Animal Testing: Examples & Pros And Cons

What Are The Pros And Cons of Animal Testing?

Pros:

  

1. It helps researchers find drugs and treatments to improve health and medicine. Several medical treatments have been made possible through animal testing, such as cancer and HIV drugs, insulin, antibiotics, vaccines, and more. It is thus considered vital for the improvement of human health and also why the scientific community and some of the public support it. Some members of the public do not support animal testing for cosmetic use, but do still support animal testing for medicine and the development of new drugs to cure diseases.
2. It helps to ensure the safety of drugs and other substances that humans use or are regularly exposed to. Drugs in particular can carry a lot of danger with their use but animal testing helps researchers gauge the safety level of drugs before they commence trials on humans. This means that human harm is reduced and lives are saved.
3. Animal testing is used because animals are considered similar to humans. Thus, scientists recognize the limitations and difference. As animals are considered to be the closest match to humans, the testing is done on them as the data and results are considered the best in terms of application to humans.

Cons:

1. Countless numbers of animals are experimented on then killed. The animals that are not killed will be held in captivity for the remaining part of their lives. Several of these animals, however, are used in experiments for substances which will not see approval or will not be consumed or used by the public. This gives the idea that the animal died in vain as no direct benefits to humans occurred from the animal testing.
2. Animal testing costs a lot of money. The animals used must be fed, housed, cared for and treated with drugs or a similar experimental substance. Despite the controlled environment being important, it comes at a high cost. Also, animal testing may occur more than once and over the span of a few, if not several months. The cost of the animals themselves must be included. Some companies breed animals specifically for animal testing and these animals can be purchased through them.
3. There is the argument that the reaction of a drug in an animal is different to that in a human. Some believe that animal testing is unreliable, and following that piece of criticism is the premise that because the animals are living in an unnatural environment, they are under stress.Therefore, their reaction will be different to that of if they were living in their natural environment. This further weakens the validity of animal testing.

Information taken from http://www.aboutanimaltesting.co.uk/using-animals-testing-pros-versus-cons.html

What Are Examples of Animal Testing?

         1. Draize Test

This rabbit is the test subject of a Draize Test

It was used for testing cosmetics, and the procedure included applying 0.5ml or 0.5g of the test substance to the eye or skin of a restrained, conscious animal, and then leaving it out for a set amount of time before washing the substance off and recording its effects. The animals are observed for up to 2 weeks for signs of erythema and edema in the skin test, and redness, swelling, discharge, ulceration, hemorrhaging, cloudiness, or blindness in the tested eye. The test subject is usually an albino rabbit, while occasionally other animals are used. The animals are euthanized (killed) after testing if it renders irreversible damage to the eye or skin, but if there is no permanent damage, the animals are reused after a 'wash-out' period, in which all traces of the experimental substance are dispersed from the test site.

2. Cosmetics Testing On AnimalsCosmetics are tested on animals to ensure the safety and hypoallergenic properties of the products for human use. The products or ingredients are applied to the mucous membranes of the animals, including the eyes, nose and mouth, to determine whether there will be allergic or other reactions.

In Europe, items that were not tested on animals carry this symbol

Information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draize_test and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testing_cosmetics_on_animals