Scientists say animal testing 'at risk' from activists
Work into treating serious diseases is being threatened by animal rights campaigners, say scientists.
Around 15,000 animals - mostly mice - are brought in from abroad every year for testing new medicines.But pressure from activists means ferries and airlines are refusing to carry animals heading for labs - meaning fewer animals for research.
Campaign group Peta says 90% of drugs that pass animal trials end up not working on humans.
They think researchers should work harder to find alternatives.
But supporters say testing on animals is necessary because it helps to save people's lives.
What do you think about animal
testing? Is it important to help save human lives? Or do you believe
it's cruel to use animals for experiments?
Here are some comments:
"I think it should be fair to test
animals only if it is a cure for humans, because my aunty died last year
from breast cancer and I would like a cure for that."
Benjamin, 9, Southport, England
"Testing on animals has its
advantages and disadvantages. We could find a cure for bad diseases that
people die from, but the animals haven't done anything wrong."
Paolo, 13, Hertfordshire, England
"Everyone says that they have as many
rights as us but would you rather have some animals you don't know
being tested or humans such as your parents?"
Josh, 13, Cornwall, England
"I think animal testing is WRONG! Why
would anyone want all these new tests put into you? There should be a
BIG FULL STOP to this horrible thing!"
Emily, 9, Bedfordshire, England
"I think it's totally right - yes I
feel sorry for the animals but without animal testing they could be
releasing dangerous drugs onto the market, both for animals and humans."
Joe, 12, Surrey, England
"Animal testing is wrong but it's helped us accomplish a lot..."
Emily, 12, Rotherham, England
"I think it's fine for us to test on
animals because we will be able find cures for ill people just by
testing on a few tiny creatures. That's not too bad, is it?"
Casey, 11, Sheffield, England
"I disagree extremely with anyone
that says it's right to test on animals. Who is to say that all those
animals' lives are worth more than a human's? Animals should have equal
rights as humans because they are living breathing creatures as well."
Ben, 12, Craigavon, Northern Ireland
"I can't say that I disagree with
animal testing because it's not only saved my life but other people in
my family and my friends. It is inhumane but the amount of lives it
saves is incredible."
Phoebe, 12, Warwickshire, England
"I REALLY hate people who test on
animals! I have a lot of pets at home and the thought of anyone testing
on them makes me sick!"
Emily, 12, Kent, England
"I think animal testing is cruel and
unfair... how would you like it if someone used you to carry out medical
investigations resulting you losing your life?"
Anna, 13, Lancashire, England
"I think animal testing is really
wrong because who's to say that humans are better and we can kill
innocent animals just because we are apparently a higher rank than them,
which isn't true! Why don't the scientists test it on themselves
instead of being mean and testing on innocent animals who can't speak
for themselves!"
Georgina, 12, Yorkshire, England
"I think it's right to do because if we didn't test the cures we would never know if they work."
David, 8, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
"It's not fair to the poor animals but on the other hand, if we test them we will save people from bad things like cancer!"
Paige, 9, Surrey, England
"Although results in mice may not
reflect the results in humans, I don't think animal testing is a bad
thing. Having someone die from an untested medication is worse than
having a mouse die from it. Although I do admit all life is precious."
Rob, 14, Burton, England
"I thinks it's right that we test on animals, a few mice for one million humans!"
India, 12, Belfast, Northern Ireland
"It's wrong to test animals if it's
something that we already know how to make, like shampoo. But if it
means it's going to cure cancer or something that will affect lives then
it's right."
Maya, 11, Lancaster, England
"I think that it's fine because if we
only lose a few or so mice, many lives could be saved. However, I do
feel it's inhumane - but that's life!"
Katie, 10, Southampton, England
"I think it's wrong to test drugs on animals as they can be very harmful and it's against the animal's rights."
Grace, 11, Dundee, Scotland
"I think that animals should have the
same rights as humans. If we treat our pets as our friends then we
should treat other animals like that as well."
Oli, 11, Hampshire, England
"I think that animals have not done anything to us so why should we do stuff to them?"
Sean, 10, South Yorkshire, England
"I don't see the point in testing on animals because we have different bodies."
Jasmine, 14, Greater London, England
"I think they need to use alternative ways to test medicines as testing them on animals is cruel."
Terri-Jane, 12, Devon, England
"I think animal testing is bad and I
would do anything to see it end. Imagine if it was your dog or cat or
any other pet, would you risk its life to save yourself just in case you
might get an illness in the future?"
Phoebe, 12, Northamptonshire, England
"I think it's wrong because animals
should have as many rights as we do. They feel things too. They die for
no reason. Not all the medicines work on humans in the same way!"
Megan, 12, England
"I believe animal testing is right, we could could find a cure for cancer and save millions at the expense of a few mice!"
James, 13, Monmouthshire, Wales
"I feel sorry for the poor animals, but if we don't test on animals we wont find new cures."
Tomas, 14, Spain
"It's inhumane to do something so wrong and cruel to animals! They are living creatures just like us!"
Joanna, 11, London, England
"I think researchers should find
alternatives for research because not every product that passes in
animal testing works on humans."
Claudia, 14, Jakarta, Indonesia
"I think it is wrong to test on
animals as they have rights and feelings too. I understand why people
test on animals… but we should do it on animals that aren't dying out
and be careful how much testing we do. Also instead of testing on
animals, scientists could use clones of human skin/cells."
Kay, 15, Lancashire, England
"It's wrong to test on animals, there's always a better option. It may take time to find it, but there's always one."
Charlotte, 14, Wrexham, Wales
"I think it is wrong to use animals
for testing for new drugs and medicines. There are other ways to test,
just don't use animals."
Asim, 14, London, England
Now it is your turn. What do you think about this issue?
I agree with testing on animals. I think that it is more important helping to save human lives than the life of an animal. Without using of animals to try the medicaments, what could we do? I believe that it is better testing on animals than testing on children, for example. In addition, there are some laws that permit the use of a medicament on an animal only if it has been testing on an animal of a lower grade. For example, testing on a rat before testing on a monkey, although they aren't always respected.
ResponderEliminarI prefer seeing animals on the countryside to seeing animals in cages of a lab, but testing on animals is a necessity to cure diseases and to save human lives.
Thanks David for your opinion
EliminarI think that the use of animals can be very beneficial por humans but it is harmul for many animals which are used only like objects of investigation.
ResponderEliminarI think that testing on animals is very important in order to cure diseases which haven't been found and with the help of them, the science may save many lives but I believe that the science is avanced in order to look for other ways to cure diseases since the animals are living beings like us too.
With my opinion I don't want to say that I don't agree with the methods of the science. However, we should think that we wouldn't like to be in their places. And I believe that anyone would want to be object of other people although many people think that the animals aren't like humans,instead they have the reason but I don't share it.
To sum up,I would think that at the present time there aren´t other methods to determine the cause of many diseases but, why does the science spend some time to look for them?
Great! Thanks for your contribution
EliminarTesting on animals may be unethical, even a lot of people think that it is a mistake, but everybody know animals can be very useful to find out the cure of many diseases.
ResponderEliminarAs far as I am concerned, I agree with this practise because thanks to use animals, science and medicine have developed a lot. However, we cannot use animals like objects that we can kill when we want. It is necessary to exist a law which regulate animal´s use. In addition, there are others techniques like testing on ill human organs which have a good results.
In conclusion, testing on animals is the best way to scientific research but we must be responsible with them in order not to do something unethical.
This theme causes in the society a great controversy because if medicines are proved in animals, they will be able to die, and this will be miserable. However I think that the most important in the world is the life, especially the human life. Therefore I prefer that scientists experiment drugs in animals, in this way less people die and the medicine advance in illness cure. I belive that people who don't think this, should imagine that if they had a illness, they would wanted to have a cure and this is imposible without experimenting in animals.
ResponderEliminarMarÃa José Romero Ruiz
On the one hand, I believe testing drugs on animal is neccessary to save lives because they are the most similar ones to human beings.
ResponderEliminarIn addition, science needs to make progress and that's the way which it has nowadays, at least.
On the other hand, I can't help avoiding to be against some techniques used on labs so I think besides seeking new ways to cure human lives, they should try to keep animals without suffering. It's true that all aims require a sacrifice, but it's also true that in this case we are talking about lives, not objects.
Animals aren't equal than us, that's clear.
Nevertheless, that's not a enough reason to make them pain, much less.
In conclusion, as far as I'm concerned testing on animals will be "well" if it´s used a group of laws and better chemicals and their possible effects are checked before injecting them on other beings.
Yaiza Parra Manso
We may have traded the actual situation if we would want it.
In my opinion, animal testing is painful to animals. However, I think that it is necessary to find the cure of human diseases and people don't die. For these reasons, I agree with animal testing.
ResponderEliminarAlthough I support animal testing, I would like to exist a different way to look for the cure for our illness. Therefore, I think that the scientists should investigate how they can cure us without to cause painful to the animals as well as the solution to our health problems.
In conclusion, I agree with animal testing because it is the only way to find medicaments which can cure us. But I think that scientists must investigate to find an alternative method which can avoid to suffer to animals
I think it depends on kind of animals, for example I agree with working with mice but I don’t approve working with big animals like monkeys, dog…
ResponderEliminarI think we can work with them only if it is to cure humans’ disease because many people mistreat them and I think that these people must be in prison.
On the one hand they can help to improve our health or discover many things which can help to cure diseases but on the other hand we can hurt them even we can kill them.
In conclusion, you must work with them only if it is necessary and important like discover the vaccine for cancer.
Using mice for the medicine is a production method by which the solutions are known in many diseases. Although, I think that as science progresses, these methods could advance. but still,the use of this animals in medicine has its advantages and disadvantages. In many situations it's normal because we use these mice to cure deadly diseases. And so, in this case the use of animals is necessary for medicine and helping people. But there are disadvantages too.one of them is that animals are also living beings and is a "bad" use of them as they are using; whether you were animal, how would you feel?
ResponderEliminarI disagree with testing on animals. It's true that with this way we can obtain a cure for bad illness, but all people forget these animals' feeling. They are living beings like us and it is unfair to use them like a lifeless thing.
ResponderEliminarI think that there have to be other alternatives to discover the diseases' cures. Nowadays the technology is so advanced that I’m sure there are other ways to investigate the illness without testing on animals. Maybe these alternatives are more expensive but what is more important the life or the money?
Animals’ lives aren't worth less than ours! Don't believe superior to them.