Is It Time To Stop Animal Testing?

Much of the animal testing we do isn’t necessary anymore, but we keep doing it. Why?

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** So why do we experiment on animals? **
For decades, many companies tested their products on animals to see if they were safe. Animal testing really took off in the 1930s after 17 women were blinded and 1 died from using a mascara. After that, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) started regulating cosmetics. And by 1962, animal testing was required for certain kinds of research beyond cosmetics and remains so to this day. It’s a touchy subject because many animal rights activists say that the animals are put through painful procedures without much regard for their welfare.

** So can we, like, NOT test on animals and still develop safe medicines? **
There are indeed alternatives to animal testing. Some of the most powerful are “organs-on-chips.” Scientists take human cells and grow them on little plastic chips to form tiny man-made organs. Basically, it’s living human tissue. This is huge, people! Like, you can understand how human lungs respond to a new drug without causing any pain to any animals! Another alternative to animal testing is to use computer algorithms that can analyze tons of data that we already have. For instance, recent research shows computer models of human heart cells can predict when drugs will have bad side effects better than animal tests. Researchers are excited about all of these alternatives for two big reasons: animal testing is expensive, and it’s just not very accurate. Plus, there are all kinds of new fancy personalized medicine and therapies now that are so specific to human biology that animal studies don’t work at all.

** So why haven’t we ditched animal testing entirely yet? **
The biggest challenge is always people. It’s convincing the people that work in the pharmaceutical industry to change the way they do things. It’s hard for people to take a risk. So, when it’s time to approve something for testing, fund some research, or publish some study, researchers and the institutions that they work for usually want to see animal tests, even when it’s not required.

SOURCES
https://www.humanesociety.org/resourc...
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4159...
https://www.understandinganimalresear...
https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/product...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/...
https://caat.jhsph.edu/principles/for...
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-c...
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2021...
https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...

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CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:32 History of Animal Testing
2:14 State of Animal Testing Regulations in the U.S.
2:54 Alternatives to Animal Testing
5:31 Obstacles to Change
8:43 Summation & Outro

#animals