Our Moral Obligation to Protect Animals

There is mistaken belief that animals used for experimental research are protected through the presence of ethics committees, the Prevention of cruelty to animals act and the code of practice. There is also individual understanding that it is "only" rats and mice that are being used. Of course we know that neither of these is true. What the general public are completely unaware of is that all sorts of animals not limited to rats and mice are still undergoing horrendous and sickly procedures. The Humane research Australia organisation are attempting to address that by reporting on what really goes on behind the doors of the laboratory. "These scenarios are not only highly unethical: they are unscientific. We need to challenge the researchers and the funding bodies and encourage them to embrace new technologies - non-animal methodologies that are both more humane and scientifically valid as they relate specifically to human conditions". This is the critical role of HRA and it is crucial that the community, particularly HRA supporters, are aware of what is happening and what they can do in order to help stop animal cruelty.

Michael. J. Thompson states: "that the abuse and purposeful harm done to animals at the hands of human beings is morally wrong not because of any intrinsic sense of rights that an animal possesses or because even the act of causing pain or killing is somehow intrinsically ethically wrong, but because of the effects that these practices have on the nature of our ethical sensibilities, of our own status as ethical agents".

The following case study 'Beagles undergo pharmaceutical drug tests' reveals that the experiments that occur behind lab doors are not some exaggerated claims but are in fact happening right here ...

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...nimal tests are undertaken, someone will always be the first human to be tested on. Because animal test are so unreliable they make human trials all the more risky. The food and drug Association (FDA) has noted that 92 percent of all drugs that are shown to be safe and effective in animal testing fail in human trials because they do not work or are dangerous for the human. And of the small percentage of drugs that are approved for human use, half are relabelled due to side effects that were not identified in the animal tests.

Animal experiments want us to believe that if they gave up their archaic habit, sick children and other diseased and accident victims would drop dead in droves. It has come to our conclusion that the most significant trend in modern research in recent years has been the recognition that animals rarely serve as good models for the human body.