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Vivisection and animal testing should be
abolished.
In its
1997 pre-election campaign New Labour made a number of promises
on animal welfare issues. However, as soon as
Blair’s government was elected
it suddenly and conveniently “forgot” its
promise to consider a ban on vivisection. In fact, Blair’s government now
gives more support and protection to research laboratories than any previous
government of the past.
Animal
researchers feed the public lies designed to fool us into thinking that animal
experiments are a medical necessity and that they lead to the development of
drugs that heal all manner of illness. They cynically resort to emotional
blackmail, asking the public “which is more important, a child’s life or an
animal’s?.” Nine out of ten people will respond without question “a
child’s life, of course.” The reality is, however, that it does not
need to be an “either or position.” There are many alternative methods of
conducting medical research that do not require the sacrifice of millions of
innocent sentient creatures, if only researchers would use them. Vivisectors,
however, are a law unto themselves and the Government puts more effort into
covering up the cruelty and law breaking
that goes on in laboratories than it does into
enforcing regulations. The Government has also refused to implement UK and EU
law that state where a non-animal or less painful alternative method exists, the
traditional animal test method should no longer be allowed.
Animal
experimentation involves the incarceration of animals and subjects them to
poisoning, psychological distress, mutilation, severe pain and immense and
chronic suffering. Dogs and cats, rodents and primates are deliberately infected
with cancer cells, and in one experiment carried out by a well known research
company, pig’s hearts and kidneys were transplanted into the stomachs of
hundreds of monkeys who were then given lethal
does of imunenosuppressants in a futile attempt to prevent rejection. Notes made
by observers reported that some primates died almost immediately (not surprising
in the circumstances) before they could be euthanased. Others collapsed
and were unable to get up, some suffered strokes, while the stomachs of others
became swollen and filled with fluid, all had difficulty breathing and all
exhibited symptoms of extreme distress. This research failed to achieve any of
its objectives, yet it was allowed to continue for FIVE years before the
research company moved overseas.
The
Government admits that it has never actually conducted research to evaluate
whether or not animal experiments benefit human medicine, despite serious
scientific doubts over their relevance and the huge number of human deaths
caused by unforeseen drug side effects. In August 2006 scientists in the US
suddenly discovered that DES, a drug routinely prescribed to pregnant women from
the 1940’s to 1970’s, can cause breast cancer and cancer of the
reproductive systems in the women who took the drug and in their children and
there are fears that cancer could be passed on to the third generation. We are
all familiar with the effects of thalidomide, the morning sickness drug, which
resulted in the birth of thousands of handicapped babies. In 1997 troglitazone,
the diabetic drug was taken off the market after
only three months. 6 people died and 130 suffered liver failure after taking it,
yet this drug had passed all animal tests. Animal testing can never
guarantee the safety of human medicines because it is plain bad science. Human
cell and tissue culture, artificial organ systems, computer modelling and
non-invasive brain imaging offer more reliable data, and can provide us with far
more accurate information about the human heart than strapping down a marmoset
and ripping its chest open. No treatment or drug can ever be considered safe
until it has a proven track record of being used on human patients. Despite the
millions of experiments on animals that have been performed over the years,
we still cannot cure or prevent cancer and sickness and disease are increasing,
and the Government, rather than concentrating on environmental causes of
ill health and the massive pollution of our air, food and water, spends billions
of pounds purchasing expensive drugs from the pharmaceutical industry.
Many of
the medical advances alleged to have been derived from animal research when
thoroughly investigated invariably show that they owe very much to the study of
human beings. Animal testing can produce very misleading results TGN1412
(the Elephant Man drug) was tested on animals with apparent success, but its
effect on people was horrific.
As well
as for medical research, animals are used in painful testing of cosmetics,
shampoos and household products. Many companies, aware of the negative PR of
animal testing, arrange for horrific testing to be carried out in Europe or the
US. Everything we use in the bathroom, and in our homes, every tablet we
swallow to ease a headache or a bout of indigestion, has at one time or another
been tested on a live sentient creature who was horribly tormented and tortured
before being put to death.
The
Socialist Labour Party does not support or condone violence against employees of
pharmaceutical companies or against vivisectors. Equally it does not condone
acts of violence and the infliction of pain and suffering on millions of
defenceless creatures in the name of science. As Milan Kundera, the Czech writer
said in his novel “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” ‘Mankind’s
true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view)
consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy, animals’.
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