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The Use of Animals in Research

Is it Animal experiment really a pseudoscience? Animals have been used widely in scientific research since at least 500 BC. However, the use of animals for research has been a controversial issue and subject of debate. Animal protectors believe it is not necessary to do the animal experiments and it is just wasting time and money. In society, as more industries such as pharmaceutical research companies and cosmetics manufacturers test products on animals such as rats, rabbits and pigs, the more calls on stopping the experiment on animals. Despite the fact that animal protectors against to use animals in research and considered it unethical, animal should be used in research because it has led to a better scientific understanding and medical breakthroughs to make less diseases for human in the world. The use of animals is quite established in the research of cognitive science, biology, and medicine.

Those who refute the use of animals for research such as PETA and ASPCA consider it morally wrong to use animals solely for the benefit of human beings. They claim that traditional animal experiment is expensive, and time-consuming. They also considered unethical for the killing of the animals that have been used for the experiment (Ryder, 2005). In addition, a lot of experimental drugs failed now. Even worse, the research can mislead researchers themselves, and sometimes contribute to illnesses or deaths by wrong predicting the toxic effects of drugs. PETA stands that the researchers are so ingrained to cure animals but not human, and most our best people are working on lab animals but not people. Animal protectors believe that even though using animal in research is sometimes intellectually seductive, they are still poorly solving the urgent health problems of our era, such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, AIDS and birth defects. However, are the researchers completely without emotions? Are they willing to kill animals every day? Of course not . They do research in order to save more people from disease.

Animals are good research subjects for four reasons. First, from the structure of the human body and each organ physiological function, animals are considered to be biologically similar to human beings compared to other organisms. That is why some of the health problems and diseases can only be studied in a living organism (Chow, & Ng, 2008). Human and animals basically all follow the same rule. For example, the human body, which is like a cat and a dog body, is composed of numerous cells, therefore to reproduce from a generation to the next generation. The each organ in human body performs a variety of physiological functions, such as digestion, absorption, assimilation, respiration, blood circulation and excretion and reproductive function, etc. The spine and the back of the nervous system is also all vertebrates shared characteristics. In additional, human has hair on body, using the lungs to breathe, and has a constant body temperature. These constructs are like pigs, cattle, and rabbit. Through studying animals, it has become possible to get information that could otherwise not be obtained in another way.

Another reason is that animals are susceptible to similar health problems with humans. Humans and animals share similar illnesses hence animals can be used as models for studying these diseases. For instance, rabbits suffer from atherosclerosis; dogs suffer from diabetes, cancer, and hemophilia (Chow, & Ng, 2008). This makes animals natural candidates for the research of these similar disorders. Animal research has helped in diseases such as heart diseases. Heart conditions are a number one killer of women, men and children. However, the death rates due to heart conditions are declining due to the advancements made in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention through animal research. There have been numerous studies on basic mechanisms of heart diseases using pigs, dogs, rabbits, rats and cats (Chow, & Ng, 2008). Studies with dogs made a huge contribution to the basic understanding of how heart diseases can be managed. Techniques for diagnosing the working heart such as cardiac catheters, electrocardiography, and coronary blood flow measurement have been developed through using dogs for research. Surgical techniques such as heart transplants, angioplasty, and cardiac bypass were also discovered with the use of animal research. Medical researchers have to understand the different health problems before finding a way to treat them. By learning more about living organism, scientists can understand the illnesses that affect human beings and other animals.

Animal research also helped in dealing with bacterial infections. Bacterial infections were once disabling and deadly, but today most are readily treated using antibiotics. The effectiveness of antibiotics for the treatment of bacterial infections was established through the research carried out using mice and other rodents.

Another reason is that the animal’s life cycles are short thus they can be easily studied through their whole lifespan and in different generations. Animal experiment in short life cycle is also easy for the scientists to control the environments around the animals such as lighting, diet, and temperature. Scientists would be difficult to control the environment if human beings were used instead (Paul, 2001). Veterinary research mainly relies on the use of animal research. The use of animals in research helps in learning more about animals so that pet owners and farmers can keep these animals healthy. Animal experiment also leads to the production of more food and hence meets the demands of the ever -growing population. Animal researchers can study the behavior of animals and help farmers come up with barns that are comfortable for animals leading to an improvement in their overall health. The use of animals in research enables farmers to provide accurate health solutions to the animals hence avoiding the use of guesswork and speculations to diagnose illnesses.

The main and most important reason for using animals in research is that it would not be right for human beings to be deliberately exposed to health risks so that the course of a disease can be observed (Grosvenor, 2007).The use of animals in research helps in protecting the safety of humans, animals, and the environment. Scientists can discover new medical procedures or drugs with the use of alternative research methods without using animals. When a new drug is developed, the society views it as unethical to use this new invention on human beings due to the possibility of causing harm as opposed to good. Therefore, animals are useful in medical research when the medical procedures are unethical and impractical to use human beings. Instead, the new invention is tested on animals to ensure its safety and effectiveness. Animal studies have to be done first so that medical researchers get a better idea of the complications and benefits that are likely to be seen in human beings. So the results of animal research can be related to other animals, particularly human beings (Ryder, 2005).

To help minimize the harm that might be experienced by animals, researchers are supposed to follow some set of principles. These include replacing experimental animals when possible with alternative techniques like computer modeling, cell culture and human volunteers instead of using animals. The other principle is the reduction of the number of animals that are used for an improvement in experimental techniques and information sharing with other researchers. This will assist in preventing similar experiments from being redone by many people. The third principle is refining the care of animals to help in reducing pain and stress. This can be through the use of less invasive techniques and improvement in the medical care of the animals (McCoy, 1993).

We have to understand that the removal of animals from the labs would cause a major impediment to the understanding of diseases, and consequently hinder new and vital treatment from being developed. Even though these studies at times lead to a reduction in the quality of life of animals, there are regulations in place to make sure that the research is conducted in a humane way. Due to the potential risks involved in animal research, the animals are protected by law (Thornton, 2009). There are still a lot benefits of using animals in research, so we need to continue with the practice.

References

Chow, P., & Ng, R. (2008). Using animal models in biomedical research a primer for the investigator. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific.

Grosvenor, P. (2007). Why Animal Experimentation Matters: The Use of Animals in Medical Research (review). Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 465-468.

McCoy, J. (1993). Animals in research: Issues and conflicts. New York: F. Watts.

Paul, E. (2001). Why animal experimentation matters: The use of animals in medical research. New Brunswick [N.J.: Social Philosophy and Policy Foundation :.

Ryder, R. (2005). Victims of science: The use of animals in research. London: Davis-Poynter.

Thornton, P. (2009). Laboratory Animal Law (Legal Control of the Use of Animals in Research) - Second edition. Laboratory Animals, 102-102.