• Question: do you agree with animal testing

    Asked by missjmrt to Andrew, Ash, Gem, Paige, SJ on 25 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by 9jucr.
    • Photo: Paige Brown

      Paige Brown answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      I don’t like the idea of animal testing unnecessarily, like testing cosmetics on animals. But unfortunately, the only way to test to see if a new drug could be used in humans is to use it on animals first. But I think that animal testing should be very tightly regulated and only used when absolutely necessary.

    • Photo: SarahJayne Boulton

      SarahJayne Boulton answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      I’m right there with Paige.
      There is a concept within science called ‘The Three R’s of Ethical Animal Experimentation’ which stand for Replace, Re-use and Refine.

      Replace means where possible, non-sacrificial (no death) experiments should be used in place of sacrifical experiement. There is a move to replace animal-based ‘in vivo’ methods with alternative non animal-using methods.

      Re-use is a tricky one, meaning if, for example, 2 animals were used, one recieve a test compound and the other recieved a pretend dose (a ‘placebo’) could the placebo animal then go on to take part in another experiemnt rather than be sacrificed for the sake of a control data set. Sometimes this is possible, however animals age faster than we do so it can be hard to judge where they would fit in.

      Refine is probably the most achieveable and well exercised rule, meaning all experiments that absolutely have include animal testing must be refined so that an absolute minimum of animals are sacrificed.

      In the UK the 3 R’s are used very widely, and in 1998, animal testing for cosmetics was banned outright, however this is not the case in other countries, for example in the US.

    • Photo: Gemma Staite

      Gemma Staite answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      I believe there is a need for it, but I also agree that it should be avoided where alternatives are available.

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