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The Use of Animals in Research

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The Use of Animals in Research

The debate about experimental animal use in research aim to prove weather their usage is a pseudoscience or not. Animals have been used widely in scientific research since the 500 BC. However, the use of experimental animals for research has been a controversial issue and subject of ethical debates. The growing body of animal advocates believes that experimental animal use in research is not necessary for reasons of wasting resources. Industries such as pharmaceutical research companies and cosmetics manufacturers use animals such as rats, rabbits and pigs to test their products. With such usage, the society has persistently called upon the concerned scientific community to find an alternative of experimental animal use especially in the business industries. Despite the fact that animal advocates who stage campaigns against the use of animals in research consider it unethical, pure research scientists have not demonstrated the economic and academic benefits of using these animals where Pound et al., (2004) argue that there is no evidence to show that the use of animals in research has direct human benefits. The animal use has led to a better scientific understanding of disease and drug processes hence leading to proper formulations and medical breakthroughs. Experimental animals have been successful models of disease and drug studies before clinical trials. The use of experimental animals is the basic science established in the research of cognitive science, biology, and medicine.

Organizations that refute the use of animals for research such as PETA and ASPCA consider these traditional scientific activities out of date and that it is morally wrong to use animals solely for the benefit of human beings. These organizations claim that traditional animal experiments are costly, they are expensive and time-consuming, (Ryder, 2005). In addition, animal advocates argue that pure research scientists have not been accountable for those experiments that have failed and their results having no economic or academic benefits in the society. Even worse, there is evidence indicating that experimental animal results can mislead researchers. Animals may die in the process of experimentation due to toxic drug treatment and such results may confuse. The PETA organization indicate that researchers focus on making the animals sick and later cure them, a process that does not happen in human. The PETA and allied organization also argue that best doctors and scientists are misplaced because they are compensated to work with animals in the laboratory instead of working with real patients in the community. Even though using animals in research is undisputedly intellectually seductive, these experiments have not solved the urgent health problems of this era such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, AIDS and birth defects. However, scientists have a good course in trying to save people rather than willing to kill and mistreat animals but are urged to use the laboratory animals in a more humane way (Powell & Proulx, 2003).

Animals are good research subjects for the following four reasons. First, from the structure of the human body and each organ’s physiological function, animals are considered to be biologically similar to human beings as compared to other organisms (Chow, & Ng, 2008). Human and animals basically have the same organs and have same physiologic rule. For example, the human body, which is like a cat and a dog body, is composed of numerous cells and reproduce from a generation to the next generation. Each organ in the human body performs a variety of physiological functions, such as digestion, absorption, assimilation, respiration, blood circulation and excretion and reproductive function among others. The spine and the back of the nervous system is also a shared characteristic in all vertebrate animals. 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 for animal use in medical research is that animals are susceptible to similar health problems with humans. Humans and animals share similar illnesses hence animals have remained preferred 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 pure science research because of their similar disorders with those of humans. Animal research has helped in discovering treatment strategies for 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. Through 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. (Add source please)

Another reason for importance of experimental animals is that these animal’s life cycles are short thus they can be easily studied through their whole lifespan as well as in different generations. Animal experiment in short life cycle is also easy for the scientists to control the environments around the cages such as lighting, diet, and temperature. The same environmental control is not possible when humans are used for pure research, (Paul, 2001). Veterinary research mainly relies on the use of animal research. Their use assists in learning more about animals so that pet owners and farmers can maintain the health of their animals. Animal experiments 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 trial and error and speculations to diagnose illnesses.

The main and most important reason for using animals in research is that it would not be ethical 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 perform on 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 minimize the harm that might be experienced by animals, researchers are supposed to follow some set of principles. This includes 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. Such collaboration and information dissemination prevent repetition of similar experiments. The third principle is refining the care of animals to help in reducing pain and stress. This is done through the use of less invasive techniques and improvement in the medical care of the animals, (McCoy, 1993).

Important to note with experiments utilizing laboratory animals is that 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 reduce the quality of life of animals, there are ethical laws in existence that regulate animal laboratory animal use (Thornton, 2009). For example, in the United States, the Animal Welfare Act of 1966 protects animals including research animals from inhumane handling (Cohen, 2006).

References

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

Cohen, H. (2006), The Animal Welfare Act. Heinonline.

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.

Powell, R.A. and Proulx, G. (2003), Trapping and Marking Terrestrial Mammals for Research: Integrating Ethics, Performance Criteria, Techniques, and Common Sense. ILAR Journal. 44(4): 259-276.

Pound, P., Ebrahim, S., Sandercock, P., and Bracken, M.B., (2004), Where is the evidence that animal research benefits human? BJM 2004;328:524