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There is a story which tells how some visitors once wished to meet Heracleitus, and when they entered and saw him in the kitchen, warming himself at the stove, they hesitated ; but Heracleitus said, " Come in ; don't be afraid ; there are gods even here." In like manner, ve ought not to hesi- tate nor to be abashed, but boldly to enter upon our researches concerning animals of every sort and Idnd, knoAving that in not one of them is Nature or Beauty lacking. I add " Beauty," because in the works of Nature purpose and not accident is predominant ; and the purpose or end for the sake of which those works have been constructed or formed has its place among what is beautiful. If, however, there is anyone who holds that the study of the animals is an unworthy pursuit, he ought to go further and hold the same opinion about the study of himself, for it is not possible without considerable disgust to look upon the blood, flesh, bones, blood-vessels, and suchlike parts of which the human body is constructed. In the same way, when the discussion turns upon any one of the parts or structures, we must not suppose that the lecturer is speaking of the material of them in itself and for its own sake ; he is speaking of the whole conformation. Just as in discussing a house, it is the whole figure and form of the house which concerns us, not merely the bricks and mortar and timber ; so in Natural science, it is the composite thing, the thing as a whole, which primarily concerns us, not the materials of it, which are not found apart from the thing itself whose materials they are." ...
try to visit Alexandria. 221
But if you cannot, it is still possible to see something of human
bones. I, at least, have done so often on the breaking open of a
grave or tomb. Thus once a river, inundating a recent hastily
made grave, broke it up, washing away the body.
If you have not the luck to see anything of this sort, dissect
an ape^^ and, having removed the flesh, observe each bone
with care. Choose those apes likest man, with short jaws
and small canines ...
Forced chemical exposure in toxicity testing, which can include oral force-feeding, forced inhalation, skin or injection into the abdomen, muscle, etc.Exposure to drugs, chemicals or infectious disease at levels that cause illness, pain and distress, or death
Genetic manipulation, e.g., addition or “knocking out” of one or more genes
Ear-notching and tail-clipping for identification
Short periods of physical restraint for observation or examination
Prolonged periods of physical restraint
Food and water deprivation
Surgical procedures followed by recovery
Infliction of wounds, burns and other injuries to study healing
Infliction of pain to study its physiology and treatment
Behavioural experiments designed to cause distress, e.g., electric shock or forced swimming
Other manipulations to create “animal models” of human diseases ranging from cancer to stroke to depression
Killing by carbon dioxide asphyxiation, neck-breaking, decapitation, or other means ...
Although traditional LD50 tests for acute toxicity testing may have been replaced with alternative methods, many of those methods still involve the lethal use of animals, even though the number of animals used is reduced. For example with acute toxicity testing, the “Up and Down Procedure” may be used, in which a small number of animals are dosed one at a time and the dosage of consecutive animals is increased or decreased based on the survival of the previous animal. While a smaller number of animals are used in this test compared to the traditional LD50 test, the animals still experience immense pain (along with convulsions, seizures, and loss of motor skills) and eventual death. For chronic toxicity testing, also called repeated dose toxicity, animals are still heavily used in testing and evaluating the long-term effects of toxins, particularly on various organ systems, through oral, dermal, and inhalation repeated dose studies. These studies last between 28 to 90 days and often involve rodents, although dogs may be used as well. At the end of the study, the animals are killed so researchers can look for signs of organ or body system damage. ...
The Draize test measures the eye irritancy of chemicals and other products by dropping concentrated amounts of a test substance into an animal’s eye (often albino rabbits, who are docile and inexpensive) and then assessing the eye’s reactions using a subjective numeral score to indicate the level of eye damage and injury—i.e. degree of swelling, redness, ulcerations, etc.. In addition to redness and ulcers, rabbits also experience bleeding and blindness in these experiments. In most instances, the conscious animals are immobilized in full body restraint stocks and remain unanaesthetized for up to 14 days for evaluation. Interpretation of the Draize test is based on the experimenter’s subjective appraisal of eye damage and results can vary significantly between different testing laboratories.
Tests for skin irritation (level of damage caused to the skin by a substance) and corrosivity (potential of a substance to cause irreversible damage to the skin) are typically conducted on rabbits using the classic Draize skin test, the lesser-known cousin of its ocular counterpart.The test is done by placing a chemical or chemical mixture on an area where the animal’s skin has been shaved; the skin may be prepared by removing layers of skin to cause abrasions. These tests cause severe pain to the animal and can result in ulcers, bleeding, bloody scabs, and discoloration of the skin.
Mutagenicity and carcinogenicity tests examine potential genetic effects from pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, and consumer products, classifying the chemicals for cell mutations and carcinogens. Rats and mice are commonly used in these studies and killed afterward for examination.
In order to determine how a toxic substance will affect the body, a series of tests on the drug’s absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) are carried out. These studies often involve rats and mice, who are given the substance through means of intravenous injection, inhalation, topical application to the skin, or forced feeding.
Some chemicals and drugs are essentially nontoxic but become hazardous once ingested and metabolized by the body. For this reason, information from in vitro systems utilizing human cell lines, genetically engineered human cells, and subcellular components, as well as several computer-based systems (METEOR, Hazard Expert, Metabol Expert, COMPACT), are being utilized to detect metabolism-mediated toxicity.
This test is designed to identify potential bacterial contamination of injectable products, implants, medical devices, dialysis machines, cellular therapies, recombinant proteins and IV products. For over seventy years rabbits have been used in pyrogen testing and injected with test materials to check for reactions to contamination; subsequently millions of rabbits died.
Embryotoxicity involves the toxic effects of a substance on the development of an embryo. In these studies, pregnant animals (rats, mice, rabbits, and sometimes amphibians) are killed just prior to delivery and the fetuses are examined for any sign of toxic effects by the test substance.
This represents a class of chemicals believed to have potentially toxic effects on human and wildlife reproductive systems. In response to these concerns, the EPA introduced the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program to screen pesticides and environmental contaminants for their potential to affect the endocrine systems of humans and wildlife.
Utilized to determine the negative effects of chemicals entering the environment, these tests measure acute toxicity using fish in a 96 hour LC50 (Lethal Concentration 50%) test, and for chronic toxicity over a period of up to 200 days to monitor growth, spawning, hatching, and mortality.
Some tests have already produced tangible results. Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, a start-up company in Boston, tested its experimental dietdrug on some of the Oregon monkeys. After eight weeks, the animals reduced their food intake 40 percent and lost 13 percent of their weight, without apparent heart problems.
In another study, a group of academic researchers is using the monkeys to compare gastric bypass surgery with weight loss from forced dieting. One goal is to try to figure out the hormonal mechanisms by which the surgery can quickly resolve diabetes, so that drugs might one day be developed to have the same effect. To that end, the study will do what cannot be done with people — kill some of the monkeys to examine their brains and pancreases ...
Other experiments have been carried out to discover whether the distress caused by social isolation could be reduced by allowing the animals to see their reflection in a mirror.
Physiological And Biochemical Effects Of Fear And Stress - Animal Research Vivisection:
Electric shocks and other painful stimuli have been widely used to induce fighting behavior, in the study of aggression. In electric shock-induced fighting experiments, animals have been exposed to 60 electric shocks of 2 mA intensity over a 10 minute period. Yet it is known that 0.1 mA can force rats to alter their behaviour so this must be somewhat painful.
Brain Damage - Animal Experiments Psychological Laboratory Animal Testing
There is a vast literature covering the effects of brain damage on the behavior of laboratory animals. In some cases, the effects caused by damaging a specific part of the brain will be observed, but apart from scientific curiosity, it is difficult to understand why such experiments are performed. Brain lesions in human beings occur either accidentally or during therapeutic surgery, but the resulting effects can still be observed clinically. For instance it was found that bilateral removal of the mesial temporal lobes in man resulted in profound amnesia, indicating that the hypothalamus plays an important role in human memory.
Consequently, there is no medical justification for producing brain lesions in healthy animals who in any case may respond quite differently.
Many experiments have been performed to investigate the effect of an enriched environment on recovery from brain damage. It is hardly surprising that brain damaged animals, living in a social and enriched environments fared better than those kept socially isolated, or in boring conditions.
Drugs - Animal Research Psychological And Behavioural Testing
Psychologists also study the effect of drugs on animal behavior and this includes drug addiction and withdrawal. Much of this research is designed to investigate the effects of already known mood changing drugs such as antidepressants, sleeping pills, sedatives, stimulants and tranquillizers despite the fact that more reliable information could surely be obtained by observation of the large number of people actually taking the drugs. For instance this approach has shown that millions of people given minor tranquilizers regularly become drug dependent. ...
In vitro diagnostics refers to a wide range of medical and veterinary laboratory tests that are used to diagnose diseases and monitor the clinical status of patients using samples of blood, cells, or other tissues obtained from a patient. ...
In-vitro tests for the long-term safety evaluation of drugs offer certain advantages. Specific properties of drugs can be identified including mutagenic and carcinogenic effects. The mechanisms leading to toxicity can be assessed. Tissue from several species, including man, can be examined. These tests should reduce the number of animal tests required for screening new drugs. ...
Almost every type of human and animal cell can be grown in the laboratory. Scientists have even managed to coax cells to grow into 3D structures, such as miniature human organs, which can provide a more realistic way to test new therapies. ...
Both healthy and diseased tissues donated from human volunteers can provide a more relevant way of studying human biology and disease than animal testing.
Human tissue can be donated from surgery (e.g. biopsies, cosmetic surgery and transplants). For example, skin and eye models made from reconstituted human skin and other tissues have been developed and are used to replace the cruel rabbit irritation tests.
• Research by Cruelty Free International and the Dr Hadwen Trust suggests that at least 115 million animals may be used in experiments worldwide each year.
• We estimate that the top 10 animal testing countries in the world are the USA, Japan, China, Australia, France, Canada, the UK, Germany, Taiwan and Brazil, in that order.
• Animal experiments are sadly not in decline, and in many parts of the world are on the increase (e.g. China) or remain at the same level as they were in the 1980s or 1990s (e.g. the UK, Europe)
• on rabbits, 3,851 on cats, 11,250 on horses and 22,967 on dogs.
• There were also 8,898 experiments on primates. The use of new world monkeys (marmosets, tamarins) has increased by 8% and the use of old world monkeys (macaques and baboons) increased by 49%.
• Baboons were used in France (149 experiments), Spain (32 experiments) and Germany (2 experiments).
• Austria (10%), Belgium (15%), Bulgaria (27%) and Ireland (40%) reported the highest levels of severe suffering. Testing of botulinum toxin on animals is a significant activity in Austria and Ireland which might account for this as the test is an LD50 test which causes severe suffering and death to at least 50% of the animals in each and every experiment.
UK animal experiments
• According to the latest Government figures (for 2016), a total of 3.9 million experiments were completed in Great Britain during 2016.
• Of these, 1.9 million (49%) related to the creation or breeding of genetically altered animals who were not used in further experiments.
• The remaining 2.0 million (50%) were other experiments on animals.
• Almost 700,000 animals were subjected to experiments that even the researchers considered had caused them moderate or severe suffering.
• Animals used in the UK included mice (1.2 million experiments), rats (238,841 experiments), birds (149,97 experiments), rabbits (15,431 experiments), guinea-pigs (26,186 experiments), monkeys (3,569 experiments), dogs (4,932 experiments), cats (190 experiments), horses (8,948 experiments), sheep (47,904 experiments), pigs (5,358 experiments), and fish (286,600 experiments).
• Of the 2.0 million experiments conducted on animals, 55% (1.1 million experiments) were in the area of basic research – much of it driven by the curiosity of university researchers.
• 49% of experiments were conducted in universities, often using taxpayers’ funds.
• Only 13% of experiments were apparently required by regulators.
• In 2016, 89% of experiments conducted on monkeys used animals who were imported from outside the EU.
• Experiments are still being conducted for toxicological tests where there are valid non-animal alternatives available. This includes:
o skin irritation (252 tests in 2016)
o eye irritation (128 tests in 2016)
o acute lethal toxicity tests (11,530 tests in 2016)
o pyrogenicity (fever) tests (2,472 tests in 2016) on live rabbits ...
originally posted by: LightSpeedDriver
a reply to: paraphi
I disagree. There is no well regulated research and deliberately giving innocent animals terminal diseases only advances 2 things if I look at the progress till now. The needless suffering of animals, and the huge profits to big pharma. The reearch pays for THEIR employees and equipment, that's it. I'm still waiting on that cancer cure! Or the cure for anything else, muscular dystrophy, autism, parkinsons, multiple sclerosis....