guinea pigs

10 Animals Used In Animal Testing

More than 100 million animals around the world are used in animal testing. That would include rodents, reptiles, fishes, birds, and nonhuman primates. They are being used in laboratories for research purposes, and in testing for chemical, medicinal, and cosmetics purposes. Basically, they are treated as collateral damage so we can “safely” use new products.

That last statement is no exaggeration. Many of them have holes drilled in their skulls, their skin is burned, or they’re immobilized and restrained for hours at a time. And while there are no psychologists and psychiatrists for animals (although the dog whisperer Cesar Millan would beg to disagree), no doubt there are no words to describe how much stress and anxiety these has caused them.

Animals used in animal testing are of different types, but some are much more commonly used than others. According to The Hastings Center, mice, rats, fish, and birds comprise 96% of the animals tested in the United States (the United Kingdom has similar statistics). Others rodents such as guinea pigs and hamsters constitute a distant second. Let’s learn more about animals used in animal testing.

 

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1. Mice and Rats

Let’s start with the most common animal used, comprising 93% of all laboratory animals. Now we know where the expression “lab rat” came from.

Mice and rats are small so they are easily maintained and moved around, they reproduce quickly so their offspring can be observed in a short period of time, we share 96% of our DNA so they think they’re ideal test subjects, and researchers  can go all-out on them because they are not covered by the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).

Mice and rats continue to be the most common test subjects especially in the field of genetic engineering. The mouse’s genome has been successfully sequenced back in 2002 and since that time, scientists involved in animal testing have engaged these poor, helpless creatures in every genetic testing imaginable

A researcher can order any genetically engineered strain of mouse and in that process, the suppliers waste thousands of animal lives in an effort to achieve that strain. Mutations and genetic abnormalities abound way before the “real” experiment starts.

And don’t even get us started about how they were treated in these experiments. According to a research led by professor Jeffrey Mogil of McGill University and the University of British Columbia in Canada, mice can feel pain and express it just like humans do. Apparently, research scientists who practice animal testing just don’t care.

guinea pigs

2. Guinea Pigs and Hamsters

Still in the rodent family like mice and rats, guinea pigs and hamsters are extensively used as well. In 2012, more than 200,000 guinea pigs and over 147,000 hamsters were held in U.S. laboratories. Quite surprisingly, guinea pigs and hamsters serve different purposes for animal research.

For instance, guinea pigs are more often used in toxicity tests as well as in research on tobacco and alcohol-related effects, because they have airways that are very sensitive to allergens. Spinal cord injury, hearing, and kidney research also favor guinea pigs as subjects.

Hamsters, on the other hand, are the rodent of choice if it involves taste and vision. Research into other conditions such as neoplastic diseases, pancreatic cancer, asthma, and mad cow also often uses hamsters. They easily contract diseases but also reproduce quickly, making them a popular choice for the diseases mentioned above.

Sadly, many of these research and studies do not even remotely consider relieving these animals of pain while undergoing these procedures. Almost 25,000 guinea pigs and 33,000 hamsters have been subjected to these brutal animal experiments without application of analgesics or anesthesia.

 

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3. Rabbits

Another rodent in the “death” lineup, rabbits are also popularly used in animal research more because of practicality than science. According to the same 2012 data, 205,482 rabbits were in United States research laboratories and about 35% of these were tested in the same year.

Rabbits are used more for practical purposes because they are generally docile, breed like crazy, and are cheap to maintain. Rabbits are often used in cosmetic research, like Draize eye and skin irritancy tests. A very painful procedure to produce polyclonal antibodies also uses rabbits, not to mention tests on embryotoxicity and pyrogenicity.

What these animals go through could make even a horror fanatic cringe in disbelief. They are often held in full-body restraints as they are experimented upon so they can’t touch their eyes or their skin sores. There is even one experiment where ticks are attached to their shaved skin and left to feed on their bodies for five days at a stretch.

4. Birds

We don’t know much about animal testing using our avian friends in the United States because, well, you guessed it right, many of their species are not under the Animal Welfare Act. But in the European Union, they are the third most commonly-used group behind rodents and cold-blooded animals. These include parakeets, finches, quails, and pigeons.

Many experiments using birds focus on influenza, infectious diseases, and viral infections. Turkeys and chickens are used in the animal agriculture business in an effort to make them grow and make them meaty. In these experiments, they are given assorted chemicals to alter their growth rates.

The birds’ status and the fact that they’re not covered in the AWA have been a subject of much controversy. The USDA and the Alternatives Research & Development Foundation (ARDF) have agreed on a settlement after the latter legally challenged the non-protection of birds (as well as rats and mice) in the Animal Welfare Act. Many years later, the issue is still alive and largely unsolved.

fish

5. Fish

This statement is like a broken record but fish are not included in the Animal Welfare Act and thus, it will be hard to pinpoint exactly how many of them are used in animal research. In rough estimates, there could be as high as 7 million fish used annually in the United States for that purpose alone.

In the ‘90s we saw an increase in the use of fish in biomedical research, toxicity tests, and aquaculture. The transparent embryo of the zebrafish makes it a favorite. Because it develops outside of the mother and hatches in just three days, those embryos are preferred by many physiologists and vertebrate development researchers.

In Japan, the medaka or rice fish is often used for carcinogenicity testing. In the past 70 years, platy fish and swordtails have been fixtures of carcinogenic modeling, while others are used as yardsticks for environmental pollution and chemical exposure.

In the eyes of many researchers, fish simplify complex processes because they are small and cheap. These conveniences, though, are a two-edged sword. Because they are small, even these scientists do not know how they feel or suffer. Their relative inexpensiveness makes them expendable, as researchers use them in abundant quantities, and then discard them with comparative ease.

dog testing

6. Dogs

Dogs are in the minority in animal testing, but that doesn’t make their abuse right or acceptable. They are still plenty of them being used in laboratories, with over 40% of lab dogs being subjected to painful experiments.

Beagles are the most commonly used dog breed and not because they are the best models around. They often end up in somebody’s lab because they are docile and small, can be easily manipulated, and are easy to move around, which means less money and less space.

What’s more, beagles are specifically bred by some dealers (they call them Class A dealers) who breed beagles for the sole purpose of selling them to animal testing laboratories. Some of these dogs are even sold without their vocal cords. Quite literally, these dogs are being bred to be poisoned – they’re subjected to toxicity tests that include forced ingestion or skin application of potentially fatal substances.

cats testing

7. Cats

In 2012, there were estimated to be almost 25,000 cats used in animal research, and over 9,000 used in tests that caused them untold stress and suffering.

Our feline friends are frequently used for neurological research, as well as research on problems related to vision, hearing, and sleep. This is so because cats basically have little human brains, according to cat researcher Nicholas Dodman. Unlike chimpanzees and other primates, cats are not that hard to obtain.

You don’t have to be a cat lover to feel their agony. As mentioned earlier, they are often used in neurological research and these types of experiments are highly invasive. These often lead to the cats losing their lives mostly by euthanasia.

As if that’s not enough, cats are not absolved during toxicity tests. A horrifying toxicity test using cats was described rather vividly by Peta2.com. A chemical, according to the report, was applied to the necks of 57 cats which immediately caused mouth-foaming, blindness, and seizures.

Chimpanzees testing

8. Chimpanzees

The use of chimpanzees in biomedical research has declined over the years, and that’s a step in the right direction. The NIH (National Institutes of Health) announced in 2013 that they will not fund any research that performs invasive research on chimpanzees. However, even after the policy change, private companies that fund their own research still continue to use them by exploiting a loophole that considered only wild chimps as endangered and captive chimpanzees as “threatened.” A Sciencemag.com article last year noted that all signs point to a complete halt in the use of chimpanzees in animal research but they are still living in cages in different facilities in the country.

Chimpanzees share 98% of their DNA with humans and for animal experimentation supporters, that’s enough reason to use them as test subjects. But no matter how ideal they seem to be, they still could not be as perfect as human substitutes because of their unique characteristics and their susceptibility to emotional and physical trauma.

Around 2010, the European Union legislated a ban on using great apes for animal experiments but it took the United States a long time to follow suit.

 

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9. Macaques

Macaques are the most common non-human primate (NHP) used in animal research. However, they make up only about 0.1% of the entire “killed in the name of science” population and they are only used when no other animal is suitable for the situation.

These animals have long been used as a means to deepen our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease, HIV, and other complex human diseases. They are also utilized as pawns in pharmaceutical and bioterrorism experiments.

If we closely study macaques and baboons in the wild, we can easily tell that the confines of a laboratory cage is not for their best interest. (In all fairness, no animal truly deserved that.) They lead emotional and social lives, living in groups that rely on each other to survive. Social interaction is tremendously important to them – some species are observed to choose companionship over food.

pigs testing

10. Pigs, Cows, and Other Farmed Animals

We are past the time where farmed animals are only used for food and food research. They are also used as medical models for human conditions. Domestic livestock is part of many genetic engineering and cloning projects. In 2008, the FDA approved the sale of cloned meat without labels on supermarket shelves.

The main reason for using the farmed animal for research is because of the public backlash in the employment of cats, dogs, and primates in animal testing.

Pigs, for instance, are used in experiments for metabolic functions, blood dynamics, diabetes, and more. Over 57,000 of them were used for these types of research in 2006. Pigs are becoming a really popular animal model – the NIH devotes money in the nine figures (over $100 million) annually in research that uses swine.

Another more common farm animal used in animal testing are sheep. In the 3,700 sheep used in animal experiments in 2006, over 70% are subjected to intense pain and distress. Cows, too, are used in testing of recombinant vaccines, heart experiments, narcolepsy research, and others.

Again, these are no walks in the park for these animals. Sheep, for example, are artificially induced with a condition called fly strike (live maggots eating the sheep’s flesh) in an effort to control and understand the disease more.

 

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