Facts About Animal Testing

Animal testing involves a lot of controversy and confusion regarding its practices, implementation and monitoring. Conflicting opinions and exaggerated information can also compound the confusion. It's helpful to examine some of the most important facts to better understand the different aspects of animal testing. This means that you can make a more informed decision regarding your stance on animal testing and which aspects, if any, that you support. It also means that your understanding can allow you to actively participate in any discussion about animal testing as well as contribute to organisations that have a focus related to animal testing, whether the organisation supports or condemns the practice.

Fast Facts

Animal testing is used to assess the safety and effectiveness of drugs as well as understand how the human body functions. It is also used for education and training.

Animal testing is used for research, typically in a laboratory environment.

Those who defend animal testing do so for its impact on medicine and health. Animal testing is held particularly important for its contribution to the development of insulin, antibiotics, vaccines and drugs with high mortality rates such as cancer. They cite the suffering and loss of life for animals to be worth the enhancement in human health and the reduction of human suffering. At this time, they don't believe that alternatives to animal testing are sufficient to replace the whole organism in all cases.

Those who are against animal testing cite it as a hurtful, cruel and scientifically lacking practice. They also claim that the benefits are often misconstrued. They believe that alternatives such as cellular or computer models are sufficient enough to replace animal models.

A key point of debate in animal testing is the inability of animals to give informed consent. Animal rights activists often cite that human experimentation is appropriate specifically because of this informed consent.

Animal testing can occur virtually anywhere in the research process although it usually does occur prior to drug testing in humans. It may, however, also occur after a human trial.

Animal testing for cosmetics is banned in the United Kingdom (UK). Non-cosmetics animal testing in the UK is strictly regulated and monitored. The government assesses the level of severity of animal testing under the bands mild, moderate, substantial or unclassified.

The European Union plans to phase out cosmetic animal testing by the year 2009.

Internationally, animal tests are used for everything from drugs to cosmetics.

In the UK, universities are the top users of animal testing, followed by private companies, charities and the government.

Primates and other mammals are the least commonly used animals for testing in the UK. Primates do, however, remain one of the most controversial animals used for testing purposes.

In the UK, millions in estimated damages are caused each year to property by animal rights activists. Millions are also spent each year on policing and preventing damage.

The vast majority of medical treatments you have used were, at one point, tested on animals.

In the UK, the majority of animals used for testing purposes are rats.

Making a Choice

Animal testing is riddled with debate and misconceptions, both on the sides of animal testing supporters and those who are against it. Aim to learn more about the facts of animal testing so that you can make an informed decision regarding its benefit and validity in your life.

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