Animal Testing

[Womble]

I don't like the idea of medical testing on animals, yes it saves/improves lives by developing knowledge but who is to say our lives are more important than theirs?

No sane human being, including those who talk about their pet dog as if he was a full member of their family, would choose the life of their dog over the life of their family member.

Testing cosmetics I think is disgusting. Why would they put chemicals into cosmetics that they think for any reason could cause harm?

Because they don't know what causes harm until they test it.

[The_Carpenter]

For cosmetics, I don't see another option here, you don't want the companies to release unsafe products.

The thing is new cosmetics are not required for the betterment of humanity (unless you count making us all more shallow as being better). Whilst new medical drugs blatantly are necessary.

Besides there are plenty of substances that the cosmetic companies know are safe to use from previous experience, there is no reason why they need to find new ones by unnecessarily testing on animals.

[shipper hannah]

Most people seem to be fine with medical research. Would you agree for all medical research, just certain cases, if there were no alternatives.. or what?

(I'm just curious)

[Bee11]

No sane human being, including those who talk about their pet dog as if he was a full member of their family, would choose the life of their dog over the life of their family member.


Because they don't know what causes harm until they test it.

Oh trust me when I say I would pick the lives of my cats over 90% of my family. My family mean nothing to me. My cats do more for be and are there more for me than they are but thats another story.


So they might not know the exact effect of chemicals they test, but to put it into a cosmetic they must know enough about the substance to think it would be beneficial in some way and have a rough idea of how it is going to affect the skin, otherwise what would be the point of putting into the cosmetic. Thats what I think is stupid, if you know it's safe enough to put it in in the first place why bother testing it? Over the years enough substances must have been tested for them not to need to test anything more for cosmetic reasons.

[Bee11]

Most people seem to be fine with medical research. Would you agree for all medical research, just certain cases, if there were no alternatives.. or what?

(I'm just curious)

If there was a way for them to test something that didn't require animals than that would obviously be a better option in my opinion but I don't know what other possiabilities they have for testing. So for me I guess it would be if there was no alternative. The only problem I have is the idea of the animals suffering. For example when killing an animal for food, if done humanly will be over quickly and as painless as possiable, I don't now how long animals will suffer for with medical testing.

[Coronach]

Most people seem to be fine with medical research. Would you agree for all medical research, just certain cases, if there were no alternatives.. or what?

(I'm just curious)

This is a really hard question. I agree with what people have said, in that cosmetic testing seems pointless.

However, medical and scientific research that involves animals is very important, and has certainly saved countless lives over the course of our history. A really good example is Fruit Fly research. They are a model organism for genetic studies and the breakthroughs that come through in genetic research are of monumental importance.

I know, I know...a lot of people probably don't care about flies as much as say, furry mammals. It's just an example though...and one of a great many. Also, I will say that there are big restrictions put in place as far as research on mammals goes. Research has to be approved, and even then, some animals (like primates) are only allowed as research subjects in relatively rare circumstances.

Cool topic .

[tombombadil]

only if they're taking tests for me in school

[AvatarIII]

Oh trust me when I say I would pick the lives of my cats over 90% of my family. My family mean nothing to me. My cats do more for be and are there more for me than they are but thats another story.


So they might not know the exact effect of chemicals they test, but to put it into a cosmetic they must know enough about the substance to think it would be beneficial in some way and have a rough idea of how it is going to affect the skin, otherwise what would be the point of putting into the cosmetic. Thats what I think is stupid, if you know it's safe enough to put it in in the first place why bother testing it? Over the years enough substances must have been tested for them not to need to test anything more for cosmetic reasons.

i don't think you should compare a beloved pet to a specially bred mouse or rat that will only live for 3 years left to it's own devices anyway.
i agree a pet is sentimentally valuable, but a lab mouse is not.

i say yes to animal testing of medicines because the value of a lab-bred animals life is not anywhere near the same as the value of a humans life and experiences, unless we were to breed humans in labs specifically for testing, but that would be sooo unethical.