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Animal Testing
- More than 2.5 million live animal experiments were authorised in Great Britain in 2000. This number has halved since the 1970s
- Around the world, animals are used to test products ranging from shampoo to new cancer drugs
- British law requires that any new drug must be tested on at least two different species of live mammal. One must be a large non-rodent
- UK regulations are considered some of the most rigorous in the world - the Animals Act of 1986 insists that no animal experiments be conducted if there is a realistic alternative
- Almost every medical treatment you use has been tested on animals. Animals were also used to develop anesthetics to prevent human pain and suffering during surgery
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Does animal testing work?
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| Yes |
No |
| Animal testing has helped to develop vaccines against diseases like rabies, polio, measles, mumps, rubella and TB |
Animal experiments can be misleading. An animal's response to a drug can be different to a human's |
| Antibiotics, HIV drugs, insulin and cancer treatments rely on animal tests. Other testing methods aren't advanced enough |
Successful alternatives include test tube studies on human tissue cultures, statistics and computer models |
| Scientists claim there are no differences in lab animals and humans that cannot be factored into tests |
The stress that animals endure in labs can affect experiments, making the results meaningless |
| Operations on animals helped to develop organ transplant and open-heart surgery techniques |
Animals are still used to test items like cleaning products, which benefit mankind less than medicines or surgery |
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Is animal testing morally right?
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| Yes |
No |
| Human life has greater intrinsic value than animal life |
Animals have as much right to life as human beings |
| Legislation protects all lab animals from cruelty or mistreatment |
Strict controls have not prevented researchers from abusing animals - although such instances are rare |
| Millions of animals are killed for food every year - if anything, medical research is a more worthy death |
Deaths through research are absolutely unnecessary and are morally no different from murder |
| Few animals feel any pain as they are killed before they have the chance to suffer |
When locked up they suffer tremendous stress. Can we know they don't feel pain? |
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Numbers of animals used in the UK in 2000
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| Animals |
Number Used |
| Mouse |
1,607,000 |
| Rat |
535,000 |
| Other Rodent |
71,500 |
| Rabbit |
39,700 |
| Carnivore |
11,600 |
| Hoofed mammal |
63,000 |
| Primate |
3,700 |
| Other mammal |
500 |
| Bird |
124,200 |
| Reptile |
15,600 |
| Fish |
243,000 |
| TOTAL |
2,714,800 |
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