Using Animals for Research

Tara Barney
Psychology

Rabbits, guinea pigs, and rats, shown above,

are the most commonly laboratory tested

animals.

Introduction:

This web page is designed to inform the reader about the uses of animals in research. I realize that this particular topic is very ethical in nature, but I hope that you will keep an open mind while viewing this page. In this page I will be discussing several aspects that I have researched about this topic. First, I will be discussing a bit of the history of animal research along with current research that is being done in the biomedical and psychological fields. Next, I will go more in depth about animal research and the benefits and costs of the research. Also on this page will include information about product testing, military testing, and some of the alternatives to animal testing. Last, I will include information about laws and regulations geared toward animal testing, as well as the 3 R's of animal research.

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History of Animal Research

Using animals in research is nothing new. It has been done for quite a long time and still continues even today. The question is, where did some of the beginnings of animal research actually originate from? Louis Pasteur formulated a hypothesis such that diseases came from external microorganisms, and in turn, these microorganisms were responsible for such diseases that came about. Pasteur began examining the guts from chickens that were infected with cholera and isolated the causative microbe in a culture. Once separated, he took samples of the culture and gave it to healthy chickens. He discovered that the microorganisms lost their ability to infect healthy specimens after time had passed. After this observation was made, it was found that recurrence of disease was rare in human specimens which had survived serious attacks of certain diseases. This was the beginning of immunity.

French chemist, Louis Pasteur

Since the start of the nineteenth century there has been a lot of progress in the medical and science fields. From transplants to blood transfusions, vaccines to antibiotics, penicillin to insulin for diabetes, chemotherapy to drugs for psychological disorders, and genetics to new technologies; these are all major contributions toward scientific progress that have been made within the past hundred years.

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Medical Advances

As mentioned before, there have been a lot of medical advances within the past century. Thanks to the use of animals, many of these advances would not have been possible. Animals have most certainly been important in developing new drugs, vaccines, and antibiotics. Also, in using animal models we have been able to learn about and understand the biology and mechanisms of animals, but humans as well. However, despite all of the modern technologies that we obtain today, research would be nowhere without the use of animal models. In today's society there are so many diseases out there that have yet to be cured.

Cancer

It was said in 1971 when the "War on Cancer" started, that a cure for cancer would be found by the year 1976. Needless to say that there still is no exact cure for this disease that haunts our society. Through extensive research and testing, medical technicians have developed better and more efficient treatments for cancer. Each year the United States uses millions and millions of animals to find the cure that has yet to be discovered. On top of that, the U.S. spends more than two billion dollars annually on such research. According to the General Accounting Office, some statistics found from the National Cancer Institution were somewhat inflated on the progress of research.

HIV/AIDS

AIDS is another big epidemic disease that has plagued our society for sometime now without a definite cure, nor does a cure look hopeful for the very near future. Indeed, animal models are used in this type of research, but these types of models have no real significant contribution to research. It has been found that animals that are born with immunodeficiency can be infected with HIV. However, none of those animals developed the human AIDS. In other studies done with chimpanzees, only a few have become sick over a 10 year period of time. This may seem like real progress, but the truth is that progress is still very slow and it may take a while before an actual cure is discovered.

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Animals in Psychology

When it comes to psychology, a lot of things are uncertain or unclear. Animals have played an important role in the world of psychology. Not only have we obtained a better knowledge of how the mind works, but other aspects as well. I am sure that everyone who has taken a general psychology course has heard of Harry Harlow and the "maternal deprivation" experiments. This is one of the many examples that we have learned from by using animal models. In these experiments, Harlow took and separated infant monkeys from their mothers and placed them with either a surrogate mother or placed the infants in total isolation. This may seem like a cruel act, and maybe it is. However, now psychologists have an actual model to learn by.

Animal Research

This part of my webpage is where the real controversy begins. There are a lot of people who do not agree with testing on animals. Sometimes the benefits might not even outweigh the costs. However, in reality the actual benefits of using animals for research are gaining new knowledge that we do not already obtain, developing new drugs and treatments for illnesses not cured yet, and developing new technologies. By using animals in research there is so much more knowledge out there to be gained. However, there is also a lot to be lost, such as the innocent lives of animals. The main costs as a lot of animal rights activists see it, are that the animals go through a lot of pain, suffering, and distress during the experiments in which they take a part in involuntarily. Another cost, is death! In a lot of cases, when the experimenter has no more need for an animal, they are killed.

Each year the United States uses approximately 23 million animals for research. This is an incredibly large amount of animals. However, the U.S. is not the only country that conducts animal research. In the UK alone, some 3 million animals are used for research as well. Among the animals that are used are: rats, mice, ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, fish, reptiles, dogs, cats, monkeys, and other animals. About 95% of the animals used are rodents. In 2000, it was estimated that some $45 billion of taxpayers money was spent on biomedical research.

Pound Seizure

What the heck is pound seizure? Well, I was not sure at first and I did not want to believe that this would actually happen, but it does. Pound seizure allows institutes to take unwanted animals from the pound after a five day waiting period is over. If no one comes to take an animal home with them, then research institutes are allowed to claim the animals and use them for any type of research necessary. There are only a handful of states that allow this to happen, and they are: Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Utah. It is pleasing to know that Pennsylvania does not take part in this action.

Product Testing

Companies that test on animals:

Bausch & Lomb: Curel Calvin Klein Cosmetics Chesebrough-Ponds: Cutex, Vaseline

Clairol Inc. Elizabeth Arden Inc. Helene Curtis Johnson & Johnson Kimberly-Clark Co.

Mead Mennen Co. Murphey-Phoenix Co.: Colgate-Palmolive 3M: Scotch, Post-It

Procter & Gamble

These are just a few of the companies that test on animals. In this section I am going to be discussing 3 main tests that are performed on animals in product testing. They are the Lethal Dose 50, Draize test, and Skin irritancy tests. The Lethal Dose 50 test, or LD50, is when the experimenter administers a harmful substance to a group of animals via tube through the esophagus and into the stomach. This test continues for days on end and is finally completed when half of the animals die. If there are still animals living after the harsh experiment, they are then killed as well. The purpose of this test is to measure the toxicity of the ingredients in consumer products.

The Draize test is another test that measures harmful chemicals in products. This test was developed by John H. Draize, a toxicologist for the Food and Drug Administration. During this test, albino rabbits are placed in stocks like farm animals so that they cannot move nor escape the pain. Once in these stocks, their eyes are held open with metal clips so their eyes will not close during the administration of the chemicals. The reason why chemicals are placed into the rabbit's eyes are because they have rather large eyes and the reactions can be easily observed by researchers. During the Draize test, rabbits suffer a lot of pain and afterwards their eyes are completely mutilated. In most cases, the rabbits end up blind. The last test is the Skin Irritancy test. In this test, the animals bodies are shaved in the areas where the chemicals are going to be placed. This test is designed to measure the sensitivity of skin.

Military Research

"The Atomic Ark" was a name given to an experiment such that animals were sent out on a boat and then they had bombs dropped onto them. At Fort Sam, rats were immersed into boiling water for ten seconds and then infected with diseases on their scorched bodies. Another account at the Naval Medical Institue, rats bodies were shaved, drenched in ethanol, and then torched.

Radiation & Diseases:

At the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, monkeys were strapped into chairs and then exposed to high amounts of radiation. Afterwards, the monkeys suffered from extreme nausea and convulsions. At Fort Detrick monkeys were injected with the Dengue 2 virus.

Wound Labs:

One account that I read said that a lab used conscious or semiconscious animals and suspended them from slings into the air where they were shot at with weapons. At Fort Sam's "Goat Lab", goats are hung upside down by their legs and then are shot at with weapons.

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Alternatives to Animals

Animal rights activists would say that this is the way to go, while some researchers would have to disagree. The fact is that human and animal biology is not the same and animals are still needed to do research. An alternative technique is a type of testing method without the use of animals. Alternatives range from using tissue and cell cultures, to test kits, to also computer models. In Vitro alternatives are some of the most common types of tests that are used today. These tests require the use of tissue and cell cultures, which are easy and harmless to obtain. By using this method we can develop vaccines. The EPISKIN test is an in vitro alternative which tests for chemicals in skin corrosivity. The Epipack test uses human cells for the skin irritancy tests. Amazingly, there is a test that uses a clear gel from a jack bean to mimic the cornea of the eye. This is the EYETEX. There is a test kit, the Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay, that identifies chemicals and determines the concentration of those chemicals. This kit is almost like a home pregnancy test. A red marker or dye is used on the chemicals in which is being tested.

There was an alternative that I found while reading my research that is not exactly an alternative, but rather that it is a form of reduction. It is called the Fixed Dose Procedure. This test was designed to replace the Lethal Dose 50 test because it does not use quite as many animals. Instead of trying to kill half of the animals being used in the experiment, the Fixed Dose Procedure only uses a certain amount of a substance that produces small signs of toxicity. Once this goal is obtained, then no further testing needs to be conducted, therefore saving animal lives. The use of computers in animal research is still in question. Computer models can be a very important source, however, the final product must be done on an actual animal. As strange as it might seem, some have even proposed that research can be conducted by completing a mathematical formula. The more information is gathered and made complete, then the formula would be complete as well. For the time being, alternatives will just have to do.

Thanks!

Love, Animals

The 3 R's

By using the 3 R's, the lives of many animals can be spared. The 3 R's stand for: reduce, refine, and replace. This motto is designed to do exactly what it states. In the reduction stage it is important to reduce the number of animals being used for research. Also, by having a proper experimental design set up and by keeping a proper statistical analysis so as not to use too many animals for a particular experiment, but so that not too few animals are used as well to obtain invalid results. Another important note to add, it is better to use animals that have similar genetic background so that the results will be valid, but consistent as well. In the refinement stage, the main objective is to keep the levels of pain and distress to a bare minimum. Instead of letting the animal suffer an excruciating amount of pain throughout the entire experiment, the animals should simply be killed at the initial signs of suffering. Other elements to consider here are living conditions, diet, and health. The last stage is the replacement stage. Whenever it is possible, animal models should be replaced by alternative methods of experimentation. The only problem is that using alternative methods does not always work quite as well as using animal models. Therefore, once again, animal models must still be used in research.

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Laws, Regulations, and Guidelines

In most cases, there organizations that mandate specific guidelines for the process of using animals in research. Some of the organizations that require or use animal data are: Food and Drug Administration, Environment Protection Agency, Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The government as well, uses the principles of the 3 R's when considering animal research. In 1966, the Animal Welfare Act was enacted into law by Congress and since then has been amended a few times. This act applies to all research facilities, which include schools (not elementary or secondary), institutes, or organizations receiving funds either by a grant, award, loan, or even under contract via department or agency that uses animal data. In order to conduct research, such facilities must be registered and licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture and be in compliance with the regulations and guidelines of research. It is important under this act to insure humane treatment and care of animals, as well as the transportation, purchase, and sale. It also insures that a proper diet, sanitation, ventilation, and shelter are well maintained. Another important element that is stated within this act is that a veterinary technician should be on duty at all times to assure that the animals are treated well. The USDA has the right to and is required to inspect each research facility at least once a year to ensure that these facilities are complying with the guidelines given. Along with inspection, all research facilities are required to establish an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee which is in charge of both reviewing and approving certain procedures.

Works Cited

All for Animals. (2003). Companies that test on animals. September 15, 2003,

http://www.allforanimals.com/cruel1.htm

Americans for Medical Progress. (2002). Animal Research. September 2, 2003,

http://www.ampef.org/

American Psychological Association. (2003). Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in

Care and Use of Animals. September 3, 2003, http://apa.org/science

Foundation for Biomedical Research. (2003, April 28). September 2, 2003,

http://www.fbresearch.org/education/

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Essentials for Animal Research: A

Primer for Research Personnel. September 15, 2003, http://www.research.ucsb.edu/connect/acc/esalt.htm

Laboratory Animal Welfare. Animals in Research. http://www.labanimalwelfare.org/