Government figures for 2005 show that at least 2.85million animals were directly used in animal experiments. This figure went UP in 2006 to over 3.2million.
The above figure will not have included, for example, those 5 to 6million animals bred but were “surplus to requirement” so were killed.Nor those that died during transportation from breeding centres based all over the world and the UK.Nor the animals that were hunted in the wild, with babies of more financial worth, mothers are often killed so that hunters can get the babies which in turn leave babies left behind by the hunters motherless so often die themselves. It also does not include animals bred for their body parts,from genetic breeding tests, or died in between experiments, those animals that were still born or close to death at birth due to their mothers been experimented on during pregnancy or from otherhealth related problems during pregnancy. As well as this , also animals that were used specifically for breeding, if they do not die during pregnancy or birth are killed once they become physically un-able to breed any longer due to continuous breeding.
So as you can imagine the numbers for the UK alone are millions. It is estimated that world-wide the figures could be higher than 100million this just been the animals used directly in experiments and does not include the above examples.These figures are also on the increase all the time.
The type of animals used for experiments in the UK range from,fish,reptiles,amphibians,birds,pigs,sheep,goats,cattle,primates,ferrets, horses/donkeys/crossbreeds,dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits, mice ,rats , and many more, also other animals are used in other countries including elephants .
92% of drugs tested on animals still fail in clinical trials - some success of the vivisection industry!!
This failure costs the NHS each year an estimated £500million in treating the 250,000 people admitted into hospital sufferingAdverse Drug Reactions(ADRs).Figures show that on average between 10,000 and 18,000 people in the UK alone die annually from animal tested approved drugs! A further 75,000 people become disfigured or disabled. Another great success of the vivisection industry!!!
In the UK deaths from ADRs being the 4th biggest killer, elicited the following statement in the British Medical Journal: “the complexity and reach of modern medicines have come to represent new levels of harm to patients?? More people in Great Britain die from adverse reactions to medical drugs each year, than are killed on the roads”. (BMJ 15 April 02.)
It is also believed that only 5-10% of Adverse Drug Reactions are reported, as doctors do not usually take the time to fill in the huge amount of necessary paperwork and start an investigation because reporting an ADR is voluntary, not mandatory.
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Below are just some examples of the dangers to humans of animal testing :
Cigarette smoke, asbestos, arsenic, benzene, alcohol and glass fibres are all safe to ingest, according to animal studies.
The link between cancer and asbestos was made as long ago as 1907; but, after scientists failed to induce the disease in animals, it took more than 30 years before the human-model evidence became irrefutable.
Of 22 drugs shown to have been therapeutic in spinal cord injury in animals, not one is effective in humans.
Of 20 compounds known not to cause cancer in humans, 19 do cause cancer in rodents.
Of the 198 drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration from 1976-1985, 51.5% had serious side effects. The effects were serious enough to cause withdrawal of the drug or, more often, relabelling with more danger warnings. Effects included heart failure, shock, breathing difficulties, seizures, kidney failure, liver failure and death. Remember that all these drugs had passed animal tests before going on the market.
One of our most relied-upon pain relievers, Aspirin (Acetylsalicylic acid), causes teratogenic malformations in mice, rats, dogs, cats, rabbits, and monkeys.
TGN1412 monoclonal antibody trial disaster, and reports show that the animals, including monkeys and rabbbits, were given doses up to 500times stronger than that given to the humans!
Hormone-replacement therapy (HRT), prescribed to many millions of women because it lowered monkeys’ risk of heart disease and stroke, increases women’s risks of these conditions significantly. The chairman of the German Commission on the Safety of Medicines described HRT as ‘the new thalidomide’. In August 2003 The Lancet estimated that HRT had caused 20,000 cases of breast cancer over the past decade in Britain, in addition to many thousands of heart attacks and strokes.
After a project using over 18'000 mice , Teropterin was used to treat acute childhood leukaemia ; but the children died more quickly than if they had not been treated.
Benzene was not withdrawn from use as an industrial chemical despite clinical and epidemological evidence that exposure caused leukemia in humans, because manufacturer-supported tests failed to reproduce leukemia in mice.
Smoking was thought to be non-carcinogenic because smoking-related cancer is difficult to reproduce in lab animals. Consequently many continued to smoke and to die from cancer.
Cyclosporin A inhibits organ rejection, and its development was a watershed in the success of transplant operations. Had human evidence not overwhelmed unpromising evidence from animals, it would never have been released.
Animal experiments failed to predict the kidney toxicity of the general anesthetic methoxyflurane. Many people lost all kidney function.
Animal experiments delayed the use of muscle relaxants during general anesthesia.
Research on animals failed to reveal bacteria as a cause of ulcers and delayed treating ulcers with antibiotics.
More than half of the 198 new medications released between 1976 and 1985 were either withdrawn or relabeled secondary to severe unpredicted side effects. These side effects included complications such as lethal dysrhythmias, heart attacks, kidney failure, seizures, respiratory arrest, liver failure, and stroke, among others.
Flosint, an arthritis medication, was tested on rats, monkeys and dogs; all tolerated the medication well. However, in humans it caused deaths.
Zelmid, an antidepressant, was tested on rats and dogs without incident, but it caused severe neurological problems in humans.
Nomifensine, another antidepressant, was linked to kidney and liver failure, anemia, and death in humans. And yet animal testing had indicated that it could be used without side-effects occurring.
Amrinone, a medication used for heart failure, was tested on numerous animals and was released without any trepidation. But humans developed thrombocytopenia, a lack of the type of blood cells that are needed for clotting.
Fialuridine, an antiviral medication, caused liver damage in 7 out of 15 people. 5 eventually died and 2 more needed liver transplants. And yet it had worked well in woodchucks.
Clioquinol, an antidiarrheal, passed tests in rats, cats, dogs and rabbits. But it had to be withdrawn all over the world in 1982 after it was found to cause blindness and paralysis in humans.
Eraldin, a medication for heart disease, caused deaths and blindness in humans despite the fact that no untoward effects could be shown in animals. When introduced, scientists said it noted for the thoroughness of the toxicity studies on animals. Afterwards, scientists were unable to reproduce these results in animals.
Opren, an arthritis medication, killed 61 people. Over 3500 cases of severe reactions have been documented. Opren had been tested on monkeys and other animals without problems.
Zomax, another arthritis drug, was responsible for the death of 14 people and causing suffering to many more.
The dose of isoproterenol, a medication used to treat asthma, was calculated in animals. Unfortunately, it was much too toxic for humans. 3500 asthmatics died in Great Britain alone due to overdose. It is still difficult to reproduce these results in animals.
Methysergide, a medication used to treat headaches, led to retroperitoneal fibrosis, or severe scarring of the heart, kidneys, and blood vessels in the abdomen. Scientists have been unable to reproduce this in animals.
Suprofen, an arthritis drug, was withdrawn from the market when patients suffered kidney toxicity. Prior to its release researchers had this to say about the animal tests: '...excellent safety profile. No...cardiac, renal, or CNS [central nervous system] effects in any species'.
Surgam, another arthritis drug, was designed to have a stomach protection factor that would prevent stomach ulcers, a common side effect of many arthritis drugs. Although promising in lab animal tests, ulcers occurred in human trials.
Selacryn, a diuretic, was thoroughly tested on animals, but it was withdrawn in 1979 after 24 people died from drug induced liver failure.
Perhexiline, a heart medication, was withdrawn when it produced liver failure which had not been predicted by animal testing. Even when the particular type of liver failure was known, it could not be induced in animals. Domperidone, designed as a treatment for nausea and vomiting, made human hearts beat irregularly and had to be withdrawn. Scientists were unable to reproduce this in dogs even with 70 times the normal dose.
Mitoxantrone, a treatment for cancer produced heart failure in humans. It was extensively tested on dogs, which did not manifest this effect.
Carbenoxalone was supposed to prevent formation of gastric ulcers but caused people to retain water to the point of heart failure. After vivisectors knew what it did to humans they tested it on rats, mice, monkeys, rabbits, but could not reproducing this effect.
Clindamycin, an antibiotic, causes a bowel condition called pseudomenbraneous colitis. And yet it was tested in rats and dogs every day for a year; moreover, they were able to tolerate doses ten times greater than humans are able to.
Animal experiments did not support the efficacy of valium-type drugs during development or subsequently
The pharmaceutical companies Pharmacia and Upjohn discontinued clinical tests of its Linomide (roquinimex) tablets for the treatment of multiple sclerosis after several patients suffered heart attacks. Of 1,200 patients, 8 suffered heart attacks as a result of taking the medication. Animal experiments had not predicted this.
Cylert (pemoline), a medication used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, caused liver failure in 13 children. Eleven either died or required a liver transplant.
Eldepryl (selegiline), a medication used to treat Parkinson's disease, was found to induce very high blood pressure. This side effect has not been seen in animals.
The diet drug combination of fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine was linked to heart valve abnormalities and withdrawn although animal studies had never revealed heart abnormalities.
The diabetes medication troglitazone, better known as Rezulin, was tested on animals without significant problems, but caused liver damage in humans. The manufacturer admitted that at least one patient had died and another had to undergo a liver transplant as a result.
The plant digitalis has been used for centuries to treat heart disorders. However, clinical trials of the digitalis-derived drug were delayed because it caused high blood pressure in animals. Fortunately, human evidence overrode and as a result, digoxin, an analogue of digitalis, has saved countless lives. Many more people could have survived had the animal testing been ignored and digitalis been released earlier.
FK 506, now called Tacrolimus, is an anti-rejection agent that was almost abandoned before proceeding to clinical trials due to severe toxicity in animals. Animal studies suggested that the combination of FK 506 with cyclosporin might prove more useful. In fact, just the opposite proved true in humans.
Animal experiments suggested that corticosteroids would help septic shock, a severe bacterial infection of the blood. However, humans reacted differently. This treatment increased the death rate in cases of septic shock.
Despite the ineffectiveness of penicillin in rabbits, Alexander Fleming used the antibiotic on a very sick patient since he had nothing else to try. Fortunately, Fleming's initial tests were not on guinea pigs or hamsters because it kills them. Howard Florey, the Nobel Prize winner credited with co-discovering and manufacturing penicillin, stated: 'How fortunate we didn't have these animal tests in the 1940s, for penicillin would probably never been granted a license, and possibly the whole field of antibiotics might never have been realized'.
Fluoride, a cavity preventative, was initially withheld because it caused cancer in rats.
The notoriously dangerous drugs thalidomide and DES were tested in animals and released for human usage. Tens of thousands suffered and/or died as a result.
Animal experiments misinformed researchers about how rapidly HIV replicates. Based on this false information, patients did not receive prompt therapies and their lives were shortened.
Animal-based research delayed the development of the polio vaccine, according to Dr. Albert Sabin, its inventor. The first rabies and polio vaccines worked well on animals but crippled or killed the people who tried them.
Researchers who work with animals have succumbed to illness and death due to exposure to diseases that while harmless to the animal host (such as Hepatitis B) are potentially or actually deadly for humans.
Former director of the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) Richard Klausner lamented: "The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer in the mouse. We have cured mice of cancer for decades, and it simply didn't work in humans."
The NCI also believes we have lost cures for cancer because they were ineffective in mice. Cigarette smoke, asbestos, arsenic and benzene are all safe to ingest, according to animal studies. Conversely, of 20 compounds known not to cause cancer in humans, 19 do cause cancer in rodents. Seven hundred drugs to treat strokes have been found safe and effective in animal studies. Of the 150 tried so far on patients in clinical trials, not a single one is safe and effective. Thirty Aids vaccines have likewise failed in clinical trials after successful studies in primates.
It has been known among scientists and the pharmaceutical industry for decades that animal testing is scientifically unreliable. As long ago as 1962 The Lancet commented: "We must face the fact that the most careful tests of a new drug's effects on animals may tell us little of its effect in humans." In 1964 James Gallagher, the medical director of Lederle Laboratories, admitted: "Animal studies are done for legal reasons and not for scientific reasons. The predictive value of such studies for man is often meaningless."
So as you can imagine the numbers for the UK alone are millions. It is estimated that world-wide the figures could be higher than 100million this just been the animals used directly in experiments and does not include the above examples.
