Animal testing -- is it TRUE?

Recently a friend of mine said he found some sickening things about animal testing. He told me to follow a link, and it led to something that made me throw up (no kidding). It was about animal testing, in labs.

There were sickening pictures, some that didn't even look real. The things they do to animals in labritories sound so horrible, I don't even want to believe they are real -- and I really don't know what to believe, after talking to a biologist on a different board.

What do they REALLY do to animals in labratories?

Chris,

It's sad but it's true. They do testing on animals. Things like putting eye make-up in animals eyes to see if there's a reaction (it gets worse but I won't go into it). There are alot of companies that don't test on animals and will indicate it on the label of their products.

It's too bad that they have to use innocent animals to see if people are allergic, etc. Hopefully down the road they'll realize that what they are doing is wrong.

It's just sad. Cosmetics should not be tested on animals, and I can't stand hearing about it or seeing it. I can see the point in SOME animal testing, but most of it is horribly inhumane and senseless.

Yes, some horrible things are done to animals in labs. I had a thread in Hebrew cat site forum calling to boycott both Iams and Science Diet because they are part of corporations that are involved in animal testing.

I belive that there are very few medical experiments that need to use animals. Even then I think these poor animals should be well looked after and all testing should be done in such a way as to minimize any pain and stress. And I only buy cosmetics that were not tested on animals (I hardly buy any cosmetics - so that's easy )

I don't see why they can't test products and drugs (meant for HUMANS) on prisoners. It could be a voluntary program implemented into the prison system so it wouldn't be like the Nazi's experiments on the Jews or anything. But still they test things on animals whose physiology is so much different from human physiology. How can it be reliable?

I don't think prisoners are in the right state of mind to decide whether or not become test subjects. I think that there are other alternatives like computer simulations and such that are not used enough today. When the drug seems to be ready for human testing, they can offer the general public to take place in the experiments for money, or try it on terminal patients with their approval.

I think that both are done today as no drug can be released to the market without some human testing.

The problem seems to be that in too many cases unecessary tests are done on animal before the drug is approved for the human testing stage. Like you said, very often there is no relation with the way the animal reacts and the way the human body would.