What kind of medicines are tested on animals

During this time, the experiment can cause vomiting, diarrhea, irritation, rashes, bleeding, loss of appetite, weight loss, convulsions, respiratory distress, salivation, paralysis, lethargy, bleeding, organ abnormalities, tumors, heart failure, liver disease, cancer and even death.

There is no limit to the extent of pain and suffering that can be inflicted on animals during experiments. In some instances, animals are not given anything to relieve their pain or distress during or after the experiment on the basis that it could affect the experiment. Animals are typically killed once an experiment is over so that their tissues and organs can be examined, although it is not unusual for animals to be used in multiple experiments over many years.

There are no accurate statistics available on how many animals are killed in laboratories every year. Chemical, pesticide and drug companies as well as contract laboratories that carry out tests for these companies , public and private universities, community and technical schools, government facilities, Veterans Affairs VA facilities and hospitals all use animals in experiments.

The majority of animals in laboratories are purpose-bred, meaning that they are bred specifically to be used in experiments. People who breed and sell purpose-bred animals are called Class A dealers and are licensed and inspected by the U.

Some animals used in experiments are taken from the wild—including birds and monkeys. Historically, some cats and dogs were sold to laboratories by brokers known as random source Class B dealers, who acquired animals at auctions, from newspaper ads and various other sources, including animal shelters. Random source Class B dealers have not been allowed to operate since when Congress first passed legislation to prevent them from being licensed.

Some states have no laws at all, leaving it up to the individual shelter or locality. Animals in laboratories suffer immensely. In addition to the painful experiments that the vast majority of animals in laboratories experience over days, months, years or even decades, life in a laboratory is typically a miserable and terrifying experience.

Typically kept alone in barren steel cages with little room to move around and few if any comforts, such as a toys or soft bedding, animals often become excruciatingly lonely and anxious. Animals in laboratories can associate humans with painful situations and, with no way to hide or get away, they panic whenever a person approaches their cage.

Dogs, however, will often still seek human attention. They typically also watch or hear other animals suffering, including their own parents, siblings or babies.

High levels of constant stress can cause them to mutilate themselves. This is especially true of primates. It is also not uncommon for animals to exhibit repetitive behaviors, such as constant pacing, rocking or vocalizing as a way to help relieve their anxiety. Animals in laboratories are also subject to mistreatment by inexperienced or careless staff. Although there are penalties for laboratories when animals are injured or killed due to negligence, in reality the fines are typically either very small or waived entirely.

In some cases, animals die as a direct result of the experiment. It is extremely rare that animals are either adopted out or placed into a sanctuary after research is conducted on them. However, more and more states are passing laws that require laboratories, when possible, to offer dogs and cats to shelters and other rescue organizations so they can be adopted. The Animal Welfare Act was designed to protect certain animals, like dogs and monkeys, used in experiments, but the law only offers minimal standards for housing, food and exercise.

The Animal Welfare Act also stipulates that the proposed experiments be reviewed by an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, which is appointed by the laboratory itself and largely made up of employees of the institution. The animals most commonly used in experiments—rats, mice and birds bred to be used in experiments—are not counted in annual USDA statistics and are not afforded the minimal protections provided under the Animal Welfare Act.

Animals such as fish, frogs, turtles, octopuses and crabs are also not covered by the Animal Welfare Act. It also makes it difficult to determine the extent to which non-animal alternative methods are used. The vast majority of experiments on animals are not required by government law or regulation, although certain animal tests are required by government agencies to assess the safety of products such as industrial chemicals, pesticides, medical devices and medicines.

The Food and Drug Administration FDA , which regulates various products such as drugs, medical devices and food, fragrances and color additives, will not approve potential drugs unless they are first tested on animals, which usually includes dogs. Additional tests for pesticides and drugs are carried out on rats, rabbits, mice, birds and primates. These types of tests have been performed for years, regardless of whether they provide valuable information.

While some regulatory agencies, like the EPA, are now taking a critical look at these tests and determining if they provide information necessary for assessing how safe a product or substance is for humans, or if better approaches are available, others have done little.

More efforts can be made by agencies to invest in and encourage the development of non-animal methods. Swapping animal experiments for non-animal alternative methods seems like a straightforward process, given that using animals has so many limitations and sophisticated new technologies offer countless possibilities for creating experiments that are more humane and more applicable to humans.

Unfortunately, developing these alternatives is a complex process and involves many obstacles, including inadequate funding and concerns that regulators will not accept test data from new, non-animal methods.

In some cases, a non-animal alternative must be formally validated—an expensive and lengthy process—in order to be accepted by government regulatory agencies. In contrast, animal experiments have never been subjected to the same level of scrutiny and validation. Despite these challenges, many scientists are increasingly committed to developing and using non-animal methods. While we are not there yet, the world is moving toward a future dominated by sophisticated methods that use human cells, tissues and organs, 3D printing, robotics, computer models and other technologies to create approaches to testing and research that do not rely on animals.

The degree of suffering , which may include both physical pain and psychological distress, depends on the nature of the experiment. Generally, animals are 'given' a disease or condition then experiments are done to investigate:. As well as pain and distress from the scientific procedures used, animals will suffer from the symptoms of the disease or condition that is being studied.

Healthy animals are also then used to assess the safety of any treatments developed before trials are done on humans or on farm or pet animals.

Animals are usually killed at the end of the tests. We believe that the need to experiment on animals, and the justification for the suffering caused, should be more critically questioned. Questions must be asked regarding:. We work with government officials, scientists in universities and the pharmaceutical industry, and other animal welfare organisations, to promote thorough ethical review of research projects, along with the maximum possible implementation of the 3Rs to reduce animal use and suffering in medical and veterinary research.

Wild animals used in vaccine tests: What's being done to help. We promote the development and use of methods that avoid or replace animal use in experiments. The likelihood of such speculative research actually leading to advances in human medicine is very slim.

The use of genetically modified animals GM has been an increasing trend for the last 30 years and while the sheer scale of GM animal use is difficult to determine, it is clearly responsible for year on year increases in animal numbers worldwide.

Researchers focus on genes that may be relevant in human medical conditions. Far from being harmless tests, suffering has been acknowledged at every step of the GM process.

For example, many of the animals die while they are still babies because the defect they have is so severe. It is also an extremely wasteful process as a huge number of animals are often needed to produce just one specific type of GM animal who carries the desired traits.

Experiments using GM animals are unable to fully mimic complex human diseases, particularly those like cancers and heart disease that are more commonly caused by lifestyle and environmental factors, rather than genetics.

Regulatory testing is standardised testing designed to see if medicines, chemicals including paints, dyes, inks, petrol products, solvents, tars and waste materials , pesticides, biocides, food additives, cosmetics and other products are safe for use, and that they do their job effectively.

In these experiments, animals are forced to eat or inhale substances, or have them rubbed onto their skin or injected into their bodies.