The issues of animal testing are layered, many, and emotionally charged.
What cannot be disputed, however, is the fact that well over 100 million animals live, and die, in laboratories each year world wide.
Approximately 25 million of them live, and die, in laboratories throughout the United States.
Animals are either killed during experiments or subsequently euthanized.
The exact number is impossible to know.
Rats and mice, which make up between 80% and 95% of laboratory animals in the US, are not protected under the Animal Welfare Act*, and are not required to be reported.
Additionally, these statistics do not cover animals that are caged in laboratories but are being held for conditioning or breeding.
The majority of laboratory animals are "purpose bred".
A smaller number of animals used in experimentation are wild caught or supplied by class B dealers, who obtain them from auctions, news paper ads and some animal shelters (pound seizure).
A current trend is theft of family pets that are then sold to laboratories.
Animal testing is conducted by universities, government agencies, the military, corporations and contract research organizations (CRO)s, which contract test for industry.
Animal testing, also known as animal experiments and in vivo testing, is the use of non human animals for experimentation.
Experiments are conducted to determine the safety, and efficacy, of products to humans.
In fact, the EPA and the FDA require animal experimentation for the marketing of industrial chemicals, vaccines and drugs.
While it reports they have an appalling 92 percent failure rate in predicting the safety and/or effectiveness of pharmaceuticals.
Ironically, human testing is often required post animal testing - indicating a certain degree of distrust of the accuracy of animal testing.
Animal testing includes: eye irritancy and skin corrosivity/irritation, typically performed on rabbits; acute toxicity and reproductive & developmental toxicity, typically performed on rats and mice; repeated dose toxicity, performed on non rodent species such as dogs.
There are many other types of tests performed daily around the world.
There are few recognized alternatives to animal testing.
Of these few, in vitro (a non-living organism) is used as well as tissue obtained from slaughterhouses.
Episkin and Epiderm are artificial human skin that can replace some animal tests in a fraction of the time and cost.
Animal testing is often still conducted in conjunction with the alternatives mentioned.
Beagles are often the "preferred species [where large mammals are used for animal testing], because they are so forgiving," states a lab worker in a video from Beagle Freedom Project ( http://www.
youtube.
com/v/fXcL_gt7L-A&hl=en_US& ).
Even with their forgiving nature, however, these victims are devocalized so they do not bother the lab workers.
The household cleaning product and janitorial supplies industry are generally lumped together with the cosmetics industry when issues of chemicals and animal testing are considered.
Perhaps this is because many of the same chemicals are used in all three, or that the same laboratories conduct tests for a wide range of companies.
Despite arguments from these types of manufacturers, animal testing is not required for cosmetics or household products.
Here are a few more facts: ~ No experiment is illegal, no matter how cruel, irrelevant to human health, redundant, or painful.
In fact, you can still be sold cosmetic products that have blinded rabbits (Draize eye irritancy test is often conducted on rabbits; repeatedly and without anesthetic).
~ Between 80% and 95% of animals used for experiments are excluded from the only federal law offering any sort of protection.
The Animal Welfare Act specifically excludes rats, mice and birds from protection.
~ The law doesn't require valid alternatives to animal tests be used.
There are a growing number of alternatives being developed, and a growing number of companies and institutions utilizing them.
~ Ninety two percent of experimental drugs that are safe and effective in animals fail in human clinical trials because they don't work or are dangerous.
For example, arsenic is contained in drugs fed to pigs and chickens in the factory farming industry to promote growth, and deter infections.
Society can no longer look at the practice of animal testing and regard it as necessary, and it must be admittedly unethical.
We now know the results of many tests conducted on animals simply do not translate to humans.
We have alternatives that should be explored, and must replace animal testing.