Right in this moment millions of mice, rats, rabbits, primates, cats, dogs and other animals are locked in cages in laboratories around the country. They suffer from pain, loneliness and they desire to be free. Instead, all they can do is wait in fear – for the next terrifying and painful procedure that is going to be performed on them.
The complete lack of enrichment and the stress of their vitality are making some of the animals to develop neurotic behavior such as continuous rotation in circles, swinging back and forth, tearing off their own skin and even biting. After a long life in pain, loneliness and horror, almost all of them will be killed.
There are many ways of testing that do not include animals and which can be used instead of animal testing. This kind of tests are not only more humane, but they also have the potential to be cheaper, faster and more appropriate for humans.
While some animal experiments are required by law, there are currently many countries that have banned animal testing on defined consumer goods. There are bans of animal testing on cosmetic goods in the EU, India, Israel, New Zealand, Norway and many more. Millions of animals suffer and die due to testing, education and other experiments.
More than a billion animals suffer and die every year for testing chemicals, drugs, foods, cosmetic goods, as well as medical studies in the universities.
There are many animals who suffer and die because of experiments in biology classes and dissection, although today’s technology has proven many times that non-animal tests have better educational value and save time for the tutors and money for the schools. There is no a specific number of the mice, rats, birds and reptiles that accounts for 99 % of the animals used in experiments, that die, because they are not protected for the law of Humane treatment of animals.
Examples for animal testing are forcing mice and rats to inhale toxic substances, force feeding dogs with pesticides, dripping droplets with corrosive chemicals into the sensitive eyes of rabbits.
Even if a product is harmful for an animal it is still allowed to be sold to the consumer and vice versa. If a product has proven not to be harmful for the animals, it does not guarantee that is going to be safe for humans.
Animals are used for tests for toxicity, conducted as part of the large-scale regulatory testing programs, which are often funded by taxpayer’s money.
The governments and many charity organizations are using the money of the tax payers and well-meaning donors for experiments with animals, instead of funding promising clinical, in-vitro, epidemiological and other studies that could be useful to humans.
Animal experiments are useless and ineffective.
Diseases that are artificially induced in animals in laboratories, no matter if in monkeys or mice, are never the same as those that are naturally formed in human beings. And, since all animals are biologically different from one another in meaningful ways, it is even much less likely that experiments on animals give results that can be correctly interpreted and applied appropriately to the human condition. For example, according to the former director of the National Cancer Institute in the USA, Dr. Richard Klausner “We have cured mice of cancer for decades—and it simply didn’t work in humans”. The same conclusion is given by Dr. Elias Zerhouni, former director of the National Institutes of Health institute in USA, who admits that animal testing is useless: “We have moved away from studying human disеase in humans“. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration states “Currently, nine out of ten experimental drugs fail in clinical studies because we cannot accurately predict how they will behave in people based on laboratory and animal studies..
What can we do?
Don’t buy cosmetics, cleaning products, drugs and products tested on animals. Look for certificates that signifies that the product is not animal tested.