Animal Testing

Randomknowledge just wanted to say don't take anything personal as far as I can tell your a polite and courteous individual. Now lets get started, I see you brought some facts to the table instead of your previous opinionated babel. However I am afraid that this still does not cut it and I could tell by the very beginning: "The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission do not require animal testing for cosmetics or household products." This debate was not about how animal testing is not necessary for "cosmetics or household products." This debate is a more broad approach should we use animal testing in general, more specifically medication. In my final argument I will list several myths about animal testing and produce the true and genuine facts about this controversial topic. Myth: Research on animals is not relevant to people because animals are different from people. People and animals suffer from different illnesses. Fact:All mammals are descended from common ancestors, and one result of this is that humans are biologically very similar to other mammals. All mammals, including humans, have the same organs - heart, lungs, kidneys, liver etc - performing the same functions and controlled by the same mechanisms, via the blood stream and nervous system. Of course there are minor differences, but these are far outweighed by the remarkable similarities. The differences can give important clues about diseases and how they might be treated - for instance, if we knew why the mouse with muscular dystrophy suffers less muscle wasting than human patients, this might lead to a treatment for this debilitating and fatal disorder. Vitamins and hormones identified by animal experiments were found to have similar functions in people. The following animal hormones have all been used successfully in human patients: * insulin from the pancreas of pigs or cows * thyrotropin from cows' pituitaries * calcitonin from the parathyroid gland of salmon * adrenocorticotrophic hormone from pituitaries of farm animals * oxytocin and vasopressin from pig posterior pituitary glands Such similarities mean that studies in animals have led to the medicines which have transformed the treatment of many diseases during this century. The similarities also explain why many veterinary medicines are the same as those used for human patients: examples include antibiotics, pain killers and tranquilisers. Over one third of the veterinary medicines that are used to treat animals are the same as, or very similar to, those used to treat human patients. Most human diseases exist in at least one other species. Illnesses such as cancer, heart failure, asthma, rabies and malaria are suffered by many species and can be treated in much the same way. A list of some 350 animal diseases with a human counterpart has been compiled by the veterinarian Charles Cornelius1 who considers that the study of animal diseases with a view to providing treatment for the human counterpart is "a neglected medical resource". This issue is also well-covered in an easily obtained source, ie the section on "Animal Disease" in Encyclopaedia Britannica. This contains an abbreviated list of 100 diseases common to animals and man and states: "... it is likely that, for every known human disease, an identical or similar disease exists in at least one other species". Myth: Animal research has not made any contribution to medical progress. Fact:The discovery of insulin in the 1920s by Banting and Best in Canada is a good example of the contribution of animal research to medical progress. Their key finding was that injections of an extract of pancreatic cells, which contained the hormone insulin, relieved the symptoms of diabetes in dogs. Insulin was soon found to be highly effective in people, and, as a result, many millions of diabetics are alive and well today. Diabetic dogs have also benefited from insulin treatment. Each decade since the discovery of insulin has seen the introduction of new kinds of treatments for many diseases. During the 1930s and '40s, sulphonamides and antibiotics were developed to treat bacterial infections, vaccines were introduced to control viral infections, and surgery advanced with modern anaesthetics and the heart-lung machine. Kidney transplants, hip replacement surgery and drugs to control high blood pressure and mental illnesses followed in the '50s and afterwards. New treatments of leukaemia, asthma and ulcers appeared in the '60s and '70s. Drugs which delay the development of AIDS and other diseases caused by viruses, and improved drugs to prevent the rejection of transplants were developed in the '80s and '90s. That each of these and the many other advances were critically dependent on animal experiments is a historical fact. Given continued research using animals, we can expect further advances in the treatment of diseases such as cancer, cystic fibrosis and crippling joint disease. It is very difficult to see how we could make such medical advances without animal research. MYTH:Many pointless, unnecessary animal experiments are carried out FACT Unnecessary animal experiments are very unlikely in the U.S.A for the following reasons: * The strict controls on animal research, in the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, do not allow animals to be used to obtain information that is obtainable by other means. * Research using animals is very expensive because the animals are costly to buy or breed, to house, and to care for, and the work itself is slow and labour intensive. * Funds for biomedical research are limited, so each research proposal is rigorously assessed by panels of experts. Trivial, irrelevant or repetitive work will not attract funding. MYTH:Most research animals are cats, dogs or monkeys. FACT:More than 80 out of every 100 animals used in research are mice, rats and other rodents. Less than one in every 200 research animals is a cat or a dog. Dogs, because of the size and similarity of their organs, are important for the development of new surgical techniques and for the study of the heart, lungs and blood vessels. Cats are important in the study of hearing and brain function. The use of both cats and dogs is subject to particular controls which require that they are specially bred for research. Stray cats and dogs or lost pets are not used for research in Britain. Some people believe that monkeys and apes (primates) are used in great numbers, but they represent less than one in every 600 research animals. Primates are needed for research into very serious conditions such as AIDS and Alzheimer's disease (senile dementia). MYTH:Laboratory animals suffer great pain and distress. FACT:Most experiments do not cause significant pain or distress, since they involve only mild procedures such as a single injection, taking a small blood sample, or a change of diet. In most of the remainder, anaesthetics or pain-killing drugs are used to prevent discomfort. In the very few experiments which could cause significant discomfort and for which the use of anaesthetics is not appropriate, every precaution is taken to minimise distress. All experiments must be approved by Home Office Inspectors, who are doctors and vets with the knowledge and experience to weigh any distress involved in an experiment against the potential benefit for science and for humanity. The fact is animal testing does more for us in the field of medication than most people realize, some are blinded by lies,stupidity,myths, and influences into believing that animal testing is rooms of monkeys and puppies waiting to be worked on by doctor Frankenstein, or cages of innocent mice being slaughtered daily for useless tests. The facts are the tests are relevant,perfectly moral and necessary, and it has,is and will save lives, we are the dominate species because of our brains, lets use them.