World Day for Laboratory Animals, Monday April 24, commemorates the suffering of animals in laboratories worldwide, where over 100 million animals are tortured and die in research and testing. Animal Defenders International (ADI) and celebrity supporter Dame Joanna Lumley are calling for positive change to end the suffering and benefit human health through the adoption of advanced non-animal methods.
Latest figures show in Britain:
- Nearly 3 million animals were used in laboratories in 2021, up 6% from 2020.
- Procedures were carried out on 2,579 dogs, mostly beagles.
- 2,204 primates were used, mostly long-tailed macaques (now endangered in the wild due to the trade in primates for research). A quarter of primates in laboratories were born to wild-caught mothers.
- The most used species were mice (2,078,859), zebrafish (325,873) and domestic fowl (238,886).
- 674,020 experiments were on genetically modified animals with a further 1,329,263 procedures for the creation and maintenance of animals with genetic modifications, who can suffer from deformed limbs, fused bones, and painful swellings.
- 86,787 experiments and breeding procedures caused severe suffering which can include internal bleeding, heart failure, and nerve damage; 410,868 caused moderate suffering which can include implanting a device into a monkey’s skull, with common adverse effects including wound infections; and 1,168,560 caused mild suffering which can include food or water restriction to motivate performance in behavioural tasks and foot shocks in mice.
Animals are burnt, blinded, deliberately infected with disease and force-fed products. Generally conducted in secret, most procedures are never published, so the pain and suffering of these animals is not exposed to wider scientific or public scrutiny.
Animals continue to be used when we already know the critical differences in response between species to chemicals, drugs and other products. Results can be affected by the animals simply being present in a laboratory, and by the animal’s age, diet, even bedding material; results between laboratories have been found to vary.
Due to species differences, animals respond differently to substances such as drugs, and are therefore an unreliable way to predict effects in people – for example, more than 90% of drugs which prove promising in animal trials fail in human trials. Human diseases which do not naturally occur in animals are artificially created; these ‘models’ of human disease are not the same as the disease in people and can produce misleading results.
Scientific and medical research and testing can be improved without the use of animals, by employing advanced scientific methods which focus on humans, rather than other species. Governments and regulators must drive research toward modern methods to benefit people, such as sophisticated analytical techniques, databases, organ-on-a chip models, microdosing, computer simulations and modelling, and human tissue and 3D cell cultures.
Dame Joanna Lumley said: “I’m against animal experiments. They cause such pain and suffering and cannot be trusted. Superior, non-animal methods can and should be used and I support Animal Defenders International in its call for the government to do more to make this a reality.”
ADI founder and President Jan Creamer said: “Animal experiments are unreliable, unethical and unnecessary. We need a firm commitment from government for replacement with advanced non-animal methods of research across sectors and an ambitious timetable to follow this through. Some progress is being made, which is welcomed, but more needs to be done, and more quickly so that we can all benefit from better science.”
Areas of research exposed by ADI include:
Cosmetics testing: These include repeated, toxic doses of products to observe long-term poisonous effects. Animals may be forced to inhale products or have them pumped down their throats or applied to their skin. Skin sensitisation tests involve painful damage to the animals’ skin. ADI investigations have exposed extreme suffering, including rabbits restrained in stocks while products are dripped into their eyes and guinea pigs suffering raw and inflamed skin lesions. Such tests are unnecessary and unreliable, and should be replaced by advanced scientific testing methods focusing on the biological processes in humans. Nearly 40 countries worldwide have ended their use.
Toxicity testing: Experiments on animals to test the safety and effectiveness of drugs and other substances can involve force-feeding compounds such as agricultural chemicals or having toxic substances pumped into their veins. ADI investigations have documented, for example, restrained monkeys force-fed an incontinence drug through a pipe daily for a year. The dosing method caused vomiting, including in the control group who did not receive the drug. Several animals suffered prolapses, which appeared to be the result of fear due to anticipation of the procedures. These cruel animal tests can be replaced with advanced technology but, despite the alternatives available, they continue.
Fundamental (basic) research: Experimental by nature, animals are used to gather information or data, but with no intended application for human health. Such projects can continue for decades with no end in sight. An example of this research is tests carried out on monkeys, whose heads were cut open to implant electrodes and a recording chamber into their brains. The monkeys had to grasp different objects for food reward while their brain activity was recorded with and without an electrical current being applied to their brains. There are fundamental differences between human and monkey brains and the researchers acknowledged that non-invasive studies using human subjects are already carried out.
Genetic modification: GM animals are created with a particular trait in order to “model” human conditions and are intended to be abnormal in some way. Given a deliberate genetic defect, prolonged animal suffering can arise from repeated surgeries, egg collection, implantation, repeated blood and tissue testing, and the intended and unintended mutations suffered. With only 3-5% of offspring having the desired genetic defect, huge numbers of animals are killed and discarded.
Primate trade: ADI has conducted investigations of primate suppliers around the world. At Biodia, a key breeding facility in Mauritius, ADI footage showed baby monkeys being torn from their screaming mothers to be tattooed, pregnant monkeys manhandled and pinned down, and monkeys swung by their tails. At supplier Nafovanny in Vietnam, ADI filmed monkeys living in deplorable conditions, with some animals confined to small, rusting cages in a state of collapse. In Colombia, ADI caught on film owl monkeys being captured from the wild for use in malaria research; a cruel practice that was subsequently prohibited. Many primates are used in laboratories for regulatory safety testing of substances. For such tests, primates will typically endure force-feeding or injections of experimental compounds and full body immobilization in restraint chairs during experiments. Side-effects can include rectal prolapse, vomiting, blocked lungs, collapse, self-mutilation and death. One of the most used primate species is the long-tailed macaque; its use in research is the main reason for its now endangered status and declining numbers.
Find out more and take action here: https://bit.ly/WDLA2023