No 2 Animal Experimentation Three conflicting contemporary views. Using animals to advance scientific knowledge, understand disease, develop new medicines, or test the safety of chemicals is highly controversial. At one extreme people think that there are no moral problems, while at the other, some people justify violence to protect animals. A recent survey found that most young people in the UK were uneasy about animal experiments, or thought that they should be banned.
Animal experimentation is a huge industry.
Each year in the UK scientists use almost 3 million animals. While the majority are rats and mice, one per cent are rabbits and 0.1 per cent are monkeys. Most animals are used to help develop and test drugs for treating human diseases, although about 17,000 animals are used each year in the safety testing of food additives and household cleaning products. The number involved in these tests is falling rapidly. However, in addition to these uses, the Ministry of Defence uses animals in weapons testing, but publishes little information about numbers or species involved.