If I told you something claims to save lives, but actually leads to
injury or death; that taxpayers hand over $12-18 billion for it yearly; and
that the only ones getting rich are corporate purveyors with a harmful
product - you'd probably get angry.
But if I told you that
"something" is animal research, chances are you'd tell me about "necessary
sacrifices...to save human lives...especially the children."
In
reality, animal experimentation is a multi-billion dollar business. It is a
broken model inspired by profit.
Every drug sold is animal tested.
That's the law. But in recent years, at least 1734 drugs proven safe for
human use in animal studies were recalled due to Adverse Drug Reactions
(U.S. Food and Drug Administration records). ADRs are the 4th leading cause
of USA deaths. Approved medical products harm 2 million people annually. At
least 100,000 die (Journal of the American Medical Association).
In
2012, Big Pharma brands will rake in $156.3 billion. Generic drugs will earn
another $52.8 billion. These moneymakers are rushed through sloppy,
duplicative animal experiments to get to a pharmacy near you as quickly as
possible.
According to C. Glenn Begley, former head of global cancer
research at Amgen, many landmark "discoveries" published in prestigious
journals, most gleaned from animal experiments, cannot even be reproduced a
second time!
"It was shocking. The pharmaceutical industry relies on
these studies for drug development," Begley notes in Nature Journal, March
2012. Failure is blamed, in part, on animal models "irrelevant to cancers"
or other disease, used in an academic setting that fosters "poor science,
even fraud, as researchers compete for funding."
If too many
"discoveries done in animals are wrong," as Begley and others from the
research industry admit - why does National Institutes of Health annually
lavish $12-18 billion taxpayer dollars on medical schools, mostly for animal
experimentation?
Perhaps the WHY does not count as much as the IS:
Animal research IS awarded more funding, more quickly, than sophisticated
animal-free technologies. Animal studies facilitate tenure for university
researchers required to churn out papers with new findings.
Never
mind that many findings are absurd, a lot of "curiosity experiments" about
how animal response to stimuli (that a human would never encounter) might
somehow relate to human behavior. Research grants help pay university
utility bills and overhead unrelated to medical science.
Animal
research is not about "saving the rat or the child" as the anti-animal
rights contingent likes to say. Animal research is about flawed science that
delays medical progress and harms humans.
When viewed in this light,
animal research becomes a: * Human rights issue * Patient rights issue
* Consumer rights issue * Taxpayer rights issue
It ought to
concern anyone who cares about: - Government overspending - Corporate
corruption - Health/safety for themselves, their children...
Where
is public outcry over research fraud, like the outcry over tobacco industry
fraud? Shouldn't medical products be labeled, "WARNING: This product is
proven safe for use in animal experiments - but may cause disability or
death in humans."
If you are an animal advocate, watch Kinship
Circle's film to reframe your messaging and promote animal-free research
systems. If you are like the majority who know little about a subject that
directly affects your well-being, watch Kinship Circle's film.
