• Question: do you agree with animal testing? why? :)

    Asked by lilmissclo to Pete, Rebecca, SallyB, Sally, Sian on 15 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by daniellej, nilima, meg97, sooz3, emonkeyj, hira, anonymous1, madsabzox.
    • Photo: Peter Styring

      Peter Styring answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      That is a really difficult question. Without animal testing, human life would not be as we know it today. If you think of childhood diseases such as diabetes or leukemia we wouldn’t be able to treat them because you can’t just use the drugs before you know how they are going to behave. People have tried to develop computer models but they just don’t work. That said, some of the animal experiments are so far from the human system that you do work about their value. I have never tested on animals because I just don’t do that sort of research.

    • Photo: Sian Lawson

      Sian Lawson answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Tough question. I deliberately chose a field that didn’t involve animal testing for myself but I have been overwhelmed by the concern that people that do do animal testing have for the welfare of their animals. The (University based) scientists that do animal testing don’t get paid any more for it, and in some cases they put their lives at risk to do it, just because they believe it is for the greater good.

      In Industry there is money to be made so the ethics may not be as clear cut.

    • Photo: Sally Fenton

      Sally Fenton answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      I agree with it if it is helping to cure people of cancer or develop new drugs for medical purposes to make really ill people better…because it is a means to an end. For example…if there is a new drug which might be able to save someones life…but we also don’t know if it might harm them or have horrible side effects…then I think that testing it out on an animal first it better than testing it on the human! But I don’t agree with it for cosmetic purposes to make things like make up.

    • Photo: Sally Barber

      Sally Barber answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      This is a really tricky question to answer. I don’t actually know that much about animal testing so I’ve just done a quick search on the internet and found a great website;

      http://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk

      If I had to make a decision about whether to use animals or not in my own research I would want to find out alot more about the pros and cons before I made that decision. Thankfully, I don’t think I will ever have to make that decision. I’ll stick to carrying out experiements with willing human participants.

    • Photo: Rebecca Randell

      Rebecca Randell answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Good question…..

      I think animal testing is very misunderstood. Animal testing involves animals that are bred especially for the purposes of research and in most cases the animals are not harmed. I don’t fully agree with animal testing as i feel that everyone (human and animal) has the right to live a happy and normal life.

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