By: Amanda Bader-Writing Coordinator, Christyn

Slavkovsky-Group Leader, Julie Kapit-Researcher, and Jamie Rapka-Web

Designer

Key Points

Several million live animal experiments were done in Great Britain in 2002.

Around the world animal testing is used on items such as shampoo and new cancer drugs.

Almost every medical treatment you receive has been tested on animals.

In the Animal Acts of 1986, the United Kingdom states that if there is an alternative, it should be used.

Does It Even Work? Yes- animal testing has developed vaccines for

diseases like rabies, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, and TB.

No-animal experiments can be misleading, an animal’s reaction to a drug can be different from a human’s.

Yes-Antibiotics, HIV drugs, insulin, and cancer treatments has to be first tested on animals.

No-There are successful alternatives which includes:test tubes studies on human tissue cultures, statistics, and computer models.

Yes-Many scientists claim that there aren’t any differences between lab animals and humans, and humans can’t be used for tests.

No-The stress that animals take in, in labs can affect experiments, making the results useless.

Alternatives

There are three R’s : replacement, reduction, and refinement. Replacement: use other methods such as testing on cell

cultures Reduction:use statistics to reduce the number of animals used

for each experimen t Refinement:improve the experiment and in the process reduce

animal suffering