Philosophy of AR > Animal Testing - Index > Anti-Vivisection Index

Billions of dollars are spent yearly on animal research

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 -

It is important to know that the sole purpose of animal research is to legally protect the government and private companies from lawsuits should you be blinded or disabled from any product.

It is not for scientific reasons. How could it be when there are fewer advances than failures? And when failures outweigh advances, then research must be deemed "useless."

The March of Dimes study that sewed kittens' eyes shut was a "useless" experiment and the March of Dimes itself admits this study yielded no clinically relevant advances.

Of 38 types of birth defects studied from 1979-89, 27 had increased, nine remained the same and only two had decreased. If animal research is "making progress" then birth defects should be decreasing.

Penicillin research was delayed for a decade because it was ineffectual on rabbits. Also lab animal tests threw diabetes research off track for years. Ninety-two percent of new drugs fail in clinical trials after passing animal safety tests.

In fact, 2004 was the Vioxx recall. But also many, many safe and useful drugs including aspirin and codeine have been shown to cause birth defects in animals but not in humans. And it is cruel when painful tumors are purposely created, chemicals cause blindness, animals are cut open while fully conscious, primates strapped in chairs for days, pain goes unrelieved and suffering animals are not euthanized. Yes, it is very cruel. Billions of dollars are spent yearly on animal research and that's a lot of wasted lives and wasted money. Pro-researchers always say what you want to hear.

Danielle Holliday

Kelseyville