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Vivisection

Vivisection | More Harm Than Cure | Alternative Research Methods

Vivisection is the use of animals in biomedical research, product testing, and ‘live labs’ and dissection. Estimates place the number of animals who suffer and die each year in vivisection at 30 to 60 million.

Although the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) is intended to ensure the ‘humane’ care, handling, treatment and transportation of animals in laboratories, it currently does not offer any protection for rats, mice, birds, farm animals used in agricultural research, amphibians or reptiles.* These populations represent 90 - 95 percent of animals in labs. Animals used in elementary, secondary and all other schools below the college level are also exempt.

Also, the protections afforded by the AWA – limited as they are – can be waived if deemed "necessary" to the purpose of the experiment. For example, anesthesia, pain medication and even water may be withheld if it is "scientifically necessary."

One of the most common – but controversial – product tests is the LD50 (lethal dose 50 percent). Researchers use this test to statistically determine the concentration of a substance that would kill 50 percent of the test animals in a set period of time. Today, scientists, some of them funded by NEAVS, are successfully demonstrating the validity of non-animal toxicity tests.

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More Harm Than Cure

In innumerable cases, animal experiments have actually done more harm than cure:

• When the anti-hepatitis B drug Fialuridine was introduced in human trials in 1993, five people died from liver damage. The drug had been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after toxicity tests in dogs indicated it was safe.
  
  
• PCP, better known as angel dust, sedates chimpanzees but causes humans to have severe and untoward experiences including paranoia.
  
  
• A 1990 U.S. General Accounting Office study revealed that 51 percent of 198 drugs approved by the FDA from 1976 to 1985 cause serious post-approval adverse reactions, including permanent disabilities and deaths, despite having been proven ‘safe.’

NEAVS is committed to supporting alternative research methods. NEAVS has sponsored several leading experts in non-animal research, including the Cytotoxicology Laboratory (CTLU) in Sweden and the Institute for In Vitro Sciences (IIVS) in Maryland.

*As of July 2001, Congress has taken action to temporarily prohibit the USDA from applying Animal Welfare Act protections to rats, mice and birds in scientific research. While the appropriations bill passed by Congress prohibits the US Department of Agriculture from finalizing any rules on the issue in fiscal year 2002, it does allow the agency to begin soliciting public comment and drafting regulations.

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Alternative Research Methods

Many major advances in medicine can be attributed to non-animal research including aspirin, the most commonly used medication in the world.

Non-animal methods of scientific research include:

Epidemiological studies (the study of human disease in specific populations) permit detailed observation of factors related to human disease. Relationships between the incidence of disease and lifestyle habits or environmental factors uncover vital information.

• The Framingham Heart Study laid the groundwork linking heart disease to high cholesterol levels, smoking, hypertension and other risk factors.
  
  
• Population studies first revealed AIDS when unusual infections and malignancies began to surface in the late 1970s. The modes of transmission were discovered through epidemiological surveys. Recent epidemiological studies have identified factors that cause greater or less susceptibility to HIV.
  
  
• An early example is a well-known study that detected scrotal cancer in chimney sweeps. Epidemiological studies have also linked genetic damage to a variety of factors, including drugs, metals, industrial chemicals, radiation and cigarette smoke.

Autopsies have been critical in our understanding of specific diseases such as diabetes. Pathological observations were critical to the discovery of insulin. Other studies have provided valuable information on Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, cancer and other serious illnesses.

Non-invasive imaging devices, such as CAT, MRI and PET scans have revolutionized clinical investigation. These technologies permit non-invasive ongoing evaluation of diseases in human patients. The PET scan has been used in the study of Parkinson’s disease. MRI has revealed abnormalities in the cerebellum of autistic patients.

Equally important non-animal research techniques include:

• tissue and cellular (in vitro) research
• bacterial cultures
• mathematical and computer models
• physical and chemical techniques
• mechanical models
• post-market surveillance
• clinical studies

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