• Question: Do you agree with animal testing, if not what do you think could be done to change it?

    Asked by 07thomsonc to Vicki, Keith, Hywel, Emma, Alastair on 16 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Alastair Sloan

      Alastair Sloan answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      This is a good question.

      I do think that in some cases animal testing is needed and has to be done, but it can be done in a more humane way with more respect and care for the animal. I have had projects funded by a specialist body called the NC3Rs which work towards reducing or replacing animals in science and spoken at meetings and Parliamentary events about this subject. I have spent over 10 years developing biological models of tissue injury and repair which can be used in place of animal tests or at the very least reduce the number of animal tests that have to be done. Computer models, or growth of cells and tissues will reduce animal studies. I use cells taken from humans (ethically and after consent of course) to use for studies that some time ago would have been done on animals.

      Some animal testing is needed to make sure drugs are safe for you and I, but we can due less and less extra animal studies and refine the others

    • Photo: Keith Brain

      Keith Brain answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I think that some animal testing, under strictly controlled conditions, and where no reasonable alternatives are available, is still necessary and will be for generations to come. The best way to reduce animal testing is to develop good alternative methods, but these have proven to be very hard to come by. I note Hywel’s earlier comments on using computers to test everything, but just as the world speed record isn’t achieved in a computer (you have to put your vehicle to the test irl), so, too, do biological hypotheses generated by computer simulations have to be applied to organisms.

    • Photo: Vicki Stevenson

      Vicki Stevenson answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I think that it depends on the reason for doing the testing. I couldn’t accept animal testing to check whether shampoos or cosmetics were safe to use on humans. However, I think that if the result of the animal testing would be a cure for a horrible disease like cancer then I could live with that – as long as the animals were treated well and care was taken to minimise their suffering.

Comments