback on the substances’ effectiveness in the species tested. However, results nearly always differ dramatically between species, and there are no reliable methods of predicting a human reaction. Substances that could save many human lives are not approved because they are harmful to animals. And substances that are therapeutic in animals get approved, later harming and sometimes killing humans.”
Animal experiments slow down and prevent scientific progress, real scientific breakthroughs are made using human relevant method such as In vitro (test tube) research, epidemiology, post-mortem studies, genetic research, clinical studies, computer modelling and human stem cells. Every penny wasted on animal experiments is money that could be used on these modern, effective methods of research.
Even pro-animal experiment scientists have to occasionally acknowledge the futility of parts of the animal testing industry. Dr Richard Klausner as Director of the National Cancer Institute said “The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer in the mouse. We have cured mice of cancer for decades, and it simply didn’t work in humans.” Professor Don Ingber, founding director of the Wyss Institute and Professor at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital said “Animal models often fail to predict results in human clinical trials, and this has had a devastating effect on drug development. Not only have costs skyrocketed, but fewer and fewer good drugs are in the pipeline, and so fewer good drugs are reaching patients.”
So then why do animal experiments continue when they are so worthless to scientific progress? The answer is tradition and profit.
An industry has been created around the use of animals as test models for human beings, for experimenters it is hard to admit that their life’s work has been pointless. Experimenters get grant money based on how many papers they publish in scientific journals and it is a lot easier and less time consuming for them to do animal experiments. The experimenter will be satisfied that he has collected scientifically accurate data, and in many cases he may well have done, however it is scientifically accurate data relating to another species with no relevance to human outcome.
For pharmaceutical, agricultural, food, drink and household product companies animal experiments act as an insurance policy for when their products cause death and other harm in human beings. They are a simple, cheap means by which to save on compensation payouts while offering no actual protection to consumers.
Animal experiments can also be used to make health or other claims about a product, without proving them to be true in human beings. The tobacco industry used animal testing to try to show its product was not harmful and did not cause cancer. Research in human beings proved them wrong. An experimenter can ‘prove’ or disprove’ almost anything depending on which animal they use.
If you care about scientific progress animal testing must be stopped once and for all. NOAV will continue to campaign to divert all funds currently wasted on animal experiments toward human relevant research.
Please watch this video from the Safer Medicines charity to learn more about this subject:
Safer Medicines from Ray Burnside on Vimeo.
Sources:
(1) Perel, P and colleagues. British Medical Journal (2007) 27: 197–200; Hackam, DG and Redelmeier DA. Journal of the American Medical Association(2006) 296: 1731–1732; Bailey, J. Biogenic Amines, vol.19, N° 2, pp 97-146, May 2005.
This article is largely based on the work of the Safer Medicines charity.
Resources: