Animal Aid

Why does animal experimentation persist today?

There are many reasons for the continuation of animal experiments:

1. It is tradition. Individual scientists do not question the practice because it is how they were taught; it is what their professors have always done; and a large volume of scientific literature describes it.

2. Vivisection is big business. The pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable in the world and its interests are strongly protected by governments. Animal experiments appeal to drug and biotechnology companies because the data produced can be manipulated to suit their commercial interests.

3. Most importantly - animal experiments provide a legal defence for pharmaceutical companies when people are injured or killed by adverse drug reactions.

4. The animal research industry keeps people employed, so many have a direct or indirect vested interest in the process.

Crucially, the law encourages the use of animals in drug development - as a result of pressure from the pro-vivisection lobby. If these same vested interests were to abandon their destructive attachment to animal use and instead promote non-animal methods of disease study and drug development, then legislators would soon heed the call.

Non-animal research methods

Animal experimentation is bad science. We need to get rid of it, and replace it with good science: species-specific research, which relies on human cells instead of animal cells, human tissues instead of animal tissues, and human data instead of animal data.

For years, medical scientists have neglected to make proper use of valuable human tissue, largely because of the easy availability of animal tissues. That is fast changing, as researchers realise the importance and usefulness of once-discarded human material from the operating theatre. For example, unused blood vessels, skin biopsies and other living tissues can be kept alive, grown and studied in the laboratory. The umbilical cord from newborn babies is a rich and ethically acceptable source of stem cells, a new and developing field of research.

In fact, the major problem today is not a shortage of suitable human tissues, but a resistance by companies and researchers to drop the animal cells in favour of the human ones. Just 100 grams of donated human liver can provide researchers with up to one billion liver cells on which to experiment (39).

The UK has the potential to become a world leader in the field of rational medical research. The University of Leeds School of Biomedical Sciences has achieved outstanding results in the areas of virtual tissue engineering and medical imaging. This technology is especially important in the training of surgeons who need to acquire the skills necessary to perform keyhole surgery. Trainee surgeons worldwide will be able to practise their skills both on 3-D lifelike human mannequins as well as on computer-generated virtual reality systems.

Another UK-based enterprise has developed a completely synthetic, non-animal culture medium for cell research and for the production and manufacture of human vaccines. Traditionally, vaccines are produced using foetal calf serum. The public health benefits of avoiding animal components in human medical products would be enormous because of the constant danger of transmitting known or unknown animal viruses (e.g. SV40 from monkey kidney) and prions (e.g. BSE - mad cow disease) to the human population.

There are many other well-established non-animal research methods:

• MRI, CAT and PET scans allow non-invasive, yet detailed analysis of human organ structure and function. Neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease are particularly amenable to the use of such technologies.

• New tissue and organ culture techniques provide human material for analysing disease processes and testing new therapies. Primary human liver cells can now be kept alive for 90 days.

• Computer modelling is a sophisticated way to analyse and design the molecular structure of drugs that target specific parts of cells.

• Autopsy studies allow doctors to understand why people died, and to observe the outcome of different treatments.

• Clinical observation is another important method of obtaining information about patients, based on minimally invasive procedures such as blood and urine analysis.

• Epidemiology (the study of human populations) is a scientific method of finding the causes of human disease and their treatments.

• Disease prevention is still the best solution for most of our modern ills. It requires political as well as personal action and relates to such key matters as diet, exercise, the use of tobacco, alcohol - and cutting down on the amount of pollution in the general environment.

Conclusion

Criticism of the animal model by the scientific community has been slow in making itself felt, but there are now clear signs that animal experiments and true science do not go together, and certainly have no place in 21st century medicine. Recent criticisms of animal tests by eminent medical scientists in the media and in medical journals (such as the British Medical Journal) have provided unmistakable evidence that the truth is finally emerging (40).

Ultimately, it is for society to make a very important choice between good science (species-specific studies) and bad science (animal-based research). Let us choose good science, for the sake of human health and to spare an enormous amount of animal suffering.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Contact your local MP and ask him/her to support an independent and transparent scientific evaluation of the validity of animal experiments in medical research.

• If you are a science, biology or medical student, campaign for non-animal teaching methods.

• Order more copies of this booklet if you are able to reach scientists, GPs, dentists, veterinary surgeons, school teachers and university tutors. It is vital that those involved in the scientific and medical professions support the campaign for an end to animal experiments.

• Order leaflets, stickers, posters and petitions to inform friends, family and colleagues. See the resources section for a complete list.

• Many medical research and health charities - including the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK - still conduct or commission experiments on animals. Only donate to health charities that fund non-animal research. See our charity factfile for a list of humane charities.

• Help save the lives of half a million animals each year who are bred for their tissues. By consenting for samples of your tissues to be taken after your death, you will contribute to medical research that will provide results relevant to people. You can register with Peterborough District Hospital Tissue Bank (tel: 0115 973 9044 and www.bodydonation.org.uk tel: 01733 875892) to become a tissue donor.

• Write to the editor of your local newspaper stating the case against animal experiments, and for ethical, rational and relevant human-based research.

• Join Animal Aid and support our campaign against animal experiments.

This concludes Animal Experiments: Bad Ethics, Bad Science. For more on animal experiments click here.

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