Unfortunate necessity of animal research

According to PETA:

Medical historians have shown that improved nutrition and sanitation standards and other behavioral and environmental factors—rather than knowledge gained from animal experiments—are responsible for the decreasing number of deaths from common infectious diseases since 1900 and that medicine has had little to do with increased life expectancy. Many of the most important advances in the field of health care can be attributed to human studies, which have led to major medical breakthroughs, such as the development of anesthesia, the stethoscope, morphine, radium, penicillin, artificial respiration, x-rays, antiseptics, and CAT, MRI, and PET scans; the study of bacteriology and germ theory; the discovery of the link between cholesterol and heart disease and the link between smoking and cancer; and the isolation of the virus that causes AIDS. Animal testing played no role in these or many other important medical developments.

Really? I suppose all those medical papers that are being released from reputable journals are all a fabrication of evil research facilities…. is it any wonder why I am anti PETA??

Animal research has indeed been the basis for new vaccines, new cancer therapies, artificial limbs and organs, new surgical techniques, and the development of hundreds of useful products and materials.

Let’s just take a look at a few of the things that animal research has led to.

Heart Valve Replacement – This procedure, which was pioneered by Albert Starr, aims to replace the natural valve of the heart with a prosthetic which is then sewn into the tissue remaining from the natural valve. Starr was able to progress his research via a series of surgeries done on dogs. Over 300,000 people receive heart valve replacements derived from the designs that Starr came up with through his research.

Behavioral Research – It has contributed to finding means of controlling self- injurious behavior in autistic children and adults.  It has helped us with our understanding of drug abuse. It has been used to develop behavioral methods for screening of compounds and has been used for coming up with new drugs for treating of depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder among others. Prior to the use of lithium for manic depressives, those who suffered bipolar disorder were given a lobotomy (operation leading to incision(s) to the frontal lobe) or electro-convulsive therapy (use of electric current to the brain to cause unconsciousness/brief convulsion). John Cade used lithium on guinea pigs and noticed that they appeared to be much calmer. This important discovery has led to the development of lithium as a treatment for bipolar disorder.

Gene therapy – Animal research has led to new methods of imaging gene expression, which directly affects the efficacy of gene-therapy trials on human cancer patients. This work is strengthening our knowledge of how tumors grow and spread as well as general cancer biology.

Tuberculosis vaccine – A vaccine has been developed through the use of guinea pigs, which are highly susceptible to infection by the tuberculosis bacterium. Development of the disease and the way it works is very similar to how tuberculosis works in humans.

The list can go on and on and on. I am only giving a taste, a mere sliver of what vivisection has had a hand in developing. Opposition to all animal testing would require a life without drugs, vaccines, painkillers, anesthetics and advanced surgical techniques. There would no longer be any assurance that additives and other chemicals added to our foods would be safe for consumption. Animal research has led to medical advances and treatments for human diseases – it has led to development of penicillin, organ transplant techniques, heart-lung machine, vaccines for smallpox, polio and diphtheria (just to name a few), advancement in therapeutic development efforts, improvements in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases… the list can go on and on.

Animal research is an unfortunate necessity.  On top of the fact that animal studies are resource intensive, research facilities have to worry about protests from groups such as the ALF and PETA as well as negative publicity. Yet, these research institutes continue to go on. Why? Because there is no useful alternatives at this time, unless of course all these protesters would like to volunteer themselves .