Animal Experimentation

Arguments in favor of animal experimentation:

1st argument
There are many regulations and laws that help prevent any unnecessary suffering for animals, especially vertebrate animals. In general, the governments in different countries put restrictions in tree general areas:
* The number of times a single animal can be used
* The total number of animals used
* The degree of pain ananimal can suffer without undergoing anesthetic
In the USA, animal testing is regulated by the 1966 Animal Welfare Act. The act is enforced by the Animal Care division of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the Department of Agriculture. The Animal Welfare Act contains provisions requiring that care and welfare reach a certain standard.
The guiding principles of the humane useof sentient animals in scientific research are called the Three Rs. Researchers need to show why there is no alternative and what will be done to minimise numbers and suffering of animals used in experiments and tests.
Replace
The use of animals must be replaced with alternative techniques, or avoided altogether.
Reduce
The number of animals used must be reduced to a minimum, so thatinformation is obtained from fewer animals or more information is gained from the same number of animals.
Refine
The way experiments are carried out must be refined to make sure animals suffer as little as possible. This includes better housing, and improvements to procedures which minimise pain and suffering and / or improve animal welfare.
Refinement not only benefits animals, but can also improve thequality of research findings by reducing the level of stress in animals. Any animal suffering must be kept to a minimum, for example, anaesthetics are used for surgery, and painkillers are given as necessary afterwards. If animals have a painful or fatal disease, they can be humanely killed before they show severe symptoms. Laboratory animals spend a lot of time in the animal house not being usedin an experiment. Improving their living conditions is called environmental enrichment.
The issue of animal testing largely revolves around ethical problems: the justification of using living animals in research to benefit humans, and the problems posed by situations where animals suffer as a result of research.
Another prominent issue is one of compatibility between species: historically,there have been situations where the failings of animal experimentation have been exposed due to differences in the way animals and humans respond to various substances.
Finally, there is the issue of alternatives to animal research, and whether they are viable replacements for any or all types of animal experimentation.

2nd argument
Most major medical achievements have involved the use ofanimals, and could not have been made otherwise.
The first observations of significance to modern science were made in the 1600s, when William Harvey used animals to observe and describe the blood circulatory system. In the following century, Stephen Hales used a horse to demonstrate the measurement of blood pressure, and Antoine Lavoisier used a calorimeter and a guinea pig to demonstrate thatrespiration was a type of combustion.
In the early nineteenth century, Louis Pasteur infected sheep with anthrax, thus proving the germ theory of medicine – an important advancement which proved once and for all that infections did not arise spontaneously.
A classic animal experiment, conducted by Ivan Pavlov, was carried out in the 1890s. Pavlov trained dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell, byteaching them to associate the sound with food.
Many advances in medical research could not have been made without the use of animals in some way, and many have been of enormous benefit to humanity.
* In the late nineteenth century Emil von Behring isolated diphtheria toxin and used a mixture of toxin and anti-toxin to protect guinea pigs from developing the disease. Around fifteen years...