What is animal testing?

Animal testing is a scientific experiment or test in which a living animal is forced to undergo
something that may cause it pain, suffering, misery, or lasting harm.

Animal experiments are not the same as taking your pet to the vet. Animals used in
laboratories are intentionally harmed, not for their own good, and are often killed at the end
of the experiment.

Animal testing includes:

 surgically removing an animal's organs or tissues with the intention of intentionally

causing harm
 forcing animals to inhale toxic gases
 Subject animals to frightening situations to create anxiety and depression. Some
experiments require the animal to die as part of the test. For example, regulatory tests for
botox, vaccines, and some chemical safety tests are essentially variations of the brutal Lethal
Dose 50 test, in which 50% of animals die or are killed right before they die.

What species are utilized?

Unexpectedly, a wide variety of animal species, including those from the wild, are frequently
utilized in research.

According to European law governing animal experiments, "animals" are only defined as
some invertebrates, such as octopuses, and vertebrate animals (mammals, birds, fish, and
amphibians). Surprisingly, under US laws governing animal experiments, rats, mice, fish,
amphibians, and birds are not considered to be animals. It follows that no legal consent is
required to experiment on them, and statistics do not include them.

Typically, laboratories or breeding facilities breed the animals used in investigations. This
multi-million dollar industry is brutal. All animals, in our opinion, are equally significant.

Even a dog created specifically for research could have lived a happy life in a nurturing
setting.

Some monkeys are still taken from the wild in Africa, Asia, and South America and kept as
pets or in cages for breeding. Their kids are taken to research centers abroad. While it is
typically against the law in Europe, using wild-caught monkeys in experiments is legal
elsewhere.
Dealers frequently provide horses and other animals, such as cows, lambs, and pigs, from
farms or racing stables for use in animal research. Laws limiting the use of stray companion
animals like dogs and cats vary by country.

Wild animals may be kidnapped and brought into a laboratory setting for more intrusive
research, sometimes in the name of conservation, or they may be employed in trapping and
monitoring operations in the wild.

How do laboratories operate?

Animals have no place in laboratories. Typically, these are sterile, enclosed habitats where the
animals are confined to cages, pens, or Perspex boxes and are deprived of any freedom of
movement and control over their own lives. In laboratories, some animals are segregated
from other animals and kept in isolation.

Contrary to what the animal research community asserts, our investigations consistently
demonstrate that life in a laboratory is not life at all.

Large portions of the animals used in laboratories are provided by specialized vendors.
Vertebrate and invertebrate animal sources are different. Most laboratories produce their own
flies and worms, utilizing strains and mutants that are provided by a small number of major
stock centers.

There is great discussion about how much pain and suffering are caused by animal
experimentation, as well as whether or not animals can feel or understand them.

Regulations mandate that scientists employ the fewest number of animals possible,
particularly for concluding research. However, although politicians perceive animal
euthanasia as a solution to lessen suffering and view it as the primary problem, others, like
the RSPCA, contend that the lives of laboratory animals have inherent value. Regulations
place more emphasis on whether specific practices result in pain and suffering than on
whether a person's death is acceptable in and of itself. The animals are put to death at the
conclusion of studies to collect samples or for post-mortem examination; during studies if
their pain or suffering falls into certain categories deemed unacceptable, such as depression,
an infection that is resistant to treatment, or the failure of large animals to eat for five days; or
when they are unsuitable for breeding.
 Laboratory animals are put to death using techniques that provide quick unconsciousness and
death without pain or anguish. The procedures that are preferred are those that have been
published by veterinary councils. With or without prior sedation or anaesthesia, the animal
can inhale a gas—such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide—by being placed in a
chamber or by wearing a face mask. Barbiturates, as well as other sedatives or anaesthetics,
can be administered intravenously. Inhalant anaesthetics are another option. Fish and
amphibians may be submerged in water that contains an anaesthetic like tricaine. There are
various physical techniques, some of which may involve sedation or anaesthesia.
Decapitation (beheading) is a suggested technique for tiny rodents or rabbits.

Birds, mice, rats, and rabbits may all undergo cervical dislocation (breaking the neck or
spine). Although only currently utilized on mice, high-intensity microwave irradiation of the
brain can preserve brain tissue and cause death in less than 1 second. On dogs, ruminants,
horses, pigs, and rabbits, captive bolts may be applied. It results in cerebral trauma that kills
the victim. Only situations where a piercing captive bolt cannot be employed warrant the use
of a gunshot. Only when the animal has fallen asleep are certain physical techniques
permissible for foxes, mink, sheep, cattle, and other animals that have been rendered
unconscious—often by an earlier electrical stun—electrocution may be utilized. On
previously unconscious animals, pinning (inserting a tool into the base of the brain) is
effective. Only when prior anaesthesia is used to induce unconsciousness are slow or rapid
freezing, as well as the induction of air embolism, allowed.

Since there are other ways to test a product's toxicity and because animal testing violates the
rights of animals and causes pain and suffering in experimental animals, it should be
discontinued. By mercilessly torturing and killing tens of thousands of animals annually for
the sake of conducting research or testing products, humans cannot rationalize improving
their own lot in life. Animals should be handled humanely.

Reference:

1. Wikipedia Contributors, “Animal testing,” Wikipedia, Feb. 18, 2019.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_testing
2. ‌“Save the animals: Stop animal testing |,” Lonestar.edu. [Online]. Available:
https://www.lonestar.edu/stopanimaltesting.htm. [Accessed: 10-Sep-2023