Animal Rights & Animal Experimentation

Animal Rights & Animal Experimentation

God loved the birds and invented trees. Man loved the birds and invented cages -- Jacques Deval.

Animal rights are the rights that protect animals from abuse and other forms of cruelty. Some of the main areas of concern for animal rights include: using animals for medical and veterinary research and training, testing cosmetics on animals, killing animals for their fur or skin and using animals for entertainment purposes. Animal experimentation is a problem because animals are abused and executed through the acts of vivisection, thousands of drugs with side-effects to humans have not been predicted by animal testing, and the United States government pays billions of dollars a year to companies that perform these procedures.

Vivisection experiments fall into three general categories: animal testing, experimental research and dissection and practice surgery. Animal testing is the attempt to test the toxicity of drugs and other substances on animals. Experimental research on animals is the attempt to study human disease on animals. Dissection and practice surgery are the attempts to teach medical students the human anatomy and surgical techniques through animals. Animals are used by pharmaceutical and chemical companies to test the toxicity of drugs and other substances including cosmetics, household cleaners and pesticides. According to Dr. Arie Brecher, head pediatrician in Holon, Israel, "Animals are completely different from humans, and no animal species can serve as an experimental model for man. Each animal has a genetic code of its own, which is a fixed datum, and characteristically unique in each species. For this reason, a method that is based on the similarity between the species, while there are differences, and different genetic codes, can only lead medical science into error." Strychnine, one of the deadliest poisons to humans, is harmless to monkeys, chickens, and guinea pigs. A dose of belladonna that would kill a person is harmless to rabbits and goats. Sheep can consume enormous quantities of arsenic, which is fatal to humans in small amounts. What we consider poisonous mushrooms are commonly eaten by rabbits. Hemlock is a deadly poison for humans, but is consumed by mice, sheep, goats and horses without any effect. PCP, a drug that drives humans into a frenzy, is used as a sedative for horses. Experimental research on animals is the attempt to recreate human disease in animals in order to study it. Professor Pietro Croce, of the Milan Institute explains, "A disease caused artificially is not the same disease as one born spontaneously." Estimates collected in 2003 from various animal protection and biochemical research groups suggest that twenty to twenty-five million animals are used in testing and training programs in the United States each year. More than a hundred million are used worldwide. Before going on to his surgical career, Lawson Tait was required to first perform "practice surgery" on animals during his surgical training. The result of this, according to Dr. Tait, was that: "I had to unlearn everything I had 'learned' on dogs and start over studying human anatomy. It delayed my progress by twelve years." During my research on practice surgery, I found that countless surgeons before and after Tait have said the same thing. Even the vivisectionist practice surgery manuals used by students admit that surgical techniques used on animals cannot be applied to humans.

Thousands of drugs with side-effects to humans have not been predicted be animal testing. Animal tests do not protect the consumer from the sale of dangerous drugs and substances because it is impossible to predict human reactions in animals. There are countless biological variations between all species of animals. These biological variations exist in terms of anatomy, genetics, physiology, cell makeup, life span and nutritional needs. As a result, all species of animals react uniquely to each and every drug and every substance. The anti arthritis drug Opren was released by Eli Lilly in 1980. According to results of animal tests, Opren was both safe and effective in modifying the disease process of arthritis. The results in human patients were quite different. Although Opren was effective in treating laboratory rats with artificially induced arthritis, it did not reverse the disease process in human patients. By the time Opren was withdrawn in August 1982, there had been at least 3,500 reports of horrible effects, including 61 deaths, primarily through liver damage in elderly patients. There were also many reports of severe skin reactions.In 1982, the antidepressant drug Zelmid was released. Laboratory tests with rats and dogs at five times the human dose showed no signs of toxicity. In human patients the drug caused many reactions, including