STUDENT FIGHT BACK

Student Fight Back

2006

Most of people tend to think of laboratory animals in terms of cancer research and the cure of disease , major areas of activity that are clearly of enormous significance in potentially bettering all of life human and animal . As a result , many people are not too terribly concerned with the "plight " of laboratory animals and tend to see whatever suffering they do undergo as major contributions to the common good .Indeed , scientists tend to perpetuate this image of the use of research animals and , where referring to

the killing of laboratory animals , even in scientific s , tend to speak of "sacrificing " the animal . It is revelatory for most people that most laboratory animals are in fact employed in far less noble pursuits , although no clear statistics are available to document this in any detailed way .Such activities include the toxicity and irritation testing of various consumer products , such as foodstuffs and cosmetics , teaching extraction of products , and the development of drugs . Thus , when speaking of the question of "research on laboratory animals " we must take great care to realize the variegated activities subsumed under that rubric . We must take care to distinguish a number of distinct activities . For convenience , we may group them into the following categories , recognizing that they represent gross oversimplifications (1 ) basic biological research , that is , the formulation and testing of hypotheses about fundamental theoretical questions (2 ) applied basic biomedical research - the formulation and testing of hypotheses about diseases , dysfunctions , genetic defects , etc (3 ) the development of drugs and therapeutic chemicals and biologicals (4 ) the testing of various consumer goods for safety , toxicity , irritation , and degree of toxicity (5 ) use of animals in educational institutions and elsewhere for demonstration , dissection , surgery practice , etc (6 ) the use of animals for the extraction of products - serum from horses , musk from civet cats , etc

The first opposition to use of animals in research dates back to the late nineteenth century with the beginnings of the antivivisection societies . However , the opposition in recent years has emerged as animal activists and antivivisectionists object to causing animals pain and suffering in experiments that they believe have questionable benefit Biomedical research scientists must now justify what they are doing and the expected benefits from animal research since animal activist opponents , basing their beliefs more on philosophical than scientific reasoning , have attempted to influenced public opinion against their work . The trial in and conviction of Dr . Edward Taub in the US in 1981 alarmed his colleagues in the biomedical community and alerted members of Congress that things were not as they should be in the nation 's laboratories . Since 1981 , the Silver Spring monkey case has triggered increasing opposition to the use of animals in research from many animal rights and animal welfare organizations . Animal activists antivivisectionists , and some scientists are now less willing to accept reassuring statements from scientists that all is well in animal research activities . Practically , the opposition to animal research is based on concerns of whether some...