Why animal testing is here to stay

Animal testing has played a vital role in nearly every medical breakthrough over the last century; put simply, it is a MUST for modern healthcare. The issue of safety is just one of many which plagues innovation in the medical sector, and this is where animal testing proves vital - medicine, medical devices and newfound surgical procedures all require a high degree of certainty before they can be administered to humans.

On paper, animal testing is the holy grail of the medical realm, assisting scientists in whatever they set their mind to. It provides an almost exact representation of the human anatomy whilst remaining the most ethical way of further progressing medicine and health. After all, if we don’t experiment on animals, who exactly are we going to experiment on?

First things first, what does animal testing contribute to? Just to name a few; drug development, the discovery and refinement of new surgical procedures, and healthcare devices like pacemakers. It improves human health, full stop. In fact, animal testing is SO effective that the California Biomedical Research Association has pegged it to almost every lifesaving discovery of the last century.

What do YOU believe is more ethical? Subjecting humanity to an eternity of suffering, or persisting in the vision of curing disease once and for all - at the MINOR, humane, and beneficial expense of a VERY small amount of lab animals, 97% of those in the UK being mice, rats, fish and birds.

To delve further into WHY animal testing is necessary, let’s take a glance at the drug Penicillin. On the search for antibacterial substances, its founder faced the dilemma of toxicity. Taking no second thoughts at the time, he rushed to inject two mice with the drug, they remained healthy and he continued his research – Penicillin proved to be a miracle.

However, this isn’t always the case. Drugs pose an unprecedented risk of toxicity. Had the experiment gone wrong, which is unfortunately the fate of many other drug trials, testing could’ve proved fatal and resulted in the death of LIVING, BREATHING human beings – but that doesn’t matter, right? Scientists needed a living, whole body system to complete these tests; there’s simply no workaround or alternative.

Animal testing has substantially contributed to our wellbeing; from helping to eradicate smallpox, which killed 300 to 500 million in the 20th century, to providing a solution for diabetes sufferers who would otherwise be dead; it has revolutionized our ability to treat human and animal ailments, directly saving millions of lives in the process.

With ethics committees solely dedicated to ensuring that the benefits of research outweigh animal suffering, there is simply no doubt that Australia (and other first world countries) has some of the highest standards of laboratory animal welfare in the world.

Our ideology is underpinned by a legal set of guidelines known as the 3Rs - reduction, replacement and refinement. Researchers are legally obliged to reduce the numbers of animals used in research, refine their experimental techniques to minimise pain and stress, and above all, only carry out the research when there’s no suitable alternative.

Furthermore, any animal testing that occurs in Australia must be critiqued against a strict range of conditions and requirements by a professional before commencement. Animals MUST be provided with adequate shelter and living conditions, and trialled in the most humane manner possible.

Animal research hasn't benefited humans alone. Everything from farm animals to household pets, wild and endangered species are all reaping the benefits from crucial information deduced from animals. Subsequently, all walks of life are now experiencing reduced instances of sickness and disease. Conceivably, the most confronting aspect of it all is that animal testing has actually rescued endangered species like the black-footed ferret from the brink of extinction.

Some may argue that success in animal experimentation doesn’t necessarily equate to success in human safety. And while this is true in a minority of cases, there is simply no equally reliable alternative, this is precisely why we NEED animal testing.

So-called animal rights activists are quick to highlight flaws, but they sure don’t offer any solution to the issues that they identify. If you believe animal testing is cruel and unusual, then consider this. More farm animals are eaten by humans as food than the entire animal population used for research, how HYPOCRITICAL! With consideration to the advancement of healthcare, it is a small price to pay. To elaborate, for every chicken researched, an equivalent of 340 are used as food. Boy, are we quick to judge.

Having yielded exceptional results in the past, animal testing is a scientifically sound research method. It HAS and will continue to save a potentially limitless amount of human and animal lives. At society’s current point in time, it is PARAMOUNT that we continue our quest for immortality and the end of suffering.

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