What Happens to Animals After Testing?

Many members of the public are interested in learning what happens to animals after they are used for testing to ensure they are treated humanely. In fact, those who work with these animals often share this sentiment.

Virtually everyone cares about the well being of animals and it’s important to make sure animals are ethically treated not only during testing but also afterwards. However, we first need to briefly look at what is happening to animals during testing before we can understand the decisions needed regarding animal welfare after testing.

Animals During Testing

You may already know that animals are used in testing for a variety of purposes. In more recent years, their use in cosmetics has been banned in many parts of the world. During testing, animals may receive anesthesia to control or eliminate pain they could potentially experience.

As expected, what will happen to an animal after testing depends on its health and viability after testing. Since many experiments conducted on animals are actually considered minimally invasive, these animals will be used again for testing purposes in another experiment. Such minimally invasive experiments can include the provision of blood or urine samples from the animal.

Where surgical procedures are involved, an animal may be euthanized after the experiment. For example, an animal may have tissues or organs removed for analysis after a treatment.

Many people do not realise that animals used in experiments are usually bred in captivity. These animals cannot simply be sent into the wild or into homes as they would not be able to cope and survive. While some people question why this does not occur, the reality is that it would not be humane to do so despite it seeming like an attractive option in theory.

Euthanizing Animals After Testing

For animals that must be euthanized after testing, this is done quickly and humanely to avoid any pain to the animals. There is a wide variety of methods used to euthanize animals after testing, depending on the animal.

Some animals are euthanized using a gas that is inhaled and results in rapid death. The animal may be put into a chamber where it will then inhale the gas. An example of a gas used is carbon monoxide.

Another method used to euthanize an animal after it is used for testing is a sedative or anesthetic. In fact, such methods are used in water to euthanize fish that have been used for animal testing.

There are other methods used that may sound rather barbaric but actually result in a very fast death for the animal. These methods involve physical force such as decapitation or breaking the animal’s spine. Often, this is the method of choice for smaller animals.

Yet another option is brain irradiation. This allows a researcher to still keep brain tissue while causing rapid death to the animal. Typically, this method of euthanization is appropriate for rodents. Although not widely used, gunshots are also used to euthanize animals after testing. Electrocution is used as well, particularly for larger animals such as cattle or sheep.

Common Misconceptions About Animals After Testing

A common misconception about animals after testing is that they can simply be released into the wild or adopted. For a variety of reasons, this would be far less humane than killing the animals. For instance, there are strict laws and regulations controlling the release of animals into the wild. When it comes to the idea of adoption, animals used for testing would not be able to cope with the home environment. Most animals used for testing are bred specifically for that purpose. Also, the injuries sustained from testing would make it unrealistic for them to be placed in a home.

Caring for Animals After Testing

There are, however, still some rare exceptions where it can be successful to place animals in a ‘home’ after testing. There is one ranch in particular that has accepted animals after laboratory testing. Animals accepted include sheep, pigs, dogs and cats. Such places, however, are a minority.

What Can You Do?

Members of the public continue to be concerned about what happens to animals – both during and after testing. What you can do is to stay up-to-date on news about animal testing to learn more about how these animals are treated.

Contrary to popular belief, most scientists and animal technicians care deeply about animals and want to ensure humane treatment during and after animal testing. These animals are used to find treatments to improve and save human lives. However, the animals’ well-being is also respected to the fullest extent possible. The small number of researchers who have brought a poor name to the area of animal testing are held accountable by members of the public – just like you – who write letters and campaign publicly against such treatment.