Animal Experiments
Hidden away inside British laboratories, millions of animals suffer and die every year in experiments. Most of these are undertaken in the name of medical research, but many are carried out to test chemicals such as pesticides, household cleaners and food additives. Vivisection is another name for doing such experiments on live animals.
Not only do these experiments cause terrible suffering to the animals, but also the results they produce are unreliable and misleading, because they apply to animals and not humans. Studies have shown that 92% of drugs passed as safe by animal tests are later discarded as useless or dangerous. It is hardly surprising that in a recent opinion poll 82% of doctors questioned said they were concerned that animal tests could be misleading.
Stopping animal experiments will not mean an end to medical research. In fact the opposite is true because non-animal (human-based) methods would produce results that can actually be trusted.
- What happens in laboratories?
- Medical research
- Product and cosmetics testing
- Why don’t animal experiments work?
- What’s the alternative?
Want to know more?
- Read our Animal Experiments factsheet
- Read our Animal Experiments Q&A factsheet
- Watch our Wasted Lives film
- Read more in the Animal experiments section in the main (adult) site
