Animal Testing: Silent Sufferers

In the second century B. C. The ancient Roman doctor Claudius Galenus cut the central nerves of the pig in order to make clear how does the brain work. Since that moment the era of vivisection has started. Vivisection is the medical term of the Latin origin denoting “cutting the alive”.

Each year more that 150 millions of animals die during the experiments and tests. 30 % of all the tests are connected with the cosmetics and household chemical substances which are to be proven to present no danger to the human beings. Every day more than 500 big animals, such as monkeys, dogs, cats, rabbits die as the result of this endless testing. But if we take into consideration the small creatures such as rats, mice and hamsters the whole amount of the killed animal will go up more than hundreds of times. The animals are being burnt, they are subjected to electrical shock, their bones are being broken, they are contaminated with HIV, pox and lepra.

The experiments that are connected with the removing of the animal’s limbs are being carried out every day in the institute laboratories. To test some cosmetic substance the animal is being used only once and after the experiment is fulfilled it is killed immediately. The amount of the animals is not limited anyhow and only the scientists decide how may animals will participate in the experiment.

The most wide-known experiment that has gained the negative fame via mass media is called Draize test. It is carried out the following way. The scientists fix the rabbit so that it couldn’t move. Then a toxic chemical substance is applied on his eye. He animal wears the special plastic collar not to reach its eye with its paw. The rabbit’s condition is being traced for some time. During the experiment the rabbit trashes about the cage, makes dreadful sounds and shakes in agony as the usage of the anesthetic drugs is prohibited. This experiment often ends when the iris of the animal gets completely dull and the applied toxic substance cankers the rabbit’s eye completely. The blind rabbit is killed afterwards in the case if it hadn’t died of unbearable pain before.

The matter of the next popular test aimed to determine the toxicity of a substance called LD 50 (lethal dose 50) is that the toxic substance is being inserted to the animal’s stomach via rubber tube. The dose of the substance is being increased gradually and the task of a scientist is to trace the amount of the toxic substance that will kill 50 % of subjected animals.

Decart used to state the the animals have no souls that’s why they shouldn’t feel pain. The modern scientists claim that both human beings and animals feel pain in the same way. Today there are a lot of alternatives to avoid the unnecessary sufferings. These are the egg fetuses, the cells colonies, computer models and many other things. That is only the least part of the list.