Against Animal Testing

Each year in the United States, an estimated 70 million animals are maimed, blinded, scalded, force-fed chemicals, genetically manipulated, and otherwise hurt and killed in the name of science, by private institutions, household product and cosmetics companies, government agencies, educational institutions, and scientific centers. Substances we use everyday, such as eye shadow, soap, furniture polish and oven cleaner, may be tested on rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, dogs, cats, and other animals. These tests are mainly used to test the degree of harmfulness of products and their ingredients. No antidoes are ever sought, so animal tests cannot be used to prevent or treat potential human injuries. These tests are not required by the law, and they are only done to protect companies from consumer lawsuits.

Other tests more suitable include:

• Chemical assay tests
• Tissue culture systems
• Cell and organ cultures
• Cloned human skin cells
• Human skin patches
• Computer and mathematical models

 Amal......xxxx

Thursday 11 November 2010

Animal Testing

Does animal testing work?
Yes	No
Animal testing has helped to develop vaccines against diseases like rabies, polio, measles, mumps, rubella and TB	Animal experiments can be misleading. An animal's response to a drug can be different to a human's
Antibiotics, HIV drugs, insulin and cancer treatments rely on animal tests. Other testing methods aren't advanced enough	Successful alternatives include test tube studies on human tissue cultures, statistics and computer models
Scientists claim there are no differences in lab animals and humans that cannot be factored into tests	The stress that animals endure in labs can affect experiments, making the results meaningless
Operations on animals helped to develop organ transplant and open-heart surgery techniques	Animals are still used to test items like cleaning products, which benefit mankind less than medicines or surgery

Is animal testing morally right?
Yes	No
Human life has greater intrinsic value than animal life	Animals have as much right to life as human beings
Legislation protects all lab animals from cruelty or mistreatment	Strict controls have not prevented researchers from abusing animals - although such instances are rare
Millions of animals are killed for food every year - if anything, medical research is a more worthy death	Deaths through research are absolutely unnecessary and are morally no different from murder
Few animals feel any pain as they are killed before they have the chance to suffer	When locked up they suffer tremendous stress. Can we know they don't feel pain?

Numbers of animals used in the UK in 2000
Animals	Number Used
Mouse	1,607,000
Rat	535,000
Other Rodent	71,500
Rabbit	39,700
Carnivore	11,600
Hoofed mammal	63,000
Primate	3,700
Other mammal	500
Bird	124,200
Reptile	15,600
Fish	243,000
TOTAL	2,714,800

Amal....xxxxxx

Tuesday 9 November 2010

Why animal experimentation is bad?

First of all, animal experimentation should be terminated because of the government's involvement in this type of science. Accurate counts of the number of animals killed each year because of the experiments cannot be found. 

The U.S. government had decided that rodents and certain other animals don't have to be counted. Also, an American taxpayer funds the government to support the cost of the experiments, whether you know it or not. Yet, one cannot visit a laboratory and see how the government used the money.

 In addition, animal experimentation is a multi-billion dollar industry with a web of scientists, government, university labs, cage and food manufacturers, animal breeders, and transporters. But, the government is in the middle of this all and everyone gets a profit out of a powerless animal

. By adding up all the bad things that the government has done, animal experimentation should be ceased because of a superior force that doesn't care for nature.

Amal....xxxxx

Why does animal testing take place?



British law says that any new drug used for medicine, must be tested on at least two different types of live mammal. One of these must be a large non-rodent type animal. This is to make sure the drug works and doesn't hurt you.

Animal testing has also sometimes been used for developing:

• Household products

• Agricultural chemicals

• Industrial chemicals

• Pesticides

• Paint

• Food additives

In some countries animals are also used to test beauty products. But this is not allowed in Britain anymore.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/find_out/guides/animals/animal_testing/newsid_2149000/2149767.stm

What do you know about mice? Did you know that mice in the wild can jump and climb trees? Or that one type of mouse called a harvest mouse builds a nest of woven grass attached to stalks or reeds above the ground? Did you know that dormice can lower their body temperature to save energy when it's cold or when there isn't much food around. It's all true! Now that's amazing!



Rats are also very intelligent animals who have very sharp hearing and a good sense of smell. They are good swimmers and climbers and like to live in groups. People who look after domestic rats say that rats are friendly and gentle and that they are very keen explorers!



Did you know that some medicines and even some of the shampoos, soaps and other products your family might use to clean the house are tried out on mice, rats and other animals to see if the animals get hurt when eating or touching them? For example, rats might have to eat washing powder to see what happens to them, and rabbits might have to have toilet cleaner rubbed on their bare skin to see whether they get a rash.



Even cats and dogs are used to try medicines before people can buy them. Animals either die during the tests from being fed too much medicine or soap, or they are killed after the tests.



Some people think that it's a good idea to test on animals; others say that it's wrong.



Someone who thinks it is OK to test things on animals might say

• "Using animals is a good way to find out whether products like polish, shampoo and medicines are safe for people to use. At least no humans get hurt!"

Someone who thinks it is wrong to use animals like this might say

• "It is not right to use animals like this because animals hurt, just like we do."

• "There are other ways to test products. We can even use computers to find out if a medicine or shampoo will hurt us."

Written by Safa

Should animals be used to in testing new drugs and procedures??

Some people agree that Animal Testing should take place, they feel that by using Animals to test products helps save our lives... Some people agree that Animal Testing should only be used to test for medical purposes, and I agree with this argument.

The following link has views of our opposing argument. It is explained that animal testing helps us and should still be carried out.

http://www.writefix.com/argument/animaltestingyes2.htm

         -Written by Safina 

Have things changed, due to our actions?

Because of all the actions we carried out, we have had some positive impact out of it. Most of our friends now stop buying mars bars because the mars bar company agree that animal testing is right, (they also don't buy it because they don't taste that nice :D) .

 Our friends at school now shop at body shop, which is a store that protests against animal testing. It sells products that are tested using alternative methods. We suggest you shop there, the products are of the same quality maybe even better than the products that you may get somewhere else. By doing this your helping to stop more animals getting harmed.

(you could save an animlas life!)

Written by Fatimah Farooqui :D

L'Oreal stops animal testing on products..

Hellooo :)

During my research I found ths website which says that L'Oreal no longer use animal testing for their products:

L’Oréal voluntarily stopped using animal testing for the evaluation of its entire range of finished cosmetic products in 1989.  It was possible to do this due to the considerable time and effort we have invested for over two decades, including developments of databases on ingredient toxicity profiles and the results of a large-scale programme carried out over several years to develop appropriate in vitro methods such as Episkin.  Moreover, we have also co-operated with our competitors in this common objective.

We are totally committed to a future without tests on animals.  We comply with all EU and national laws in ensuring the absolute safety of our products.  These are positions we share with The Body Shop whose policy of not using any ingredients that have been tested or retested on animals for cosmetics purposes since the end of 1990 remains unchanged.

Want to read more? Press this.

Asiya =]

Hello everyone :)
Today I just wanted to write about how animal testing can be useful, animal testing is used for medical purposes and it has been quite helpful. It has helped to create many new vaccines and helped to treat many diseases as well. But even so don't you think that scientists should use today's technology to create reliable alternatives instead of choosing an easier option that is cruel?
So I found a website that shows the alternatives to animal testing to show you that there are some:
Centre for Alternatives to Animal Testing
This is a website which is completely dedicated to the alternatives and i found it very useful.
Please have a look and see the other alternatives :)
Thanks
Hamna x

Animals Are Not Ours to Experiment On!

Hello! It's Ayunie here! (Sometimes I feel as if there's no need to say that anymore, I mean, it's always me, isn't it?). Well, I found an article on Peta.org.uk - a quite short one in fact - talking about how animals aren't ours to experiment on. They just aren't.


I hope you do check it out!  :)

http://www.peta.org.uk/issues/animals-are-not-ours-to-experiment-on/

-Ayunie

Adverse Drug Reactions

Hello! I found a couple of websites on the internet which tells you about adverse drug reactions...But what exactly ARE adverse drug reactions? Adverse drug reactions (we're talking about in the case of animal testing) is when drugs are tested on animals, and the results state that the drug is safe, but when used on humans produce bad, even disastrous, results.

http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/NEWS/news_experiments/ALL/2321//

http://www.pcrm.org/resch/anexp/dangerous_med.html

 

http://www.sovereign-publications.com/curedisease.htm

http://www.gan.ca/lifestyle/animal+testing/articles+on+animal+research/index.en.html

http://www.vivisectioninformation.com/index.php?p=1_4_Adverse-reactions-humans-injured-by-animal-tests

From the websites above, one can see why we are against animal testing - it's totally unreliable! Yes, it may have helped scientific developments, but can we really afford the loss of so many lives on something we can change? So many accidents have happened in that past, so why don't we learn from it?

-Ayunie

20 Ways to Raise Animal Cruelty Awareness

These are just a few ways to raise awareness in animal cruelty:-

1) Start an Animal Appreciation Club. Ask your teacher or principal if you can start an animal awareness club at your school. Have a weekly or bi-weekly meeting to discuss animal issues and invite people from your community to speak. For example, invite someone from your local animal rescue to speak about adoption. 

2) Organize an Event in Your Local Community Center. Invite a speaker, for example, someone who went to New Orleans to rescue animals from Katrina, to speak to your community. You can make the event free, or ask for a donation to the animal organization of your choice! Encourage all the people who come to visit AnimalPlanet.com and sign up to promise to help animals.

3) Plan a Hero Night. Invite local volunteers to a community event and honor their efforts – while giving the other attendees the opportunity to learn how they can get involved!

4) Organize a Dog Park Clean Up Day. Dog parks can get run down very quickly. Talk to other dog park users and organize a day to spiff up the playground.

5) Visit a Nature Center to Find Out About Local Wildlife. Your local nature center can give you lots of information about the types of wildlife in your geographic area. Bring your friends, family, classmates and learn something from the experts.

6) Invite a Vet to Career Day at Your School. Next time your school hosts a Career Day, invite your favorite vet to come and talk about becoming a doctor for animals.

7) Start a Neighborhood Watch Program. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has some great ideas for preventing animal abuse with a Neighborhood Watch Program.

8) Teach Your Community About Making a Difference. The American Humane Association (AHA) has ten easy ideas for being kind to animals. Share this list will all your friends and family!

9) Teach Your Community About Preventing Animal Cruelty. You and your neighbors can make a difference by learning how to prevent animal cruelty. Anne Marie Lucus from Animal Precinct shared some easy ways to prevent animal cruelty with the America Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Read the list and share it with all your friends and family.

10) Become a Mentor. If you are a veterinarian you can become a mentor and share your animal awareness with new vets. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has a mentoring program.

11) Organize a Wildlife Expedition. Nothing beats hands-on learning through a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take time away from your busy schedule and dedicate a vacation to helping animals. Organize a trip through your community, school or religious group. Earthwatch offers a variety of amazing expeditions all year round.

12) Have an Animal Birthday Party. If you would love to teach your friends and family about animals – why not use your birthday party! If you live in the area, you can go to the South Shore Natural Science Center and they will help you plan hikes, games and animal activities.

13) Teach Your Students about Wildlife. Why not build wildlife into your academic planning? The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has some wonderful lesson plans for using gardening to teach kids about life skills and animals!

14) Join WWF's Conservation Action Network, where you can speak out for wildlife and wild places around the globe.

15) Participate in Conscious Consumerism. Conservation is just about what you DO, it is about what you DO NOT do. Learn about how to make a stand by not buying products that endanger our species. Share these easy ideas from the Wildlife Warriors Worldwide with your friends and family!

16) Send the ROAR Promise Page to All Your Friends and Family. Encourage everyone you know to get out there and help animals!

17) Have Your Children and Students Read Humane Children's Books. You can read books like Black Beauty together and talk about the importance of kindness to animals.

18) Coordinate a Volunteer Event at Your Local Shelter. Wouldn't it be fun to get your community or co-workers involved in a little volunteer work at a local shelter? Many companies (including Animal Planet!) support taking a day off every once and awhile to work at a local shelter. Talk to your Human Resources department and your local shelter.

19) Start a Backyard Habitat Club. Local conservation can start in your backyard. Get your friends and neighbors together and share ideas for transforming your backyard into an oasis for animals.

20) Help People Find a Place to Volunteer. Print out the volunteer locations in your area and share them with friends, family, co-workers and fellow students! Post the volunteer locations in your inter-office mail, school paper or local paper. Make sure everyone who volunteers to help animals makes a promise here!

So many things you can do to create awareness! Right?

-Amal (written by Ayunie, but all the information here was given by her!)