Animals and Scientific Research

Is it OK to use animals for scientific research?

The question I am answering is if it is it OK to use animals for scientific research. this is a very open question and will need research as many people have different views and opinions. Some people may believe there is no problem with testing on animals, however others believe the total opposite and that it is cruel to the animal as they believe that animals have the same rights as humans. Or some people may not be interested and just not care at all about this question. Animal testing is where animals are tested to discover something new like a new cure for a disease or to check if something is safe for human beings. Animal testing has been carried out for thousands of years it goes back to the Greeks in the 4th and 3rd centenary BC or even before that. My opinion before I start my research is that I have no problem with animals being used for research on one exception that it is only for a medical purpose as this is vital because new medicine is needed for people for many types of problems, but I don’t think it is OK just to experiment on them for something that is not needed for example cosmetics as this is not needed because cosmetics can be tested on humans as they will not have the big effect they have if humans tested medical substances. There is NO law that requires companies to test their personal care and household products on animals before selling them to consumers but there is a British law that requires any new drug to be tested on at least two different species of live mammal. One must be a large non-rodent ! It is their choice but companies still use animals to test their product as if the product is harmful and harms the consumer or the costumer then the company may be in trouble and they may be sued or taken out of business.

Why are animals used for testing? The major purposes for which research animals are used include: Basic and applied medical research (around one third to one half) The development of drugs and medical devices (around one third to one half) The production and standardization of vaccines and other biological things (a common use in the developing world) The safety testing of other chemicals for example: the effect when in contact with the eye.(around one tenth) Educational activities (a relatively small proportion - under 5%) To diagnose disease and identify pathogens the animals used for testing and what they are tested for: cats:
This animal has been used in many cases but the most important one is that they get tested on how the body functions. At the university of Wales in Cardiff, cats were tested to see how the nerve system works and how the signals are sent from the part of the brain named the thalamus. Another research in Cambridge university the cat had to suffer because its spinal chord was damaged as they were investigating nerve pathways.
Source: http://www.animalport.com/animal-testing/animal-testing-cats.html

dogs this animal is used a lot as it has very similar functions to human beings, the breed of dog which is used used the most is the beagles. Dogs can be tested in many ways for the side effects of medical treatments such as vomiting, diarrhoea, convulsions, shivering, anorexia and hyper-excitement; plus eye, liver, kidney, heart and lung damage, and of course death. Dogs are also used in heart search to investigate the causes of heart disease. Also they would block the vessels to the heart and do further experiments.
Source: http://www.animalport.com/animal-testing/animal-testing-dogs.html

Does animal testing work? | Yes | No | Animal testing has helped to develop vaccines against diseases like rabies, polio, measles, mumps, rubella and TB | Animal experiments can be misleading. An animal's response to a drug can be different to a human's | Antibiotics, HIV drugs, insulin and cancer treatments rely on animal tests. Other testing methods aren't advanced enough | Successful alternatives include test tube studies on human tissue cultures, statistics and computer models | Scientists claim there are no differences in lab animals and humans that cannot be factored into tests | The stress that animals endure in labs can affect experiments, making the results meaningless | Operations on animals helped to develop organ transplant and open-heart surgery techniques | Animals are still used to test items like cleaning products, which benefit mankind less than medicines or surgery | | |

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Is animal testing morally right? | Yes | No | Human life has greater intrinsic value than animal life | Animals have as much right to life as human beings | Legislation protects all lab animals from cruelty or mistreatment | Strict controls have not prevented researchers from abusing animals - although such instances are rare | Millions of animals are killed for food every year - if anything, medical research is a more worthy death | Deaths through research are absolutely unnecessary and are morally no different from murder | Few animals feel any pain as they are killed before they have the chance to suffer | When locked up they suffer tremendous stress. Can we know they don't feel pain? |

source: http://www.animalport.com/animal-testing/animal-testing-facts-figures.html this source is very good as it has the pros and the cons of if animal testing is right and if it works or or not also these sources have a similar thought of what I would of though about animal testing. Also this is given in a table which is clear with points and is not a paragraph that looks like an opinion instead this looks like facts as is short and sharp. Most of the scientific terms are correct and are used sufficiently. While they all look like facts some of them are acctually opinions for example

my conclusion:

I think the biggest pro of animal testing is the potential it has to save lives. Not just human lives, either, but human and animal life alike. While many would like to believe that animal testing could be eliminated because of computer technology, computer technology is not always completely reliable, even with the advances we have made just within the last decade. In many case studies a computer is not able to effectively or conclusively simulate or provide an accurate representation of the human/animal body (on a molecular and biological/physiological level) to negate the necessity of a live specimen being used for the most comprehensive results.