Vivisection: Dissection of Live Animals

Animals as Human Models?
The truth is that animal experiments are a cruel and fundamentally flawed method of medical research. Humans evolved from other animals millions of years ago. With each generation, each different species evolves a unique biology to help them survive in their environment.

Our bodies contain many systems such as those that coordinate immune reactions and hormones. These systems interact and work in incredibly complicated ways. Each small difference affects the way the whole body works. That's why each animal reacts differently to substances and suffers distinct diseases. For example, despite chimpanzees being our closest relatives, they do not develop human-type AIDS when injected with HIV.

Now, there is growing disquiet and dissent in the scientific community as the fatal weaknesses in vivisection are beginning to be taken on board. One group of researchers, publishing in the prestigious British Medical Journal in February 2004, uncovered evidence that 'seriously undermined the principle that animal experiments are necessary to inform human medicine'.

New NHS Report Confirms Failings of Animal Experiments
Six recent studies funded by the NHS set out to examine the relevance to humans of testing treatments on animals. The report, Testing Treatment on Animals: Relevance to Humans, was commissioned by the NHS and published in May 2006. Its purpose was to test the extent to which animal experiments concur with the human medicine. The study revealed that:

• animal researchers don't talk to hospital doctors about their work
• clinical trials with human patients get underway even before the animal research is completed
• drugs that fail in animals are used in humans anyway
• a drug that increased overall mortality in animals was, nonetheless, used in people
• most of the animal research that was analysed was poorly conducted and gave conflicting results

Trivial and Flawed Research
The Government consistently issues blatantly dishonest statements, claiming that UK regulations 'permit only essential research with clear medical benefits'. In fact, the statistics show that thousands of animals are used in poisoning tests for non-pharmaceutical substances. The Government refuses to ban suffering for unarguably trivial purposes such as new laundry liquids, and allows painful and traumatic animals tests for substances like refrigerants and industrial chemicals. Furthermore, the Government admits that they have never actually conducted research to evaluate whether animal experiments benefit human medicine, despite scientific doubts over their applicability and thousands of human deaths caused by drug side-effects not revealed by previous animal tests.

     Please help me today to stop this abhorrable method of study. Your support is greatly appreciated!