What are animal experiments used for?
Animals are used to test or develop almost anything from household products, cosmetics and food additives to pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, agrochemicals, pet foods, medical devices, and tobacco and alcohol products. Military experiments subject animals to the effects of poisonous gas, decompression sickness, blast wounds, burns and radiation as they assess new and existing weapons and surgical techniques ‘in the field’. Why does it continue? Multi-billion dollar industries including animal breeding corporations, cage and equipment manufactures and of course the pharmaceutical industry. Animal tests help them speed new drugs to market and, most significantly, give them a legal defence against public allegations of inadequate safety testing. Tradition is so deeply ingrained that the whole system is based on it. Its fundamental acceptance has long allowed it to escape attention. Researchers are far removed from patient care and may believe that by experimenting on animals they ar
