Medical research
Millions of animals suffer and die every year in cruel experiments that are undertaken in the name of medical research. The majority of animal experiments are carried out supposedly to find the causes of, and treatments for, human diseases.
Drug testing
New medicines intended for people are first tested on animals in an effort to find out if they cause harmful side effects. These are called safety, or toxicity, tests. The trouble with these tests is that animals do not react to drugs in the same way as humans. Studies have shown that 92% of new drugs passed as safe in animal tests go on to fail in clinical trials on people.Disease research
Researchers try to recreate human illnesses in animals so that they can study them and find cures. The problem with using animals is that they do not suffer the same diseases as humans. Animals are infected with lethal viruses, given cancer, surgically mutilated and injected with toxic chemicals to induce or mimic the symptoms of human diseases. To induce artificial strokes in rats, cats and monkeys, researchers block arteries in their brains. Monkeys are often deliberately brain damaged, supposedly to find cures for human diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Other animals are deliberately driven mad so that they can be used to study conditions such as depression and schizophrenia in humans.
GM research
A growing number of genetically modified (GM) animals are being bred every year. These animals have genes added, removed or altered in an effort to mimic different human diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, diabetes and asthma. Some animals have been modified to be born with, or automatically develop, different types of cancer. However, even GM animals do not get the same disease symptoms or react to drugs in the same way as humans.
Want to know more?
- Why don’t animal experiments work?
- What’s the alternative?
- Read our Genetic Engineering factsheet
- Read our report Man or Mouse: Genetically Modified Animals in Medical Research on the adult site
