What is animal experimentation and why is it important?

The use of animals in scientific research has greatly contributed to the medical and educational progresses that were achieved until now. There is a long history of using animals in scientific research, along with it a debate concerning its moral and ethical justification dates back to the moment, when animals were first used. Attitudes towards testing on animals scoped from absolute acceptance to absolute rejection and this seemed to have logical explanation. Both sides had strong arguments. For instance, involving animals in research has a positive effect, resulting in increasing of human health standards. Experience obtained from working with animals helped scientists to improve their general knowledge of mechanisms of how do living organisms function. On the other hand, the remaining scientists claimed that methods used to obtain those results were not only cruel and inhumane, but the majority of them could have been done using non-animal methods. This essay will prove that animal experimentation is a necessity, having led to numerous breakthroughs, it will also provide information about animal testing and alternatives that are now used to make the use of animals less harmful. Animal experimentation refers to any type of experimental procedures carried out on living animals. Using living animals in research started long ago, in ancient times. The main aim was to satisfy the curiosity of scientists in anatomy. Ibn al-Nafis, arab physician, who was interested in medicine and anatomy, was first to use animals for his experiments. In 1242 he demonstrated the circulation of blood in mammals. Nowadays there is a variety of applications of animal testing. This include basic and applied biomedical research, uses for education, for testing drugs, products, biological and chemical substances. Thus in basic research, experimental procedures are carried out to investigate biological and medical phenomena. Applied research, also known as disease model, involves investigating of pathological symptoms that were artificially created on healthy animals. This include feeding animals with toxic substances or inflicting physical injuries by burning their skin or breaking their bones and then treating them. In education, animals are usually used for biology classes, in experiments of dissecting or mating. Approximately 100 million of vertebrate animals are used annually in animal research worldwide. It is surprising, because only six decades ago parents in the USA would be afraid to let their children go away, as they could catch polio, a violent disease which was spread across the country, before Jonas Salk, a physician, had demonstrated his creation, a vaccine against that disease. The vaccine was tested on mice, before it was used on patients. It protected a vaccinated person from polio for life. In the mid-1990s polio was wiped out in the USA. Other treatments that saved millions of lives include medicaments to prevent cancer and treat AIDS, organ transplant surgeries, ways to deliver insulin to people who suffer from diabetes. Some of the scientists, who received the Nobel Prizes, with contributions of animals include Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain. With the help of mice they gained knowledge about the function of penicillin, to fight the infectious diseases caused by bacteria. The winners of 1952 awards tested the first antibiotic on guinea pig. So by testing those treatments, millions of people were saved worldwide, which gives a strong argument in advantage towards animal testing. Another reason to use animals is their resemblance to humans. Despite the fact that animals and humans are completely different outside, inside they are very similar. Thus rats share up 97.5% of DNA with people. Diseases like cancer, narcolepsy, diabetes or any heart diseases affect animals in a similar way to people. Unlike people, most animals have short lifespans, so scientists can investigate the effects of medicaments throughout their entire lives. Animals such as mice and rabbits in addition are small, so they can be easily sheltered. In the 1950s biologists William Russell and Rex Burch wrote research papers to reduce the passion between people who are for and against animal testing, finding alternatives to animal experimentations and steps that can be taken to avoid harming them. The idea to provide ethically acceptable animal use in research, resulted a concept, which is known nowadays as the “Three Rs: replacement, reduction and refinement”. For “replacement” Russell and Burch referred to not to use animals whenever it is possible and use non-animal methods instead. Such as using invertebrates and microorganisms. Lowering the number of animals in each experiment and obtain the biggest amount of information from fewer number of animals, by sharing scientists’ knowledge with each other, refers to “reduction”. “Refinement” was referred to improving experiments to minimize animal suffering. The concept was accepted worldwide. Moreover, some countries embodied the “Three Rs” in legislation. Animal testing had a great impact in contribution to modern medicine, letting humans know how to treat various types of diseases. Although the advances obtained through animal research may not outweigh all the side effects, scientists make every effort to deal with the problem. Now the debates are not as impassioned as they were 50 years ago, when the “Three Rs” concept was not yet proposed. These alternative methods help to make animal research with benefits to both sides, minimizing the sufferings of animals.