Introduction
Scientific Opinion
Animal Suffering
Misleading & Unreliable Results
Preventable Diseases
Profit
WARNING - Very graphic pictures
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Every year millions of animals suffer and die in laboratories. Imprisoned in cages and locked away behind closed doors, these sensitive, innocent creatures are tortured for the supposed benefit of human beings. Yet, the results from animal experiments can not only prove to be totally useless, but dangerously misleading when applied to human beings - animal experiments can actually hold up medical progress. Therefore, animals are used for which there is no need and people suffer the disastrous and devastating consequences. Many different species of animala are used in laboratories including: cats, dogs, rats, mice, rabbits, guinea-pigs, monkeys, pigs, horses, sheep, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles. They are used by amongst others: medical research charities, cosmetic & pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, contract testing labs, universities and the military. Animal laboratories are shrouded in secrecy. They have so much to hide. No independant observer has the right of entry into a vivisection lab to witness an experiment, not even an RSPCA inspector, the police or an MP.
Scientific Opinion
An increasing number of doctors and scientists in medical fields, veterinaries and pharmacists oppose animal experiments on purely scientific and medical grounds. They strongly believe that animal models differ so much from humans, that conclusions drawn from animal research, when applied to human disease, is likely to delay progress, mislead and do harm to human patients. Vivisection is not a science. Animals continue to needlessly be used in experiments, even though truly scientific methods of drug testing and disease research, without using animals, already exist. There are far better, more reliable research techniques, which give more productive, accurate results than crude animal tests, including: human cell and tissue cultures, organ culture, computer modelling, epidemiology, clinical studies etc...
Animal Suffering
In laboratories animals are deliberately poisoned, burned, scalded, blinded, genetically manipulated, infected with deadly diseases and surgically mutilated. They are given electric shocks, artificially induced diseases, have electrodes implanted into their brain. They are forced to inhale noxious fumes of burning plastics. They are used in specific pain experiments, have their limbs fractured, their backs broken. They are used in chemical, biological and germ warfare experiments. They are used to test chemicals, pharmaceuticals, household products and cosmetics. They have drugs, detergents, bleach, pesticides, weedkillers, disinfectants, washing-up liquids, oven cleaners and paints, force-fed down their throats into their stomachs, dripped into their eyes and taped onto their skin. The list is endless...
Misleading And Unreliable Results
We can prove that experiments on animals are as misleading and unproductive as they are sickeningly cruel. Animals react differently to us. What is lethal to a dog may have no effect on a mouse, but cause side effects in humans. Testing a drug on an animal provides no evidence that it is safe for humans. Animals aren`t like us. They suffer from different diseases to us and artificial diseases induced in animals in laboratories to test drugs are not the same diseases suffered by people in real life. The fundamental problem with animal based research is `species differences`. This term describes how animal species respond differently to various substances, which causes immense problems when animal researchers try to apply the results of animal tests to humans. There are further difficulties arrising with animal research: results from the same animal species can vary from laboratory to another; test results can be affected by the animals age, sex, diet; the distress caused to animals purely by being in the laboratory can effect the outcome of an experiment.
Preventable Diseases
Thousands of people die every year of preventable diseases. Many of the major killer diseases such as heart disease, strokes, diabetes and cancer are linked to our lifestyle - diet, food, environmental pollutants and stress etc and are therefore largely preventable. Most of the money raised for medical research, funds animal experiments and not disease prevention education. Millions of animals are used in cancer research, yet, animal cancers do not resemble human cancers. Artificially induced cancers in laboratory animals grow differently to spontaneous cancers that humans develop. Quest, a cancer research charity, who refuse to use animals, have achieved many breakthroughs in early cancer detection by using more productive and scientific methods of research than unreliable animal tests.
Profit
Drug companies make a fortune out of the thousands of drugs flooding the market, many of which are duplications. Whilst drugs are constantly being withdrawn because of their side effects, new so-called `wonder drugs` replace them. Innocent animals are caught up in this frantic race for profit and power. Many of the tens of thousands of drugs already available are either unsafe, ineffective or an unnecessary waste of money.