Arguments For and Against Animal Testing

Scientists claim that there are no differences in lab animals and humans that cannot be factored into tests

Animals do not have the same rights as humans

Human health is more important than animal welfare

The public expects high standards of drug safety and these can only be achieved by experiments on animals

Millions of animals are killed for food every year - if anything, medical research is a more worthy death

Few animals feel any pain, as they are killed before they have the chance to suffer

Antibiotics, HIV drugs, insulin and cancer treatments rely on animal tests. Other testing methods aren't  advanced enough

Most advances in human health have come from research in animals

Animal testing is misleading. An animal's response to a drug can be different from a human's

Animals have the same rights not to be abused as humans

Ignoring animal welfare degrades humans and makes the people who experiment on animals sub-human

Better hygiene and nutrition have had more effect in improving human health than animal experiments

Deaths through research are absolutely unnecessary and are morally no different from murder

When locked up, animals suffer tremendous stress. Can we know they don't feel pain?

Successful alternatives include test tube studies on human tissue cultures, statistics and computer models

There are alternatives to the use of animals and if these cannot be used, then the drugs should not be used