How effective is animal testing?
Because animal tests are so unreliable, they make those human trials all the more risky. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has noted that 95 percent of all drugs that are shown to be safe and effective in animal tests fail in human trials because they don't work or are dangerous.
Over 100 million animals are burned, crippled, poisoned, and abused in US labs every year. 92% of experimental drugs that are safe and effective in animals fail in human clinical trials because they are too dangerous or don't work.
1. More than 90% of basic scientific discoveries, most of which are from experiments on animals, fail to lead to human treatments.
Is Animal Testing Cruel? Due to the combination of low accuracy and high amounts of pain, it is difficult to argue that animal testing is not cruel. Animals such as rats, mice, dogs and chimpanzees are burned, poisoned, crippled, starved or abused in other ways via drugs, confinement or other invasive procedures.
Nine Out of Ten Drugs That Appear Promising in Animal Studies Go on to Fail in Human Clinical Trials. Due to the inherent differences between animals and humans, drugs and procedures that work in animals often end up failing in humans.
As it turns out, the vast majority of animals - 97 percent - are killed at the end of experimentation.
Ninety-five percent of all drugs that are shown to be safe and effective in animal tests fail in human trials. This stat comes straight from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—the government agency that funnels billions of our taxpayer dollars into these reckless experiments.
Animal research has also made people healthier, since it has contributed to virtually eliminating many infectious diseases like polio or rheumatic fever that can be debilitating without causing death.
More than $16 billion of taxpayer money is spent on animal experimentation by the United States government each year. Approximately 10 million animals are dissected in classrooms in the United States each year.
U.S. EPA to eliminate all mammal testing by 2035 | Science | AAAS.
Is animal testing declining?
Around 29 million animals per year are currently used in experiments in the US and European Union countries. (Rats and mice make up around 80% of the total.) This is less than half the total in the mid-1970s – a significant drop, but one that has plateaued in the last decade.
Proponents of animal testing say that it has enabled the development of many life-saving treatments for both humans and animals, that there is no alternative method for researching a complete living organism, and that strict regulations prevent the mistreatment of animals in laboratories.
Most animals are killed at the end of an experiment, but some may be re-used in subsequent experiments. Here is a selection of common animal procedures: Forced chemical exposure in toxicity testing, which can include oral force-feeding, forced inhalation, skin or injection into the abdomen, muscle, etc.
Each year, it is estimated that more than 50 million dogs, cats, monkeys, rabbits, rats and other animals are forced to endure painful experiments in the U.S. Animals are deliberately sickened with toxic chemicals or infected with diseases, live in barren cages and are typically killed when the experiment ends.
Animals are in fact tortured in laboratories. Thousands of captive dogs, cats, mice, guinea pigs, rabbits, and primates suffer as chemicals are fed, injected, applied, or otherwise forced into their bodies to test the safety of makeup, detergents, cleaning agents, and medicines.
Animal testing is unsafe for humans and nonhuman animals, unreliable, inefficient, and outdated. The suffering that animals unwillingly endure in our experiments and tests is unnecessary and cruel.
What happens to the animals once an experiment is over? Animals are typically killed once an experiment is over so that their tissues and organs can be examined, although it is not unusual for animals to be used in multiple experiments over many years.
Testing on animals has saved and improved millions of lives. Animal testing has benefited researchers in understanding how to treat and prevent various conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, muscular dystrophy, and Parkinson's disease.
7.1.
Mice and rats make up approximately 95% of all laboratory animals, with mice the most commonly used animal in biomedical research.
The remaining 6 percent of animals are exposed to painful procedures because to relieve them of the pain would defeat the purpose of the experiment. Even in these cases, however, the pain is usually neither severe nor long-lasting. A small fraction of animals do experience acute or prolonged pain during experiments.
What diseases has animal testing cured?
Virtually everyone alive today has benefited from the medical advances made possible through animal research. Polio, smallpox, diphtheria, cholera and measles are no longer major threats to public health in the United States. Sophisticated diagnostic tests mean early treatment of cancer and heart disease.
Killing for research is Ok when it comes to animals
“Animal testing is a waste of money, time and resources that could have been spent on human relevant research,” said Peta. Peta also says “Reports say that 92 out of every 100 drugs that pass the animal tests fail on humans.”
Alternatives to animal tests are often cheaper, quicker and more effective.
Each year, more than 110 million animals—including mice, rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds—are killed in U.S. laboratories for biology lessons, medical training, curiosity-driven experimentation, and chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics testing.
Until there is a cell that can be studied individually and can exhibit human-like responses, animals are necessary. Legally, all drugs have to be tested on animals for safety before they can be used in humans. Where there are reliable alternatives in scientific research, animals are not used.
We are also working in several U.S. states to pass legislation that would end cosmetics testing on animals. As of December 2022, nine states (California, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey and Virginia) have passed laws banning cosmetics animal testing.
Studies that do not use animals can produce much valuable information, but they cannot completely replace the information gained from animal experiments. Only animals can demonstrate the effects of a disease, injury, treatment, or preventive measure on a complex organism.
Experimenting on animals is always unacceptable because: it causes suffering to animals. the benefits to human beings are not proven. any benefits to human beings that animal testing does provide could be produced in other ways.
Could we mate with other animals today? Probably not. Ethical considerations preclude definitive research on the subject, but it's safe to say that human DNA has become so different from that of other animals that interbreeding would likely be impossible.
There are several reasons why the use of animals is critical for biomedical research: Animals are biologically very similar to humans. In fact, mice share more than 98% DNA with us! Animals are susceptible to many of the same health problems as humans – cancer, diabetes, heart disease, etc.
Which countries use animal testing the most?
| Characteristic | Number of animals in millions |
|---|---|
| United States | 20 |
| China* | 16 |
| Japan* | 11 |
| European Union | 9.4 |
It is likely that animals experience emotions, such as fear, grief and sadness, in a primitive way. This could mean that they suffer less on certain occasions, for example because they may have a shorter memory span and will therefore grieve for a shorter period of time.
Animal testing by manufacturers seeking to market new products may be used to establish product safety. In some cases, after considering available alternatives, companies may determine that animal testing is necessary to assure the safety of a product or ingredient.
It's wasteful.
Animal experiments prolong the suffering of humans waiting for effective cures because the results mislead experimenters and squander precious money, time, and other resources that could be spent on human-relevant research.
Scientific research on animals helps develop antibiotics and other medications, as well as immunizations and surgical procedures. Animals are used in the testing of consumer products such as perfumes and shampoos. Animals are also used to educate students in biology, medicine, and related fields.
Virtually everyone alive today has benefited from the medical advances made possible through animal research. Polio, smallpox, diphtheria, cholera and measles are no longer major threats to public health in the United States. Sophisticated diagnostic tests mean early treatment of cancer and heart disease.
Animals are typically killed once an experiment is over so that their tissues and organs can be examined, although it is not unusual for animals to be used in multiple experiments over many years.
A small fraction of animals do experience acute or prolonged pain during experiments. But the researchers who conduct these experiments and the institutional committees that oversee them believe that this pain is justified by the magnitude of the problem the experiments are designed to solve.
Animals are good research subjects for a variety of reasons. They are biologically similar to humans and susceptible to many of the same health problems. Also, they have short life-cycles so they can easily be studied throughout their whole life-span or across several generations.
Research in cows helped create the world's first vaccine, which in turn helped end smallpox. Studies with monkeys, dogs, and mice led to the polio vaccine. Drugs used to combat cancer, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer's, hepatitis, and malaria would not have been possible without research with primates.
Is PETA against animal testing?
With the help of our members and supporters, PETA works globally to expose and end the use of animals in experiments.
Patient animals that were involved in experiments, for example to systematically test the effectiveness of new treatment methods, are of course returned to their owners. Wild animals are usually released back into the wild after studies that are considered animal experiments.