There are many alternatives to animal testing for medical purposes, it is just that testing on animals is probably cheaper and people are more comfortable with it when it comes to familiarity. Also, most labs are geared for animal testing and would need to revamp their processes in order to change that.
The problem is that animals are just not people, and many results of testing on them hits that fact home. Yes, there have been some great medical breakthroughs for humans because of animal research, but there have been hundreds of thousands of cases where research on animals has resulted in very deadly situations for humans.
When Glaxo was put on the stand to answer to why thousands had died of heart attacks after taking Vioxx, and didn't they test the product on animals, the response from their research experts went something like this...
'yes, we did animal testing but it is faulty and unreliable'.
And the problem is - it is unreliable.
I am not saying that all those billions of animals suffered and died in vain, because the testing has resulted in making human lives better, but we rely way too heavily on animal testing and put too much stock in the results. We assume way too often that the human responses will be the same as those on animals and people are dying by the tens of thousands because of it. Drug companies are extremely powerful and want people to believe that animal testing is something that just cannot be avoided and is the backbone to solving all medical issues with humans, but then do a turn around as soon as the product produces different results in humans.
All you have to do is watch some of the US TV stations, like FOX, and see all the lawyers who have put money into commercials about the class action lawsuits that they have against drug companies because of the horrendous results that some of those drugs have had on people. There are probably thousands of those lawsuits pending.
Here are some interesting facts on animal testing...
* At least 450 methods exist with which we can replace animal experiments.
* Less than 2% of human illnesses (1.16%) are ever seen in animals. Over 98% never are.
* At least 50 drugs on the market cause cancer in lab animals. They are allowed because it is admitted that animal tests are not relevant.
* When asked if they agreed that animal experimentation can be misleading because of anatomical and physiological differences between animals and humans, 88% of doctors agreed.
* Rats are 37% effective in identifying what causes cancer in humans. Flipping a coin would be more accurate.
* According to animal tests lemon juice is deadly poison, but arsenic, hemlock and botulin are safe.
* 40% of patients suffer side effects as a result of prescription treatment.
* Over 200,000 medicines have been released most of which are now withdrawn. According to the World Health Organisation, 240 medicines are essential.
* Thousands of drugs passed safe in animals have been withdrawn or banned due to their effect on human health.
* Aspirin fails animal tests, as do digitalis (heart drug), cancer treatments, insulin (causes animal birth defects), penicillin and other safe medicines. They would be banned if results from animal experimentation were accurate.
* When the producers of thalidomide were taken to court, they were aquitted after numerous experts agreed animal tests could not be relied on for human medicine.
* Morphine puts humans asleep but excites cats.
* 95% of drugs passed by animal tests are immediately disgarded as useless or dangerous to humans.
* One in six patients in hospital are there because the drug they have taken had been passed safe for us on humans after animal tests.
* Worldwide, at least 22 animals die every second in labs. In the UK one animal dies every five seconds.
* The contraceptive pill causes blood clots in humans but it had the opposite effect in dogs.
* We use aspirin for aches and pains. It causes birth defects in mice, rabbits and rats.
* Researchers refused to believe that benzene could cause cancer in humans because it failed to in animal tests.
* Dogs failed to predict heart problems caused by the cardiovascular drugs encainide and flecainide, which led to an estimated 3,000 deaths in the USA.
* Heart by pass surgery was put on hold for years because it didn't work on dogs.
* If we had relied on animal tests we would still believe that humans don't need vitamin C, that smoking doesn't cause cause cancer and alcohol doesn't cause liver damage.
* It was denied for decades that asbestos caused disease in humans because it didn't in animals.
* Polio researchers were mislead for years about how we catch the disease because they had experimented on monkeys.
* As one researcher points out, the ultimate dilemma with any animal model of human disease is that it can never reflect the human situation with complete accuracy."
