The term “animal testing” refers to procedures performed on living animals for purposes of research into basic biology and diseases, assessing the effectiveness of new medicinal products, and testing the human health and/or environmental safety of consumer and industry products such as cosmetics, household cleaners, ...
Animals are deliberately sickened with toxic chemicals or infected with diseases, live in barren cages and are typically killed when the experiment ends. Humans and animals are very different, so outdated animal experiments often produce results that cannot accurately predict human responses.
When a new drug or surgical technique is developed, society deems it unethical to use that drug or technique first in human beings because of the possibility that it would cause harm rather than good. Instead, the drug or technique is tested in animals to make sure that it is safe and effective.
Examples of animal tests include forcing mice and rats to inhale toxic fumes, force-feeding dogs pesticides, and dripping corrosive chemicals into rabbits' sensitive eyes. Even if a product harms animals, it can still be marketed to consumers.
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.
The United States Department of Agriculture : The United States Department of Agriculture, or USDA, is the federal agency responsible for overseeing and inspecting laboratories that experiment on animals, as well as those who breed and sell animals for use in laboratories.
Is animal testing legally required for cosmetics sold in the United States? No. The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, regulated by the FDA, prohibits the sale of mislabeled and "adulterated" cosmetics, but does not require that animal tests be conducted to demonstrate that the cosmetics are safe.
Unfortunately, there's no ban on testing cosmetics or household products on animals in the U.S., so companies that make and sell their products here can choose to conduct tests on animals. Find out more here.
For an unscheduled DNA synthesis, an animal test costs $32,000 USD, whereas a vitro test costs $11,000 USD (3). From these statistics, we see how animal testing costs more than testing for humans. It is absurd to know that a product that is designed for human use costs more in animal testing than human testing.
Ways You Can Help End Animal Testing – and Help Laboratory Animals. Buy Cruelty-Free Household Cleaning Products– Buy ONLY cruelty-free and natural cleaning products with the Leaping Bunny logo. See the companies that DO TEST on animals. Buy only household product companies that DO NOT TEST on animals.
Limitations of Animal Tests
Feb 24, 2019
What happens to animals after the experiment? While some animals may be used again, or sometimes even adopted out, most animals are humanely euthanized. This is usually because certain information, such as organ samples, can only be taken after the animal is euthanized and the body subjected to further analysis.
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.
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.
The harm that is committed against animals should not be minimized because they are not considered to be "human." In conclusion, animal testing should be eliminated because it violates animals' rights, it causes pain and suffering to the experimental animals, and other means of testing product toxicity are available.
These alternatives to animal testing include sophisticated tests using human cells and tissues (also known as in vitro methods), advanced computer-modeling techniques (often referred to as in silico models), and studies with human volunteers.
Only 3 percent of animals survive lab experiments - Haaretz Com - Haaretz.com.
Eventually, we'd start growing actual organs to study diseases and test experimental medicines. This would be a much more humane way for the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, medical and household cleaning industries to test products. And millions of animals would no longer have to suffer experimentation for human gain.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington, D.C., announced today that it will stop conducting or funding studies on mammals by 2035.
Because of the physiological differences between humans and other animals, results from animal tests cannot be accurately extrapolated to humans, leaving us vulnerable to exposure to drugs that can cause serious side effects. Drugs that sicken or kill animals don't always prevent a drug from being marketed.