Animals have been used for testing since 500 BC. Animals are used to help develop medical treatments, but are the flaws in medical research wasting their lives? According to ProCon.org, "A 2009 peer-reviewed study found serious flaws in the majority of publicly founded U.S and UK animal studies using rodents and primates." Further research then stated that ninety percent on animals used in U.S labs are not counted in the official statistics of animals tested.
The California Biomedical Research Association states that nearly every medical breakthrough within the last one hundred years has resulted from research using animals. For example, the Polio Vaccine was tested on animals. In result, the numbers of cases dramatically decreased from 1988 to 2012. "Also, dogs having their pancreases removed led to the discovery of insulin," (ProCon.org). This discovery has saved the lives of many diabetics. At this point there is not an alternative to testing on a living, whole-body system.Although some researchers claim that "vitro (in glass) testing, such as studying cell cultures in a petri dish, can produce more relevant results than animal testing because human cells can be used." (ProCon.org)
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According to Humane Society International, "animals used in experiments are commonly subjected to force feeding, forced inhalation, food and water deprivation, prolonged periods of physical restraint, the infliction of burns and other wounds to study the healing process, the infliction of pain to study its effects and remedies, and killing by carbon dioxide asphyxiation, neck-breaking, decapitation, or other means." In result of these cruel experiments, "over one hundred million animals are burned, crippled, poisoned, and abused in US labs every year"