Animal Testing : Dogs

What is the nature of the experiments on cats and dogs? The animals are used to investigate a host of human afflictions, to see how the body works, and especially in the case of dogs, for drug and product testing. Some have even been employed in military research. Yet if similar treatment were meted out to the family cat or dog there would be outrage.

Despite being favourite companion animals, cats and dogs are forced into battle against some of our most serious ailments - even though there is a wealth of evidence demonstrating that they make hopelessly unreliable 'models' of human beings.

Beagles at War

Dogs are also used for testing non-medical substances. During the 1990s, thousands of beagles have been used to test the safety of agricultural chemicals, industrial substances, food additives and household products. These experiments are carried out by chemical companies and contract research laboratories. Product testing, together with the safety assessment of new drugs, account for most of the experiments (68 per cent) on dogs.

Silent Suffering

Most experiments on dogs are conducted without any anaesthetics. Dogs are most commonly employed for toxicity tests which rarely use any form of pain relief. This is because experiments can last for weeks or months and, in any case, an anaesthetic may interfere with the test substance, so making it even more difficult to make the data relevant to people. Although the findings from safety tests are usually kept secret for commercial reasons, the UK's Centre for Medicines Research has compiled information from industry sources which list symptoms and injuries experienced by dogs during drug trials. These included vomiting, diarrhoea, convulsions, shivering, anorexia and hyper-excitement; plus eye, liver, kidney, heart and lung damage, and of course death.

Dogs in heart research

Dogs are commonly used to investigate the causes and consequences of heart disease. An unconvincing version of the human ailment is introduced by tying off, or otherwise blocking, blood vessels to the dog's heart.

List Of Animals
Animal testing cats	Animal testing cows
Animal testing dogs	Animal testing facts figures
Animal testing frogs	Animal testing rabbits