animal testing and uses

8/9/2019 Animal Testing and Uses

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(Fruit flies)Animals commonly used for testing are rabbits, fish, dogs, cats, rodents which include hamsters, rats,

mice and guinea pigs. If you love these furry creatures do not buy products that are tested on animals.

Check the back of a shampoo bottle, or a face wash to look for the label NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS

But also be aware that some companies may include false information.

Today there are alternatives to animal testing but we still see that animals are used despite new

technologies available to take up this practice.

The three Rs are legal and adopted by researchers and others who follow this principle

try to reduce the amount of animals involved.

These are,Reduction

ReplacementRefinement

Reduction means the same results are obtained even if fewer animals are involved. This emphasizes lesspain and suffering as a smaller number of animals are used for testing. One animal could receive several

tests where milder experiments are concerned.

Replacement means that animals are replaced where possible by an alternative. For example in cosmetic

testing human volunteers are taken. This is similar to reduction methods. Replacement methods can

include cellular and computer models.

Refinement is linked directly to animal suffering in an experiment. These methods are aimed at relieving

pain or reducing the pain entirely by injecting anesthetic or giving a pain reliever.

Why do companies use animals to test their products? First of all, there are similarities betwee n ananimal and human tissues and DNA which they believe could support accurate results, and reduce the

chances of any side effects which a user may experience and saves them from being caught distributing

unsafe products.

Comparatively testing on animals is cheaper to purchasing sophisticated technology.

Are there any other alternatives to animal testing? Yes there certainly are, but they are not widespread

and are to be adopted by companies.
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There has been a new breakthrough that could replace animal testing soon but not in all applications

such as food processing.

That is the growing of human skin which could be put to testing.

This is the process:

Another is adult stem cell research because there is no risk of tissue rejection compared to animals.

Animals are tested on a variety of applications; cosmetics, military defense, biomedical research, food

production, animal breeding, toxicology testing and veterinary medicine.

(Result of cosmetic testing)You may already be aware that cosmetics involve animal testing, and here they may be tested on themanufactured product or the individual ingredients. This testing is usually focused to make sure that a

particular product is safe on eyes and skin, and overall animals are used to

test the levels of toxicity. However there are some challenges facing this as

some of the public have suffered from the use of particular products despite

testing. Today many companies have diverted to using new technologies that

does not call in for animal testing. Hopefully this practice will be banned at

least in the cosmetic world and bring some relieve to the animal world.
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Military defense has received less attention from the public compared to other applications and animals

are used here for developing weapons and vaccines. This application tests the effects of the weapons on

the animals just in case these were used against the general public or the military itself. Pigs, sheep and

rabbits in this case are used here. This type of application is indeed disturbing.

Biomedical research has opened new doors to human health and medicine. Because of animal testing we

have come a long way in treating killer diseases, and insulin, vaccines, antibiotics, HIV and cancer

treatment have been generated through the use of animal research. Unfortunately animals cannot besubstituted for other models because researchers need to know how the disease builds up in the body and

how the disease can be eliminated and inquire the environment and the diet contributing the disease.

Animals such as rats, pigs and sheep are used and more commonly mice. Birds and fish are also used but

less frequently.

It is surprising that animals are even used to test food production. Food is not only grown and processed

and gone through safety checks. It involves the use of animals to check that the foods we consume are safe

and hygiene both in short and long term. These tests are performed on laboratory rodents, and some

performed on dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs. Some of these tests can be painful, and indeed animals are

killed to check whether any substance has affected any organs and so forth. Many of us indeed eat meat,and animals are used to create vaccines and other treatment methods to keep livestock healthy, so that it

guarantees that meat is safe to consume and that there is no risk present in eating them. At the moment

this has become a concern for welfare groups and unfortunately there are no substitutes for this type of

testing and this means that the use of animals will become more important if other alternatives are not

available.

Toxicology testing is not kind to animals. This involves the injection of substances and other means in

animals regularly over a period of time to check how it affects their systems. This is cruel as there are no

anesthetics used to relieve the pain from undergoing these experiments which indicates that animals have

to suffer a lot. If anesthetics are used this may interact with another drug and wont help researchers findout the specific effects of the drug.

Toxicology testing includes testing of productions such as pesticides, food products, pharmaceuticals and

chemicals. This has called in a lot of criticism from welfare groups as a brutal and needless practice.

Hopefully there will be substitutes to this practice.

The Draize test is a good example of toxicology testing. this is normally performed on rabbits where a

chemical which can be from a cosmetic agent applied to the skin or the eyes to indicate how toxic a

chemical can be to the human skin. This is an inaccurate test.


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Arguments for Animal Testing

1. The treatment of killer diseases today is possible because of animal testing. For example: HIVtreatment

2. Testing on plants is not related with human beings and this wont produce accurate results. Somecomputer models are not advanced enough and therefore we have to turn to animal testing.

3. This practice is taken up to ensure the safety of human beings to use a product. Any newsubstance or chemical can be tested on animals to check the after effects of it and check whether itis harmless.

4. Animals and humans are said to have similar tissue and DNA which makes it reliable to test onthem.

Arguments against Animal Testing

1.

This is a cruel practice, and animals suffer painful suffering and sometimes even death. We sharealmost the same feelings as animals, and thus if we are humane this practice should be eliminated

gradually.

2. Even though animals are tested, results may be inaccurate and some people may suffer from theeffects of using a particular product.

3. Animals react differently according to the environment and conditions they are in and the teststhey undergo, so results of the tests are not precise.

4. An animal may be tested for at least more than one drug even though it is unnecessary.5. There are more effective and gentle alternatives today that requires no animal testing. These

alternatives make use of cloned cell and skin tissues from humans, and advanced computer and

mathematical models.

Types of vertebrates used in animal testing in Europe in 2005: a total of 12.1

million animals were used. (This is an estimate)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Types_of_vertebrates_v2en.png


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Companies that DO test on animals

Cover Girl

Dana Perfumes

Johnson and Johnson (Clean and Clear)

L'Oral

Olay Co. /Oil of Olay

Pantene

PondsUnilever (Axe, Dove, Sunsilk, Vaseline)

Companies that DONT test on animals

Aroma Bella

Body Shop

Diva Soaps

Mac

Oriflame

Revlon

(Note: Some companies like St. Ives have the label NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS but they are

not on the list of companies that DO NOT test on animals)

Please feel free to check out these websites and see the list of companies do and do not test on

animals.

And try not to buy products made from companies that do test on animals and you can send a

letter to them stating that products (cosmetics, cleaning supplies etc.) will not be bought unless

animal testing is stopped. This way we can minimize the excruciating sufferings that animalsundergo.

Sources:www.astrostar.com

http://www.gocrueltyfree.org/companies.php?s=A&sentence=1

www.caringconsumer.com

In my opinion animal testing is ruthless and cruel. By nature we have a complex set of emotions and arehumane not to perform tests on other humans; that is children and adults.What about animals? It is absolutely wrong to take advantage of innocent creatures who cannot speakout for themselves and who are powerless to fight back. Humans are innovative, and technology today hasimproved vastly and indeed one can wonder what is to come in the future. But why cant humans inventsomething that would replace animal testing once and for all. It is not impossible, we just need to openour eyes and broaden our minds. Thus we can be regarded as humane to all beings.
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