But it's a timid and inadequate defense of the use laboratory animals in medical research. The group flatly opposes all use of laboratory animals in medical research. While subjecting rats and mice the vast majority of laboratory animals used in medical research to strict federal regulation does not achieve the ARDF's goal, it represents an incremental step toward making the use of laboratory animals impractical. Animal research may make some uneasy. But it's not done without good reason.
Laboratory animals provide living systems for medical researchers to test out their ideas.
Without laboratory animals, human beings would be the guinea pigs for medical researchers. The development of cardiac catheterization, insulin, blood anticoagulants, open heart surgery, cardiac pacemakers, tranquilizers, modern anesthesia, laproscopic surgery and many other advances would have been impossible without animal research. The ARDF has its own recommendations for medical learning and research. The ARDF wants AIDS vaccines to be tested in vitro in test tubes and petri dishes. No AIDS treatment to date has been developed without animal testing.