How do we evaluate animals being bred, reared and destroyed? Every day in British vivisection laboratories, thousands of animals become tools for research. Mostly mice, rats, cats, dogs, monkeys, birds, reptiles, pigs, sheep, cattle, chickens, horses and fish. To reduce and prevent human suffering scientists try to find cures. They take a healthy animal, infect it with a disease, study how it progresses and then attempt experimental treatments. Animals are given cancer, infected with viruses, force fed substances, burned, electrocuted, starved, stressed, have chemicals rubbed on their skin, are made to inhale smoke or toxic fumes to see how poisonous they are and given addictive substances in order to study dependency.
In arthritis research, animals are injected in their joints with collagen and various other substances, to produce the painful swellings, and destruction of cartilage and bone that is characteristic of the disease. They are also used to test the safety of new agricultural and industrial chemicals including weed-killers, pesticides, paint, food additives, drinks, pet food and household cleaning products. Lots of tests on animals are barbaric. In one famous study, monkeys in a laboratory cage refused to pull a chain to access food, if doing so caused another monkey to experience a painful electric shock. (Clever monkeys!)
Beagles are often the most experimented on animals for prescription drugs, because of their friendly gentle nature, and desire to please. Drugs for cancer, heart disease and infectious diseases are tested on them. One test involves them being forced to inhale chemicals by having a gas mask type device forcibly latched on to their noses and faces. They also have substances dripped into their eyes, tubes inserted into their stomachs to force-feed them and are restrained whilst they have substances pumped directly into their bloodstreams. In most cases no anaesthetics or analgesics are used. Pig cell transplants are used to treat diabetes, by raising them inside a pathogen free-barrier and killing piglets under anaesthesia.
Animals should bare the minimum pain and not be killed, but the irony is that the object of the experience is to discover whether the animal suffers, in order to avoid human suffering. There are arguments for and against the use of animals in medical research. It is said that animals are the only appropriate available models to develop new drugs, treatments and surgical procedures, to improve the quality of life for millions of people and further science. Reasons why animal testing is unreliable is that diseases are artificially induced which is different from someone developing the disease over time through environment and diet.
Secondly, because their bodies are not genetically the same as human beings, they don’t get the same diseases. Aspirin and paracetamol are highly poisonous to cats. Although Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, it wasn’t until ten years after that it was tested first in animals and then humans. Early researchers chose to test penicillin on mice and the encouraging results led to its use on humans. If they had tested it on hamsters or guinea pigs, it is likely it would have been discarded, as it is lethal to both. On the other hand, vaccines and drugs have resulted in significant reductions in mortality for example from pneumonia, tuberculosis, measles, diphtheria, smallpox, poliomyelitis and tetanus.
Each year drugs that were passed safe on animals are withdrawn after causing serious side effects and even deaths when given to people. Recent examples include Vioxx, the animal tested arthritis drug was reported to have caused 140,000 heart attacks and strokes before being withdrawn. And the TGN1412 (elephant man drug) disaster that left six men with organ failure after tests on monkeys failed to predict these effects. An illustration by Animal Aid showed that 700 drugs have been effective at treating stroke artificially induced in animals, but only two of these have been shown to work in humans.
Some diseases are our fault like smoking, so should animals be killed to find a cure for that? Some argue that animals should simply not be reared to provide organs, tissues, antibodies etc and as long as this continues to be permitted, it reduces the need and incentive to provide alternatives. In most cases the law insists that all medicines must be tested on animals before they are used on humans in order for companies to be given licences to sell them. Is it ethical to do these experiments on unwilling participants? Animals need justice and protection under the law. We need to contact government authorities and urge them to grant more financial aid to organisations that are working on researching alternatives to animals.
Warfare research: animals are maimed, shot, irradiated, blown up and poisoned with chemicals and gases. The number of animals used in weapons research in British Laboratories quadrupled between 1997 and 2007 from 4,500 to more than 18,000. They were poisoned by chemical warfare agents, subjected to blast injuries, dosed with sensory irritants and deliberately wounded and killed by bacterial toxins. Most of this research took place at the Ministry of Defence establishment at Porton Down in Wiltshire. Guinea pigs, rabbits, mice, dogs, rats, sheep, pigs, goats and monkeys were used. Pigs are a particular popular choice for weapons research. Look up ‘Horrific military training’ at www.youtube.com.
Genetic modification: scientists deliberately alter the genetic material of an animal by adding, changing or removing certain DNA sequences in a way that does not occur naturally. It aims to modify specific characteristics of an animal or introduce a new trait such as disease resistance or enhanced growth. Hundreds of thousands of genetically engineered animals are specially bred every year. These numbers are increasing dramatically, in this expanding area.
Animals suffer horribly, because this can cause severe physical and developmental abnormalities, some planned, others unintended. Mice by far, are the most commonly used animal. In 1995 people around the world were shocked by pictures of a mouse whose back supported a human ear. This carries dark implications for animals. Their welfare is not at the forefront. What about Featherless chickens, which will not need plucked, saving money in processing plants, hibernating sheep to cut winter food costs and chickens and pigs that graze like cattle? Now scientists have created an artificial ‘mouse embryo’ from stem cells. Scary!
Christians Caring For Gods Creatures 