• Question: do you test on animals? if so why?

    Asked by helzmusic to Fiona, Jane, Joanna, Michelle, William on 14 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by zoec, sophielouu, laurenelliotttt, jess, chocolatethunda, 074538dsilau, daisyhowes, malachichocolate123, stephmcilroy, bigbitch.
    • Photo: Fiona Randall

      Fiona Randall answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Animal research is only justified when there is no other way to answer a question that may help us find cures for important diseases. In my work I don’t use living animals, but I use cells from mouse brains, or slices of brain. There is really no alternative to using animals in research for a lot of things because there is nothing that can be used as a substitute. Like to study the heart, nothing can be used instead of the beating heart and to look at brain wiring nothing can model the wiring of the brain. It is important to know that very strict laws protect animals used in research, the animals are taken care of extremely well and the scientists are licenced and properly trained to do all their experiments. There are also very strict controls on the number of animals used and the quality of experimental design to minimise suffering. There is a really good website you can look at to see how the animals are cared for and the laws that protect them if you want to know more-just follow this link: http://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/

    • Photo: Jane Henry

      Jane Henry answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      No. I even gave up biology at school as we were required to dissect a frog at the time.

    • Photo: Michelle Murphy

      Michelle Murphy answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Hey all,
      Some things you might not know about animal research:
      – By law if there is an alternative that will answer the same question you can NOT use animals
      – All experiments using animals has to be approved by the home office (government department in London) to say that it is an important experiment that hasn’t been done before and will provide useful information
      – There are people employed (that are not scientists) whose job is to look after the animals and make sure they are as happy and healthy as can be. Most scientists want the best for their animals at the least because healthy animals will give healthy results.
      – A vet must be available 24/7 including Christmas and holidays and will visit regularly (twice a week where I work) and the home office inspector can visit any time (again including early hours and Christmas) unannounced.
      – anyone who uses animals must have a licence this is not like a driving licence (a little piece of card) it is a large document which states exactly what you can do based on the experiments you should be carrying out just because 2 people have licences doesn’t mean they can do the same things.
      – There are lots of myths about scientists stealing pets but animals used in research are bred for research.

      Yes I use animals. I use Siberian hamsters. These little guys
      Change how much they eat and how much they weigh between summer and winter. In winter conditions the animals naturally lose 40% of their body weight. We observe this to try and learn more about obesity (animals in summer) and how they lose weight.

    • Photo: Joanna Brooks

      Joanna Brooks answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Hiya! I personally do not test on animals because the type of experiments I do are all with human participants who volunteer to take part. Science is evolving all the time and at some point in the future I’m sure that scientists won’t need to test on animals at all because there will be other ways to explore the human body and brain – perhaps through an artificial human body or brain simulated using advanced computer science for example.

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