Animal Experimentation: Obsolete In Today's World
Wimmer
1
Katherine Wimmer
Mrs. Milliron
English 11
May 5, 2009
Animal Experimentation: Obsolete in Today’s World
Imagine a young girl, sitting in her dinning room with her loving family. She is about to partake in her mother’s famous lasagna, when suddenly, huge creatures burst into the room and grab the little girl and her family. The leering eyed creatures stuff the innocent family into cages, too small for their bodies, and shove them into vans. As the girl’s last days roll by she watches both herself and her family being treated like “tens of millions of animals hidden in laboratories on college campuses and research facilities being dissected, infected, injected, gassed, burned and blinded.” (“The truth about …show more content…
vivisection”). Sadly enough, this same scenario happens to animals every day and very few people act out against it. Many people feel that humans are far superior to those with less complex brains, even if their culture is just as beautiful and diverse as ours is. Animal experiments are highly expensive and a staggering “92% of drugs tested safe and effective in animals, fail in human trials” (Erbe), also many of our name brand drugs have failed in animal experiments while working amazingly well in humans. This is due
Wimmer
2
to the fact that humans and animals have totally different physiological structures. Many famous people, from brutal dictators, to Greek philosophers and religious icons, to hippie dippy musicians and movie stars to our very own presidents and groundbreaking scientists have been against animal brutality (“Famous Vegetarians” ). The human race is widely considered the smartest race of all, so why are we bringing ourselves down by torturing those lower than ourselves? Especially when there are so many new advancements in today’s technology, like growing tissues in petri dishes to 3-D models that make unethical experimentation on animals obsolete. Animal Testing, or vivisection, is, simply put, the use of non-human animals in scientific experimentation. Laboratory Animals include invertebrates, rodents, fish, amphibians, rabbits, dogs, non-human primates, and cats along with many other poor unfortunate animals that are called unspecified animals. An estimated 59 to 100 million animals are reportedly experimented on each year by the United States Department of Agriculture and Animal and Plant Inspection Service (USDA/ APHIS) reports. Rodents and the other unspecified animals do not have to go into these reports; these animals make up about 85 –95% of all the experimented animals. (Hoffman) So the true estimate of animals being experimented on is unknown. There are three main reasons for experimentation: to learn about organisms behavior, development, and biological function; to test drugs; and to test cosmetics. Cosmetic testing is by far the most controversial reason for animal
Wimmer
3 experimentation. PETA (people for the ethical treatment of animals) is a major contender in the fight for animal rights. This organization was founded in 1980 and is now the largest animal rights organization in the world. They focus their attention on four main areas, on factory farms, on laboratories, on the clothing trade, and on the entertainment industry. (“About PETA”). Animal rights is not new however, humanitarians, Richard Martin and Jeremy Bentham, led the opposition to animal experimentation and cruelty to animals in nineteenth century England. They had their work cut out for them, for ancient Roman and Greek philosophers like, Galen, Pliny the Elder, Andreas Vesalius and Aristotle all studied the anatomy and physiology of different animals. Experiments in those days were crude and poorly worked out, leading to false conclusions, for example Aristotle believed the heart was the center of the nervous system even after experimenting on as many as fifty animals. (McCoy 11). In 1964, the World Medical Association (WMA) stated that “Clinical research must conform to the moral and scientific principles that justify medical research”, this was a recompression of the terrible things Nazis did in World War II to both humans and animals. (“Fact Sheet”). Even with these laws many research facilities ignore the codes or cover up what they are really up to, to gain clearance in their experiments. Even with the opposition to testing it goes on and brings human deaths with it. Drugs tested on animals usually fail in humans. According to some estimates, “adverse drug reactions are responsible for 2.2 million hospitalizations and 106,000 deaths annually” (Lazarou). Furthermore, as many as “50 percent of FDA-
Wimmer
4 approved drugs are withdrawn or relabeled due to unanticipated side effects in humans” (United States General).
This is all due to the simple fact that “animals of different ages, sexes, developmental stages and of different health status can all respond differently to experimental treatments.” (“Animal Testing”). Even with all of the perils, scientists persist on risking the health of patients by relying on animal experiments to foretoken the outcome of drugs in Homo sapiens. A major drug mishap happened in March 13, 2006. The drug was called TGN1412 it was created to treat B cell chronic lymphocyte leukemia and rheumatoid arthritis. Eight volunteers were given small doses in the Northwick Park Hospital in London. They became seriously ill and had to be placed in intensive care. Four suffered multiple organ dysfunction and one person showed signs of cancer, the last three either died or fell into a coma. (Saunders). Another example is the first attempt at heart lung transplants that were supposedly ‘perfected’ on animals. The first three humans died within 23 days. Of the 28 operated on from 1981 to 1085, 8 died peri-operatively and 10 developed a lung complication that didn’t show up in the dogs who were experimented on. Of those ten, four died and three never breathed again without the aid of a respirator. (50 Disasters). Finally, Vioxx from Merck, this drug alone killed more Americans than all the ones who died bravely in the Vietnam War, yet it was deemed safe in eight studies using six animals species (Erbe). These are not the only drugs that have cause human fatalities; many other drugs have had severe and even lethal effects in people after demonstrating safety in animal
tests.
Wimmer
5 Antithetically many drugs that failed animal testing were major successes in humans. Despite the ineffectiveness of penicillin, one of today’s most used drug, in rabbits; Alexander Fleming used the antibiotic on a patient and the patient got better in record time. The drug also kills guinea pigs and hamsters, two major animals used in experiments today. Howard Florey, the Nobel prize winner credited with co-discovering and manufacturing penicillin said “how fortunate we didn’t have these animal tests in the 1940’s, for penicillin would probably never been granted a license, possibly the whole field of antibiotics might never have been realized”. (Marshall). Then you have Aspirin, which causes “teratogenic malformation in mice, rats, dogs, cats, rabbits, and monkeys” (Pippin). There are so many alternatives to the cruel tests that are currently done on animals that will provide more accurate results with out the suffering. Unlike animal tests, non-animal testing methods usually take less time to complete, cost only a fraction of animal experiments cost, and are not weighed down with species differences. Some examples are synthetic membranes, which are cells grown via artificial means. These synthetic membranes can be substituted for animals and are used to demonstrate the effects of chemicals or topical treatments on skin. This contrasts greatly with the traditional tests where an animal’s fur would be shaved and then a corrosive chemical would be applied to its back to observe the effects. Human skin model tests, such as the validated EpiDerm test, have been accepted almost universally as a total replacement for skin corrosion studies in rabbits (Balls). Previous statistics and
Wimmer
6 population charts are also helpful. They put together comprehensive data that is used to better gauge how a disease can spread, they also use data previously obtained from animal testing so scientists can keep from performing the same test repeatedly. Cell cultures, or in vitro, refers to performing a given procedure in a controlled environment, like a glass petri dish. Newer scanning techniques entail improved scans such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This allows researchers to investigate disease through human scans rather than performing animal testing. (Hughes) Many researchers also use cadavers; “the use of human skin leftover from surgical procedures of donated cadavers can be used to measure the rate at which a chemical is able to penetrate the skin.” (Government of Canada). Computer models are also a highly effective tool to simulate the response to a specific research question or experiment (Hughes). “Most animal experiments are done on animals that are nothing like human beings, like rats and mice, which undermines the argument that these experiments are a reliable guide to human reactions. And the more similar an animal is to a human being the more intelligent it is, and so the more immoral it is to treat is as a disposable and worthless object. Therefore it is only acceptable to test human medicines on human beings if they give consent. Non-human animals are never able to give consent; it is therefore never acceptable to test medicines on perfectly healthy animals. The access of technologies has made possible all sorts of new and horrific acts of animal exploitation
Wimmer
7 from cloning sheep to creating mutant and hybrid creatures with no dignity or quality of life at all.”(Dixon)
1
Katherine Wimmer
Mrs. Milliron
English 11
May 5, 2009
Animal Experimentation: Obsolete in Today’s World
Imagine a young girl, sitting in her dinning room with her loving family. She is about to partake in her mother’s famous lasagna, when suddenly, huge creatures burst into the room and grab the little girl and her family. The leering eyed creatures stuff the innocent family into cages, too small for their bodies, and shove them into vans. As the girl’s last days roll by she watches both herself and her family being treated like “tens of millions of animals hidden in laboratories on college campuses and research facilities being dissected, infected, injected, gassed, burned and blinded.” (“The truth about …show more content…
vivisection”). Sadly enough, this same scenario happens to animals every day and very few people act out against it. Many people feel that humans are far superior to those with less complex brains, even if their culture is just as beautiful and diverse as ours is. Animal experiments are highly expensive and a staggering “92% of drugs tested safe and effective in animals, fail in human trials” (Erbe), also many of our name brand drugs have failed in animal experiments while working amazingly well in humans. This is due
Wimmer
2
to the fact that humans and animals have totally different physiological structures. Many famous people, from brutal dictators, to Greek philosophers and religious icons, to hippie dippy musicians and movie stars to our very own presidents and groundbreaking scientists have been against animal brutality (“Famous Vegetarians” ). The human race is widely considered the smartest race of all, so why are we bringing ourselves down by torturing those lower than ourselves? Especially when there are so many new advancements in today’s technology, like growing tissues in petri dishes to 3-D models that make unethical experimentation on animals obsolete. Animal Testing, or vivisection, is, simply put, the use of non-human animals in scientific experimentation. Laboratory Animals include invertebrates, rodents, fish, amphibians, rabbits, dogs, non-human primates, and cats along with many other poor unfortunate animals that are called unspecified animals. An estimated 59 to 100 million animals are reportedly experimented on each year by the United States Department of Agriculture and Animal and Plant Inspection Service (USDA/ APHIS) reports. Rodents and the other unspecified animals do not have to go into these reports; these animals make up about 85 –95% of all the experimented animals. (Hoffman) So the true estimate of animals being experimented on is unknown. There are three main reasons for experimentation: to learn about organisms behavior, development, and biological function; to test drugs; and to test cosmetics. Cosmetic testing is by far the most controversial reason for animal
Wimmer
3 experimentation. PETA (people for the ethical treatment of animals) is a major contender in the fight for animal rights. This organization was founded in 1980 and is now the largest animal rights organization in the world. They focus their attention on four main areas, on factory farms, on laboratories, on the clothing trade, and on the entertainment industry. (“About PETA”). Animal rights is not new however, humanitarians, Richard Martin and Jeremy Bentham, led the opposition to animal experimentation and cruelty to animals in nineteenth century England. They had their work cut out for them, for ancient Roman and Greek philosophers like, Galen, Pliny the Elder, Andreas Vesalius and Aristotle all studied the anatomy and physiology of different animals. Experiments in those days were crude and poorly worked out, leading to false conclusions, for example Aristotle believed the heart was the center of the nervous system even after experimenting on as many as fifty animals. (McCoy 11). In 1964, the World Medical Association (WMA) stated that “Clinical research must conform to the moral and scientific principles that justify medical research”, this was a recompression of the terrible things Nazis did in World War II to both humans and animals. (“Fact Sheet”). Even with these laws many research facilities ignore the codes or cover up what they are really up to, to gain clearance in their experiments. Even with the opposition to testing it goes on and brings human deaths with it. Drugs tested on animals usually fail in humans. According to some estimates, “adverse drug reactions are responsible for 2.2 million hospitalizations and 106,000 deaths annually” (Lazarou). Furthermore, as many as “50 percent of FDA-
Wimmer
4 approved drugs are withdrawn or relabeled due to unanticipated side effects in humans” (United States General).
This is all due to the simple fact that “animals of different ages, sexes, developmental stages and of different health status can all respond differently to experimental treatments.” (“Animal Testing”). Even with all of the perils, scientists persist on risking the health of patients by relying on animal experiments to foretoken the outcome of drugs in Homo sapiens. A major drug mishap happened in March 13, 2006. The drug was called TGN1412 it was created to treat B cell chronic lymphocyte leukemia and rheumatoid arthritis. Eight volunteers were given small doses in the Northwick Park Hospital in London. They became seriously ill and had to be placed in intensive care. Four suffered multiple organ dysfunction and one person showed signs of cancer, the last three either died or fell into a coma. (Saunders). Another example is the first attempt at heart lung transplants that were supposedly ‘perfected’ on animals. The first three humans died within 23 days. Of the 28 operated on from 1981 to 1085, 8 died peri-operatively and 10 developed a lung complication that didn’t show up in the dogs who were experimented on. Of those ten, four died and three never breathed again without the aid of a respirator. (50 Disasters). Finally, Vioxx from Merck, this drug alone killed more Americans than all the ones who died bravely in the Vietnam War, yet it was deemed safe in eight studies using six animals species (Erbe). These are not the only drugs that have cause human fatalities; many other drugs have had severe and even lethal effects in people after demonstrating safety in animal
tests.
Wimmer
5 Antithetically many drugs that failed animal testing were major successes in humans. Despite the ineffectiveness of penicillin, one of today’s most used drug, in rabbits; Alexander Fleming used the antibiotic on a patient and the patient got better in record time. The drug also kills guinea pigs and hamsters, two major animals used in experiments today. Howard Florey, the Nobel prize winner credited with co-discovering and manufacturing penicillin said “how fortunate we didn’t have these animal tests in the 1940’s, for penicillin would probably never been granted a license, possibly the whole field of antibiotics might never have been realized”. (Marshall). Then you have Aspirin, which causes “teratogenic malformation in mice, rats, dogs, cats, rabbits, and monkeys” (Pippin). There are so many alternatives to the cruel tests that are currently done on animals that will provide more accurate results with out the suffering. Unlike animal tests, non-animal testing methods usually take less time to complete, cost only a fraction of animal experiments cost, and are not weighed down with species differences. Some examples are synthetic membranes, which are cells grown via artificial means. These synthetic membranes can be substituted for animals and are used to demonstrate the effects of chemicals or topical treatments on skin. This contrasts greatly with the traditional tests where an animal’s fur would be shaved and then a corrosive chemical would be applied to its back to observe the effects. Human skin model tests, such as the validated EpiDerm test, have been accepted almost universally as a total replacement for skin corrosion studies in rabbits (Balls). Previous statistics and
Wimmer
6 population charts are also helpful. They put together comprehensive data that is used to better gauge how a disease can spread, they also use data previously obtained from animal testing so scientists can keep from performing the same test repeatedly. Cell cultures, or in vitro, refers to performing a given procedure in a controlled environment, like a glass petri dish. Newer scanning techniques entail improved scans such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This allows researchers to investigate disease through human scans rather than performing animal testing. (Hughes) Many researchers also use cadavers; “the use of human skin leftover from surgical procedures of donated cadavers can be used to measure the rate at which a chemical is able to penetrate the skin.” (Government of Canada). Computer models are also a highly effective tool to simulate the response to a specific research question or experiment (Hughes). “Most animal experiments are done on animals that are nothing like human beings, like rats and mice, which undermines the argument that these experiments are a reliable guide to human reactions. And the more similar an animal is to a human being the more intelligent it is, and so the more immoral it is to treat is as a disposable and worthless object. Therefore it is only acceptable to test human medicines on human beings if they give consent. Non-human animals are never able to give consent; it is therefore never acceptable to test medicines on perfectly healthy animals. The access of technologies has made possible all sorts of new and horrific acts of animal exploitation
Wimmer
7 from cloning sheep to creating mutant and hybrid creatures with no dignity or quality of life at all.”(Dixon)