Animal Testing

What is animal testing?

Both live and deceased animals are used for commercial or scientific research or educational purposes in a range of capacities.

'Vivisection' refers specifically to the cutting of, or operation on, a living animal, typically causing pain or distress - it is frequently used by opponents as a pejorative synonym for the more general 'animal testing'.

The types of tests carried out on animals vary from trialling new medical innovations to testing cosmetics for physiological reactions - the most notorious test being the 'Draize test'.


Background

Testing on animals has a long medical history. The techniques have been viewed by many as invaluable in the development of modern science and the understanding of the human condition.

In 1859, Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory reinforced the conception that animals could serve as models for humans in the study of biology and physiology.

British women in Florence are commonly thought to have led the first organised protest against vivisection in 1863. The Cruelty to Animals Act, allowing the use of anaesthetics during vivisection, was passed in England in 1876.

Animal testing peaked in the early 1980s, and has been in decline since, due to the development of both alternatives and public pressure. The increase in available alternatives to animal testing led to pressure to reduce testing and the numbers of animals tested has declined since.

In response to widespread protests at testing conditions and regulations, and the adoption of European Directive 86/609/EEC, the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 outlined a number of guidelines and regulations for scientific and commercial testing in the UK.

The Animal Procedures Committee, an advisory, non-nepartmental public body, was established and appointed under the terms of sections 19 and 20 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.


Controversies

Laboratory animals are used for many different purposes in research and testing, raising a variety of ethical, welfare and scientific issues.

Some people feel that painful or stressful experimentation on living animals for any purpose is morally abhorrent. Commercial testing of non-medical products is largely opposed, but fewer place the welfare of laboratory animals above the development of life-saving medical treatments. The use of great apes - man's closest genetic relations - is particularly controversial.

Public feelings about animal testing have led many manufacturers and retailers to advertise their 'cruelty-free' credentials - Anita Roddick's 'Body Shop' chain has been at the forefront of this movement.

However, animal testing has also been a subject that has provoked extremism and terrorism, with frequent attacks on laboratories by animal rights activists from groups such as the Animal Liberation Front. In August 2000, animal liberation extremists placed petrol bombs in five cars belonging to staff from the Huntingdon Life Sciences laboratory causing extensive damage. This threat from extremists led to the bankers of Huntingdon Life Sciences withdrawing their credit in 2002, for fear of reprisals.

The development of genetic engineering has pushed the use of animals in research back into the public consciousness, exemplified by the birth of the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, 'Dolly the Sheep', at the Roslin Research Institute outside Edinburgh.


Statistics

The number of animals reportedly used for experimentation in Great Britain increased from several hundred in 1900 to 3.1 million in 1986

About 40 per cent of all procedures used some form of anaesthesia to alleviate the severity of the interventions

Genetically modified animals were used in 710,000 regulated procedures representing 26 per cent of all procedures for 2002 (compared with 24 per cent in 2001 and eight per cent in 1995)

422 Horses and donkeys, 14,887 sheep, 914,795 mice, and 473,285 rats were used in scientific experiments across the EU in 2002

Statistics 1 and 2: (Source: Home Office Statistics, 2002); Statistics 3 and 4: (Source: Animal Procedures Committee, 2002)


Quotes

"Science, industry and regulators are too ready to take the view that primate use is unavoidable. This view should be challenged. Replacing primates with humane alternatives should not be beyond the bounds of scientific endeavour in the 21st century."

Dr Mark Prescott, RSPCA primatologist, 2003

"Many of us would not be able to lead healthy lives were it not for the pharmaceutical companies being able to test their drugs on animals."

Jack Straw, then Home Secretary, BBC News, 2000

"The Animal Protection Act 1986 regulates scientific procedures which may cause pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm to 'protected animals'; it refers to these as 'regulated procedures'. 'Protected animals' are defined in the Act as all living vertebrate animals, except man, as well as one invertebrate species, the common octopus. The definition includes foetal, larval and embryonic forms which have reached specified stages of development."

Home Office, 2003