Julie Knopp
Hidden out of sight from the general population, animal experimentation takes the lives of millions of animals each year—but you can help to end this cruelty.
Teddy the beagle is one of 65,000 dogs used in animal testing each year. Trapped in a horrific cycle of experimentation, Teddy lived behind bars in a barren cage. He suffered daily exposure to harmful pesticides for safety testing. Teddy never had the opportunity to play with other dogs or roll around in the grass on a sunny day.
Fortunately for Teddy, an undercover investigation led to his release and changed his life forever. Today, Teddy lives with a loving family where he can enjoy walks, toys, and companionship. Sadly, millions of dogs and other animals remain trapped in this cruel industry.
What Is Animal Testing?
Animal testing is the process of experimenting on live, non-human animals to assess the effectiveness or safety of cosmetics, household products, or medicines. These experiments often cause tremendous suffering for innocent subjects. Most animals used for testing are killed after the experiment is complete.
When Did Animal Testing Start?
The first known accounts of animal testing can be found in Ancient Greek writings, dating back to 500 BCE. Famous thinkers including Aristotle dissected live animals to learn about human biological functions.
In the twelfth century, Arab physician Ibn Zuhr became the first known individual to have performed experimental surgeries on animals prior to performing the operation on humans.
Which Animals Are Used For Testing?
Many different kinds of animals are used in animal testing, including mice, rats, birds, dogs, cats, farmed animals, fish, and non-human primates.
Invertebrates
Invertebrates are animals that do not have a backbone, such as insects. Many researchers find invertebrates to be advantageous test subjects for several reasons. First, there are few welfare regulations that protect invertebrates from harm, so researchers can save time spent on compliance efforts and paperwork by opting for invertebrate subjects. Since individual enclosures are not required for invertebrate testing, researchers can also maximize space and reduce costs by choosing invertebrates for testing. For example, because female fruit flies can produce up to 100 eggs per day, and their offspring only live for two weeks, fruit flies are a common choice for genetics research. However, for more complex pharmaceutical testing, the simpler anatomical and biological makeup of invertebrates can yield unreliable results.
Vertebrates
Vertebrates are animals that have a backbone, such as mammals, birds, and reptiles. Scientists typically use vertebrates—rather than invertebrates—for testing drugs prior to human use. Vertebrates tend to be more biologically similar to humans than invertebrates, which can lead to more accurate results from animal testing.
Some vertebrates subjected to testing, like cats and dogs, benefit from certain minimal protections under the Animal Welfare Act. Other animals, such as rats and mice—the most commonly used animals for experimentation—are excluded from this legislation and have essentially no legal protections to mitigate their suffering.
What Kinds Of Institutions Use Animals In Experiments?
Many kinds of institutions perform painful experiments on animals, from major cosmetic and drug companies to colleges and universities.
Experiments On Animals At Colleges And Universities
Almost all research universities in the US use animals for medical and pharmaceutical testing. Animals are also used for experiments in many other subject areas, including veterinary medicine and psychology.
Animal Testing In Cosmetics
Testing cosmetics, such as make-up, moisturizer, and hair care products, is not required by law in the US. The choice to test products on animals is left up to the company. Some of these companies continue to subject rabbits, guinea pigs, or rats to torturous and needless testing of cosmetics. These experiments include skin and eye irritation, force feedings of certain chemicals, and even "lethal dose" tests, in which experimenters force animals to consume large quantities of chemicals to determine the amount that causes death.
Animal testing at chemical, pesticide and drug companies
Requirements from the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other government bodies require that pharmaceuticals and pesticides undergo animal testing before being approved to circulate among the general public. This means that many pesticide and drug companies repeatedly poison animals to the point of death in order to determine safe chemical levels for human use.
Animal testing at hospitals
Public and private research facilities, Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities, and other medical centers are known to use animals for medical experimentation.
What Are Laboratories Like?
Animal testing laboratories are typically sterile, indoor areas, lined with barren cages. These facilities lack the proper environment for most animals to lead healthy lives.
What Is Life Like For Animals In Laboratories?
Most animal testing victims spend their lives behind bars or glass. The animals often live alone in small enclosures, although some smaller animals, like rats and mice, may live together. Animal test subjects have few, if any, sources of comfort and enrichment, such as bedding or toys. These animals are typically taken out of their cages only for excruciating experimental procedures, which can create tremendous anxiety for many animals. These innocent victims often have to watch or hear other animals suffer alongside them—in some cases, even their own families. This constant stress can lead to self-mutilation, pacing, and other indicators of extreme distress.
What's Wrong With Animal Testing?
Animal testing brutalizes millions of animals each year. These terrifying experiments subject innocent beings to the cruelest forms of physical and psychological torture.
Pain And Suffering
The experiments animals suffer through are tragic and terrifying. For instance:
- Researchers separate baby primates from their mothers to study the impact of severe stress on human young
- Scientists frequently force-feed potentially harmful chemicals to mice over the course of years to determine if the substance could cause cancer to humans
- Researchers place rats in small tubes and regularly expose them to cigarette smoke for a period of several hours to see how cigarette smoke affects humans
Even when these animals are not directly suffering from torturous experiments, they are typically isolated in stressful environments and denied almost everything necessary for a healthy and happy life.
Euthanasia
Most test animals are killed by euthanasia after the completion of an experiment so that scientists can examine the impact a product had on their tissues and organs. In other cases, researchers might subject an animal to many consecutive experiments before killing them. In some tests, the animals will die as a result of the experiment. For instance, in "lethal dose" tests, the intention is to determine the quantity of a given substance or product that will lead to death. Fourteen states have begun to pass laws requiring dogs and cats used for research to be given up for adoption once the course of an experiment is complete. These laws are helpful to a precious few animals, but overall, only a tiny fraction of these victims will ever experience life outside of a laboratory.
Are Tests On Animals Legal?
Yes. In the United States, it is legal to experiment on animals. The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) sets minimum standards of care for animals used as test subjects. However, the AWA does not apply to 95% of animals used in experiments, such as rats, mice, birds, reptiles, and fish.
Why Are Animals Still Used In Experiments?
Sadly, government entities like the EPA and FDA require certain products to be tested on animals for evaluation and approval. For instance, the EPA requires that pesticide companies forcibly feed new products to dogs on a daily basis for three months before the products become publicly available. These rules restrict corporations from considering any new and potentially more effective evaluation technology. Instead, pesticide companies are obligated to subject dogs to needless suffering in order to circulate a new product.
Why Should Animal Testing Be Banned?
Animal testing is not only ethically wrong—it's also surprisingly ineffective. For instance, drugs approved through animal testing later fail in human trials more than 95% of the time. The majority of experimental pharmaceuticals prove too dangerous or ineffective when they enter the human trial phase.
According to Dr. Elias Zerhouni, the former U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director, "The problem is that [animal testing] hasn't worked... We need to refocus and adapt new methodologies for use in humans to understand disease biology in humans."
Nonhuman animal subjects cannot reliably yield results reflective of the human response. In fact, animal testing can even be harmful to humans by producing deceptive data about product safety and effectiveness. Cutting-edge technologies are beginning to provide excellent alternatives that can end animal experimentation.
Statistics And Facts About Animal Testing
Millions of sentient individuals suffer excruciating experiments and lonely deaths each year due to animal testing. Many of these tests fail to yield beneficial results for humans.
What Percentage Of Animal Tests Fail?
More than 95% of drugs tested on animals eventually fail when advanced to human trials. This means the vast majority of animals used for testing—at least in medical research—suffered and died in vain.
How Many Animals Are Used In Experiments Each Year?
Estimates suggest that more than 50 million animals are used for experiments each year in the United States alone. The vast majority of these animals are rats and mice.
How Many Animals Die From Animal Testing Every Year?
Worldwide, some calculations suggest that more than 100 million animals, including cats, dogs, rabbits, primates, and mice, die each year from testing and experimentation.
How To Stop Animal Testing
Consumers and legislators are beginning to make change for animals trapped in laboratories. By increasing demand for cruelty-free products and increasing legal protections, animal testing victims may enjoy a brighter future ahead.
Alternatives To Animal Testing
Scientists are making remarkable progress in developing more effective and compassionate alternatives to animal testing. These options offer hope for tens of thousands of research subjects currently trapped in cages.
In Vitro Testing
Tests on human cells and tissues outside of a living organism, often known as in vitro testing, can yield fast and affordable results. Some studies suggest in vitro testing is also a highly effective option when compared to animal experimentation.
Bioprinting
Bioprinting can utilize computer models to produce lab-grown tissue, including bones, hearts and skin. This 3D printing technology, combined with the conditions to foster regenerative cell growth, can create organs that can imitate the behaviors found in the human body.
Human Tissues
Another option for experimentation is the utilization of donated human tissues following biopsies, transplants, cosmetic surgeries, or deaths, for use in clinical trials. This tissue more closely reflects human biology than the bodies of mice, rats, and other animals.
Research Using Human Volunteers
Research using human volunteers poses serious equity concerns, but holds promise for highly reliable results. Modern medicine has a troubling history of taking advantage of marginalized communities for harmful medical research (that does not benefit the testing subjects of their community). However, it's possible that human testing with less invasive, nontoxic products could offer financial benefits to subjects with few serious risks.
Your Role in a Cruelty-Free Future
Hidden out of sight from the general population, animal experimentation takes the lives of millions of animals each year—but you can help to end this cruelty. You play a critical role with every dollar you spend. Whether you're buying soap, shampoo, makeup or household cleaner, look closely and make sure you're choosing products that have not been tested on animals. Some well-known brands that are cruelty free include Aveda, E.L.F., and Tom's of Maine, among hundreds of others. Your choices can support the momentum towards a world free from needless animal suffering. By leveraging the power of consumer choice, legislative action, and technological advances, a future without animal testing is possible.
If you care about animals, you can join the movement to create a more compassionate future for all species—a future where no animal has to suffer within the confines of a cage. Check out our Fast Action Network for quick easy actions you can take to make an impact for animals everywhere, every day.
