Of Mice or Men and Life or Death
Testing on animals has been occurring since around 500 BC. However, it is only in the last couple of decades that a new movement against animal research has commenced. This movement aimed at eliminating animal testing and research has been termed the “animal rights” movement. The movement regards animals as equivalent to humans, and has advocated the idea that animal research is cruel, and in some ways, similar to human enslavement. Animal testing has led to the development of a multitude of life-saving treatments not only for humans, but for animals too. Less than one quarter of all biomedical studies involve animals, around ninety percent of which are rats and mice, but such animal studies are crucial and
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Vaccines and treatments for things like rabies, feline leukemia, infectious hepatitis virus, tetanus, canine parvovirus, and more, would not have been possible without animal testing. These vaccines have saved the lives of millions of animals. Animal testing has also developed pacemakers for heart disease in animals, remedies for glaucoma and hip dysplasia, and has even helped save some endangered species from extinction. So, although some people may assume that animal testing is only for human benefit, it is certainly not. Also, another assumption most make is that animals are treated cruelly and unfairly in the labs. There are laws in place to protect animals from mistreatment, though, and the researchers do not have any want or need to hurt the animals. In fact, according to Nature Genetics, "stressed or crowded animals produce unreliable research results, and many phenotypes are only accessible in contented animals in enriched environments, it is in the best interests of the researchers not to cut corners or to neglect welfare issues." One last thing: comparatively few animals are used in research, around twenty-six million a year, as compared to the nine billion chickens and 150 million cattle, pigs, and sheep that people in the U.S. eat each