VIVISECTION (animal testing)
Vivisection: dissection or other PAINFUL treatment of living animals purposes of scientific research.
THE FALSE RATIONALE
Companies are concerned that should their product harm a consumer, they will be able to prove in court that they did everything they could to test the safety of their product. Many companies use animals to test the safety of chemicals used in products. Chemicals which harm animals may or may not harm people, and visa versa. It is bad science to assume that what effects other animals one way will effect people in the same way. What irritates a mouse won't necessarily irritate a person, and what is safe for rabbit may make people sick. Since companies continue to produce "new and improved" products (that are usually not much better than what they already produced), new chemicals are constantly being tested on animals.The manner in which chemicals are tested usually has nothing to do with how they will be used by humans. For example, each year thousands of dogs, rabbits, mice, etc. are made to drink shampoo and other products that are not meant to be swallowed. Ironically, these tests result in only a small warning on the label of the product that says "May be harmful if swallowed". Companies could place this label on all products without ever testing the products on animals.
THE FACTS AND FIGURES
Over 14 million animals suffer and die in laboratory tests of cosmetics and household human products. Many of these tests include blinding, poisoning, and killing animals.
Seven billion dollars a year is appropriated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for experimentation involving animals.
Many Medical Schools including Harvard and Yale no longer require students to harm animals as part of their course work, yet other schools persist in animal experimentation.
Experiments on animals can be unbelievably cruel and painful.
Pain relief is not required to be given to the animals.
Close to 150,000 monkeys are trapped or killed each year as they are taken from the jungles to research labs.
For every two captured monkeys that reach a lab alive, up to ten others have died along the way, either during capture, in transit, or because they were not of the desired age.
The U.S. is the largest importer of primates for research in the world. Medical students can learn more from simulators and computer models than from hurting animals.
Tests would be more accurate if conducted on human cells or human volunteers.
Over 20,000 doctors belong to the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, which is against using animals for medical research.
Many Research Labs are funded by our tax dollars.
Many Labs get their animals from USDA class "B" dealers, who sometimes take animals from the pounds or steal people's pets.
Tests using tissue cultures, human patch tests, and computer models yield far more reliable information than tests on animals.
If your family hasn't made an effort to buy cruelty free products (those not tested on animals and not containing animal by-products), almost every personal product in your house has likely been tested on animals including soaps, powders, cleaners, detergent, and makeup.
Terms like "New", and "Improved" often mean that many more animals have suffered to test out the new formula.
The Draize Eye Irritancy Test, devised in 1944, uses rabbits because they have no tear ducts to cleanse their eyes. Concentrated solution of chemicals are placed on the rabbit's eyes to see if irritation occurs. Because rabbits would shut their eyes, or claw at them to remove the offending substance, they are immobilized in stocks and their eyes are held open by metal clips. When the tests are finished (usually after 72 hours), the rabbits are killed.
The LD50 (Lethal Dose) Test consists of force feeding a group of animals until half of the group dies. Survivors are killed or used in another test.
THE DANGER TO HUMAN HEALTH
Billions of dollars now spent on animal research could be spent on preventative health, yielding a much greater benefit to the human population.Although doctors view 80% of human cancer as preventable, most health care money for cancer is spent searching for a cure. Around 1,400 people die from cancer each day, and the numbers are increasing for almost every kind of cancer. An estimated 30 billion dollars are spent on cancer research and detection each year. The American Cancer Society states that the results of animal based cancer studies are not statistically valid. According to many researchers, 30% of chemicals in cancer studies behave differently in rats than in mice. Correlation's between rodents and humans are even less reliable. Most major advances in the treatment of cancer have related to prevention and early detection which have nothing at all to do with information from animal tests. There is no way to know what advances or even what cures were missed because of incorrect animal data.
The three major fatal diseases in America are Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke. All of these diseases can largely be prevented through adopting a good vegetarian diet.
Experiments on animals can lead to misleading and even dangerous information for humans.
Medications we derive from what we learn from the bodies of rats, rabbits and other animals do not necessarily work on our own bodies. One example is Thalidomide, which appeared safe in animals but caused birth defects, disease, and death in humans.
Chloroform (discovered without animal tests) which causes unconsciousness in humans excites, rather than sedates dogs.
Aspirin is safe for mice, but kills rats and cats.
THE ALTERNATIVES
No non human animal tests are required by any law. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires only that companies demonstrate the safety of new chemicals.
Alternatives to animal testing include:
In vitro (test tube) technologies, such as
--Chemical assay tests
--Tissue culture systems
--Cell and organ cultures
--Cloned human skin cells
--Human skin patches
Computer and mathematical models
Human volunteers
Using ingredients already proven to be safe.
A list of companies that use vivisection to test their products
A list of companies that don't test on animals
