© nuffield foundation 2011 animal ethics animal testing

© Nuffield Foundation 2011

Animal Ethics

Animal Testing


What animals?Part 1

© Nuffield Foundation 2011© Nuffield Foundation 2011

“Animal testing hits a

14-year high”

“Small rise in animal tests reveals ideological splits”

Headlines

“Animal experiments rise exposes gulf in attitudes”


Hundreds of sheep


Animals groups used in research


Monkeys, dogs and other mammals

Animals drawn to show which groups are most used

Monkeys, dogs and other mammals are too small to show.


Animals of each type used in research in 2005

Total number of animals used =

2.89 million

Other mammals includes:

Monkeys 4652Dogs 7670Sheep 29,329Cats 500


Does the number of animals matter?

Does the type of animal matter?


What do we know?Part 2


It is uncertain that ……..

It is likely that …….

It is certain that …….


What is animal research?Part 3


Advancing scientific knowledge

Studying disease and developing medicines

Assessing the safety of chemicals

Breeding

Destroying a gene in mice and studying how this affects their development and behaviour.

Developing a vaccine for polio using mice.

Testing a weedkiller on rats and dogs.

Animals need to be bred with special characteristics for use in research.

What is animal research?


Advancing scientific knowledge

Destroying a gene in mice and studying how this affects their development and behaviour

Studying disease and developing medicines

Developing a vaccine for polio using mice

Assessing the safety of chemicals

Testing a weedkiller on rats and dogs

Breeding

Animals need to be bred with special characteristics for use in research

So chemicals don’t do any harm to people who use them.

To gain an understanding of how genes work. This might help develop treatments for genetic disorders.

So vaccines can be developed to protect people from illness

So lots of animals with the same characteristics are available for research

Why?


Advancing scientif ic

knowledge 32% (939,766)

Studying disease and developing

medicines 27% (781,162)

Assessing the safety of

chemicals 4% (103,822)

Breeding 35% (1,027,150)

Other 2%(44,289)

Number of animals used for different types of research in 2005

C Joynson

We can get designers to draw this better


Are animal experiments painful?Part 4


Are animal experiments painful?

• What might lead to pain and distress in an animal used in experiments?

• Do you think animals experience pain and distress in the same way as humans?


The law divides experiments into four classes:

Mild: slight adverse effects, e.g. taking blood samples

Moderate: includes injections that cause a reaction and many surgical procedures, provided that suffering is controlled by effective pain relief and care

Substantial: includes major surgery and testing chemicals which cause a significant level of pain or death

Unclassified: when animals are put under anaesthetic before the experiment and are killed before they recover consciousness

Are animal experiments painful?


• An experiment that uses many animals but does not cause much pain or distress?

or• An experiment that uses one or two animals

but is very painful?

Which is worse?


Number of projects at each level of severity in 2005


How many experiments in the US are mild, moderate and substantial?

We don’t know.We only know the numbers of mild, moderate and substantial projects, which is an average of many

experiments e.g.

100 mild experiments + 10 substantial experiments = a moderate project

Is this enough information?


Reducing the impactPart 5


Refinement

Finding different ways of carrying out procedures in order to reduce the pain, suffering and distress felt by animals used in research and testing—without reducing the quality of the evidence collected.


Refinement


Reduction

Finding ways of reducing the number of animals that are used in research or testing, without reducing the quality of the evidence collected or reducing the quality of animal welfare.


Refinement


Reduction


Replacement

Finding ways of replacing animal research with other methods that do not use live animals.

Understanding animal behavior so scientists know when an animal is in pain or distressed. Steps can then be taken to relieve this.


Refinement


Reduction


Replacement


Using liver cells that have been grown in a laboratory instead of live animals in experiments.


Refinement


Reduction


Replacement


Sharing data to make sure that tests are not duplicated by different organizations carrying out similar work.


Refinement


Reduction


Replacement


The minimum amount of a substance should be injected into an animal and the smallest needle should be used.


Refinement


Reduction


Replacement


Tests to check whether a substance will irritate the eyes of humans used to be carried out on rabbits. Most of these tests are now done in a test tube.


Refinement


Reduction


Replacement


Ensuring that scientists have a good understanding of statistics, so they don’t use more animals than are necessary to get reliable results.


Refinement


Reduction


Replacement


Using computer programs to predict how human cells will react to a chemical rather than testing it on animals.


Refinement


Reduction


Replacement


Rats live together in communities in the wild, so they should be kept in groups in large cages rather than alone in shoebox-sized cages.


What do people think?Part 6


Part 1:Choose three perspectives and summarize them.

Part 2:What’s your side? Justify your position.

Include a picture!!

© nuffield foundation 2011 animal ethics animal testing

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