First of all, the ARDF is not the slightest bit interested in more humane treatment of laboratory animals. The group flatly opposes all use of laboratory animals in medical research no exceptions. 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 undertaken 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 all relied upon animal research. But imagine that something goes wrong during a procedure led by a computer-trained surgeon. The ARDF advocates testing AIDS vaccines in vitro test tubes and petri dishes, that is. No AIDS treatment to date has been developed without animal testing.