Animal
Testing
What Happens In The Laboratory?
Animals are used in a wide range of research areas:
Medical research to find out about disease and try to discover treatmentsToxicity experiments to test the safety of chemicals and medicinesPsychology research to find out about behaviourOther areas of research including pain, warfare, space and veterinary medicine.
More than half of animal experiments take place in government laboratories and university science and medical departments.
Types of Animals Used
Right now, millions of mice, rats, rabbits, primates, cats, dogs, and other animals are locked inside cold, barren cages in laboratories across the country. They languish in pain, ache with loneliness, and long to roam free and use their minds. Instead, all they can do is sit and wait in fear of the next terrifying and painful procedure that will be performed on them.
Animal research is often conducted on behalf of the species, particularly for pets and farm animals. Such animal research can yield findings that may be useful in the care and management of other animals in the same species. Horse, chickens, and cows are used as laboratory animals, for example, to help the animals feel better and so we can learn more about their behaviour and how to care for them. Animals also need vaccines and drugs to prevent or cure disease. Since many farm animals are used in food production it is important to understand how quickly drugs exit the body, so we can produce food that is safe for human consumption.
Animal Testing In The Lab
Why Rabbits?
Considering my project is purely based upon how rabbits are treated. The New Zealand white rabbits with Pink eyes are commonly used for antibody production and immunology research. Although the New Zealand is slightly larger than an average sized rabbit, they appear less aggressive. Rabbits are also known to suffer from many diseases with human equivalents. Young rabbits often die from a disease called mucoid enteritis, which resembles cystic fibrosis and cholera. Rabbits are therefore used as models which can contribute to our understanding of these illnesses.
Why Monkeys?
The nervous system of primates (both monkeys and humans) is very different from the nervous system of rodents. The most obvious external difference size can actually be a critical limiting factor in some treatments. Moreover, differences in immune function can have drastic effects on the efficacy and safety of treatments. Finally, as this work clearly demonstrates, differences in the organization and function of neural subsystems can hide or reveal crucial information regardingspinal cord injury. Rodent models are still the mainstay of [spinal cord injury] research, but it is of the utmost importance that we also have primate models to allow careful evaluation of treatments before translating those treatments to humans.
WARNING! , some upsetting images!
Looking into Animal Testing is probably the most important research of all to support my final outcome. There are so many different procedures and chemicals animals have to endure whilst living at the lab until they die. Some never experience light, or have never been outside, yet only ever experienced living inside a meshed cage they call home.
Looking through the research made me aware of the sorts of acts that animals have to face whilst under the knife, or forced to have toxic substances pumped through their bodies.
A harsh and cruel world we live in, I believe animals shouldn't be forced to be put through pain, because the likeliness of humans going through this acts to animals is 0- 1,000,000,000 . Animals need to have a voice, and we are their voice. So why are humans performing acts on these beautiful creatures?? how can they physically sleep at night, knowing they have harmed a living creature?
My motivation to do this project were my pets, I have pets of my own and I love them to pieces. I couldn't think of anything more daunting than seeing my pets put through pain and suffering like laboratory animals.
