Types of Animal Testing:
Many other countries, other than the U.S. of course, have already banned testing cosmetic products, ingredients, and the sale of products that had ingredients in them that were tested on animals. The European Union started this new concept in 2004, and for years countries have followed in their footsteps, Israel and India joined in around 2007 and 2013. Animals are frequently tested for product, cosmetic, and medical safety as well as purposes -- not to mention all of the other reasons why they are tested. This is because many people believe that due to animals being living creatures who breathe, eat, drink, and have similar necessities as humans, they think that animals are a great substitute for humans in testing out products, drugs, chemicals, and more. Even though many other alternatives to animal testing have been presented to companies, many companies still choose to rely solely on animal testing and are persistent in not changing their methods. All in all, many alternatives have been presented to companies to make animal testing obsolete. However, they mainly believe that animal testing is the best of the best method for testing products, and refuse to switch methods ("Testing - American Anti-Vivisection Society"). Some of the methods used to test on animals include Vivisection, skin sensitivity testing, eye irritancy testing, pyrogenicity, ecotoxicity, not to mention the alternatives created in an attempt to stop animal testing completely. These testing methods can cause severe consequences to innocent animals, causing them to withstand large amounts of pain and suffering.
Vivisection is a type of test that experiments on live animals, meaning, while the animal is fully awake -- not on any medication -- scientists are dissecting it ("Last Chance for Animals - Vivisection / Animals in Research"). It can also be the practice animal experimentation, which includes, but is not limited to administering drugs, infecting the animal with diseases, brain damaging, blinding, and many more invasive procedures. This causes severe suffering, and sometimes includes harsh protocols like long-term social isolation, full-body restraint, electric shocks, withholding of food and water, or repeatedly breeding and separating infants from mothers. In other words, if the animal goes through any form of distress or death attempts in order to test a product to find cures, prevention, or new treatments, then it is considered a practice of animal experimentation/vivisection. According to article "What Is Vivisection? | About NEAVS", “Tens of millions (some estimate in excess of 25 million) of animals in the U.S. suffer, die, or are killed each year in laboratories for biomedical experimentation, product and cosmetic testing, and for science education.” Proving that most of the time, the animals suffer to the point of death, and the product ends up not working ("What Is Vivisection? | About NEAVS"). A variety of animals are used for testing, including rats, mice, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, cats, dogs, primates, birds, fish as well as "farmed animals" such as pigs, cows and goats. Scientists use these animals because of their similarities with humans. Animals that are in laboratory settings and used for testing not only suffer physically, but also physiologically. By being contained and mistreated, the animals suffer from pain as well as stress, anxiety, confusion, etc.. In the end, it adds on to the trapped and not in control feeling ("Vivisection"). Overall, the level of harm brought onto an animal by vivisection is on a whole other level, because they go through suffering before, during, and after the procedures as well as physiologically.
Another type of animal testing is the skin sensitization test which is typically performed on guinea pigs. This test is used to see if an allergic reaction occurs after taking a chemical or drug. On the other hand, eye irritancy tests are used to evaluate the levels and severity of irritation caused after application of the product, these tests are typically performed on rabbits ("Testing - American Anti-Vivisection Society”). The skin sensitization test is when a chemical is either applied to guinea pigs shaved skin, or injected into them, and then closely watched to see if any allergic reactions occur. This test happens over a course of a few application processes, and can lead to fatal injuries ("Types List"). Currently, the test has adapted to what is now known as the Local Lymph Node Assay (LLNA). The LLNA is a procedure on mice, where they apply the chemical to a shaved patch on the ear of mice. This was approved by a panel of reviewers as it can lower the amount of animals needed to test, and can be used as an alternative to guinea pig testing. It also is said to reduce the amount of pain and suffering of an animal during the process, in addition, the length of testing for the LLNA is shorter than that of the original skin sensitization tests. As for the eye irritancy tests, they are performed by placing a substance in one eye, allowing the other eye to be the “control” of the test. To prevent the rabbits from affecting the effect and natural response to the substance, the rabbits are restrained. The rabbits are closely watched at the one hour interval, and then each 24-hour interval until 14 days have passed. Depending on the situation, some rabbits may continue to be observed and evaluated up to three weeks longer than the others. Scientists measure the level of irritation by a numerical score of each of the three major tissues of the eye, the cornea, conjunctiva, and iris. Rabbits typically suffer from ulcers, blindness, redness, and bleeding of the eyes, and scientists normally kill them once the test is completed. This eye test, also called the Draize eye test, has been judged for many reasons. For one, rabbits produce a smaller amount of tears than that of a human, causing chemicals, and other irritants to linger in the eyes longer and cause more irritation and pain. For two, the cornea structure of the eye on a rabbit is significantly different than the cornea structure of a human. This information makes the Draize eye test immensely unreliable, but also extremely painful for rabbits. Lastly, the ending result of eye damage can be various, leading to conclusions being inaccurate ("Testing - American Anti-Vivisection Society”). In all, the Draize eye test and skin sensitization tests both cause pain and suffering towards animals, as well as inaccurate data that can potentially harm a human, which is the opposite of why scientists test on animals in the first place.
Pyrogenicity is a type of animal testing which causes animals to be tested for fever-causing vaccines and drugs. Ecotoxicity is a test to see the chemicals that enter the environment and whether they have negative or positive effects. In a pyrogenicity test, an animal’s body temperature will increase due to a bacterial substance called a pyrogen, which is what is being tested. If this occurs, the drug causes a fever, if not, then the drug does not cause a fever ("Testing - American Anti-Vivisection Society”). Pyrogens are substances found in bacterial cells, and can increase body temperature. To determine if a substance contains pyrogens, the substance is tested on rabbits, who are then observed to determine if a rise in body temperature occurred ("Types List"). The pyrogen test performed on rabbits has been in use since the 1940’s, and requires the injection of the substance/material into the rabbit’s blood stream. The rabbit is then monitored for a rise in temperature. This test can vary based on the strain of pyrogen as well as differences in age and gender, leading to various data collected. This test consists of a pass or fail grade, meaning if the drug does not give the rabbit a fever, it passes, and vice-versa. Ecotoxicity tests are testing on fish, and is used to determine if the environment contains chemicals, as well as whether they are good or bad. The fish used are often tested for short and long term results and effects. The normal acute toxicity test is the fish 96-hour LC50 (lethal concentration 50%), this test measures how strong the chemical is that kills 50% of the fish in only a 96 hour period. Chronic fish test last anywhere from one week to more than 200 days, each day the fish are evaluated for growth, hatching, and spawning success and mortality ("Testing - American Anti-Vivisection Society”). In summary, pyrogenicity and ecotoxicity are tests that submerge chemicals and substances onto the animals and then observe to see the outcome. Most of the time, the outcome for animals is death, or extreme suffering, and in the end a conclusion is only half way complete, meaning the test has to be repeated.
When a physical or chemical agent changes the genetic information of an organism and increases the frequency of mutations, it is called mutagenicity. Due to mutations causing cancer, mutagens are typically also carcinogens. In the bone marrow cytogenetic test, chemicals are given to the animals being tested, and are later killed, rats and mice are the common animals tested. The bone marrow of the animals is evaluated to see the effects on the nucleus of the blood cells, in the micronucleus test, which is similar, a blood sample is obtained and analyzed for stronger appearance of micronuclei which is a sign of chromosomal damage. If the chemical has yet to reach the bone marrow, scientists end up with false negatives. To ease this problem, large doses are used, but often regretted as it leads to unnatural chemical exposure ("Testing - American Anti-Vivisection Society"). In all, mutagenicity dissects dead animals, so by performing these tests, they are killing animals for an experiment that has a 50/50 chance of working. As it only works if the chemical reaches the bone marrow.
Even though many other alternatives to animal testing have been presented to companies, many companies still choose to rely solely on animal testing and are persistent in not changing their methods. In addition, all types of animal testing causes pain and suffering, some more than others, and some less than others. With vivisection, animals are fully awake the entire time, leaving them to feel pain at all times throughout the process of before, during, and end. The Draize test and skin sensitization tests both leave scientists with inaccurate data, and dead animals. Pyrogenicity and Ecotoxicity tests both leave scientists with a conclusion that is only half complete, and cause extreme suffering, as well as death towards animals. Mutagenicity tests have a 50/50 chance of working, if the chemical does not reach the bone marrow before the time of dissection, the scientists killed an animal that contributed nothing to the experiment. All in all, many alternatives have been presented to many companies to obsolete animal testing. However, they mainly believe that animal testing is the best of the best method for testing products, and refuse to switch methods. Some types of animal testing’s include Ecotoxicity, skin sensitization testing, and Pyrogenicity tests.
Vivisection is a type of test that experiments on live animals, meaning, while the animal is fully awake -- not on any medication -- scientists are dissecting it ("Last Chance for Animals - Vivisection / Animals in Research"). It can also be the practice animal experimentation, which includes, but is not limited to administering drugs, infecting the animal with diseases, brain damaging, blinding, and many more invasive procedures. This causes severe suffering, and sometimes includes harsh protocols like long-term social isolation, full-body restraint, electric shocks, withholding of food and water, or repeatedly breeding and separating infants from mothers. In other words, if the animal goes through any form of distress or death attempts in order to test a product to find cures, prevention, or new treatments, then it is considered a practice of animal experimentation/vivisection. According to article "What Is Vivisection? | About NEAVS", “Tens of millions (some estimate in excess of 25 million) of animals in the U.S. suffer, die, or are killed each year in laboratories for biomedical experimentation, product and cosmetic testing, and for science education.” Proving that most of the time, the animals suffer to the point of death, and the product ends up not working ("What Is Vivisection? | About NEAVS"). A variety of animals are used for testing, including rats, mice, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, cats, dogs, primates, birds, fish as well as "farmed animals" such as pigs, cows and goats. Scientists use these animals because of their similarities with humans. Animals that are in laboratory settings and used for testing not only suffer physically, but also physiologically. By being contained and mistreated, the animals suffer from pain as well as stress, anxiety, confusion, etc.. In the end, it adds on to the trapped and not in control feeling ("Vivisection"). Overall, the level of harm brought onto an animal by vivisection is on a whole other level, because they go through suffering before, during, and after the procedures as well as physiologically.
Another type of animal testing is the skin sensitization test which is typically performed on guinea pigs. This test is used to see if an allergic reaction occurs after taking a chemical or drug. On the other hand, eye irritancy tests are used to evaluate the levels and severity of irritation caused after application of the product, these tests are typically performed on rabbits ("Testing - American Anti-Vivisection Society”). The skin sensitization test is when a chemical is either applied to guinea pigs shaved skin, or injected into them, and then closely watched to see if any allergic reactions occur. This test happens over a course of a few application processes, and can lead to fatal injuries ("Types List"). Currently, the test has adapted to what is now known as the Local Lymph Node Assay (LLNA). The LLNA is a procedure on mice, where they apply the chemical to a shaved patch on the ear of mice. This was approved by a panel of reviewers as it can lower the amount of animals needed to test, and can be used as an alternative to guinea pig testing. It also is said to reduce the amount of pain and suffering of an animal during the process, in addition, the length of testing for the LLNA is shorter than that of the original skin sensitization tests. As for the eye irritancy tests, they are performed by placing a substance in one eye, allowing the other eye to be the “control” of the test. To prevent the rabbits from affecting the effect and natural response to the substance, the rabbits are restrained. The rabbits are closely watched at the one hour interval, and then each 24-hour interval until 14 days have passed. Depending on the situation, some rabbits may continue to be observed and evaluated up to three weeks longer than the others. Scientists measure the level of irritation by a numerical score of each of the three major tissues of the eye, the cornea, conjunctiva, and iris. Rabbits typically suffer from ulcers, blindness, redness, and bleeding of the eyes, and scientists normally kill them once the test is completed. This eye test, also called the Draize eye test, has been judged for many reasons. For one, rabbits produce a smaller amount of tears than that of a human, causing chemicals, and other irritants to linger in the eyes longer and cause more irritation and pain. For two, the cornea structure of the eye on a rabbit is significantly different than the cornea structure of a human. This information makes the Draize eye test immensely unreliable, but also extremely painful for rabbits. Lastly, the ending result of eye damage can be various, leading to conclusions being inaccurate ("Testing - American Anti-Vivisection Society”). In all, the Draize eye test and skin sensitization tests both cause pain and suffering towards animals, as well as inaccurate data that can potentially harm a human, which is the opposite of why scientists test on animals in the first place.
Pyrogenicity is a type of animal testing which causes animals to be tested for fever-causing vaccines and drugs. Ecotoxicity is a test to see the chemicals that enter the environment and whether they have negative or positive effects. In a pyrogenicity test, an animal’s body temperature will increase due to a bacterial substance called a pyrogen, which is what is being tested. If this occurs, the drug causes a fever, if not, then the drug does not cause a fever ("Testing - American Anti-Vivisection Society”). Pyrogens are substances found in bacterial cells, and can increase body temperature. To determine if a substance contains pyrogens, the substance is tested on rabbits, who are then observed to determine if a rise in body temperature occurred ("Types List"). The pyrogen test performed on rabbits has been in use since the 1940’s, and requires the injection of the substance/material into the rabbit’s blood stream. The rabbit is then monitored for a rise in temperature. This test can vary based on the strain of pyrogen as well as differences in age and gender, leading to various data collected. This test consists of a pass or fail grade, meaning if the drug does not give the rabbit a fever, it passes, and vice-versa. Ecotoxicity tests are testing on fish, and is used to determine if the environment contains chemicals, as well as whether they are good or bad. The fish used are often tested for short and long term results and effects. The normal acute toxicity test is the fish 96-hour LC50 (lethal concentration 50%), this test measures how strong the chemical is that kills 50% of the fish in only a 96 hour period. Chronic fish test last anywhere from one week to more than 200 days, each day the fish are evaluated for growth, hatching, and spawning success and mortality ("Testing - American Anti-Vivisection Society”). In summary, pyrogenicity and ecotoxicity are tests that submerge chemicals and substances onto the animals and then observe to see the outcome. Most of the time, the outcome for animals is death, or extreme suffering, and in the end a conclusion is only half way complete, meaning the test has to be repeated.
When a physical or chemical agent changes the genetic information of an organism and increases the frequency of mutations, it is called mutagenicity. Due to mutations causing cancer, mutagens are typically also carcinogens. In the bone marrow cytogenetic test, chemicals are given to the animals being tested, and are later killed, rats and mice are the common animals tested. The bone marrow of the animals is evaluated to see the effects on the nucleus of the blood cells, in the micronucleus test, which is similar, a blood sample is obtained and analyzed for stronger appearance of micronuclei which is a sign of chromosomal damage. If the chemical has yet to reach the bone marrow, scientists end up with false negatives. To ease this problem, large doses are used, but often regretted as it leads to unnatural chemical exposure ("Testing - American Anti-Vivisection Society"). In all, mutagenicity dissects dead animals, so by performing these tests, they are killing animals for an experiment that has a 50/50 chance of working. As it only works if the chemical reaches the bone marrow.
Even though many other alternatives to animal testing have been presented to companies, many companies still choose to rely solely on animal testing and are persistent in not changing their methods. In addition, all types of animal testing causes pain and suffering, some more than others, and some less than others. With vivisection, animals are fully awake the entire time, leaving them to feel pain at all times throughout the process of before, during, and end. The Draize test and skin sensitization tests both leave scientists with inaccurate data, and dead animals. Pyrogenicity and Ecotoxicity tests both leave scientists with a conclusion that is only half complete, and cause extreme suffering, as well as death towards animals. Mutagenicity tests have a 50/50 chance of working, if the chemical does not reach the bone marrow before the time of dissection, the scientists killed an animal that contributed nothing to the experiment. All in all, many alternatives have been presented to many companies to obsolete animal testing. However, they mainly believe that animal testing is the best of the best method for testing products, and refuse to switch methods. Some types of animal testing’s include Ecotoxicity, skin sensitization testing, and Pyrogenicity tests.
Works Cited:
"In Testing | Alternatives to Animal Testing and Research." In Testing | Alternatives to Animal Testing
and Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016.
<http://www.neavs.org/alternatives/in-testing>.
"Last Chance for Animals - Vivisection / Animals in Research." Last Chance for Animals - Vivisection / Animals
in Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016.
<http://www.lcanimal.org/index.php/campaigns/class-b-dealers-and-pet-theft/vivisectionanimals-in-
research>.
"Testing - American Anti-Vivisection Society." American AntiVivisection Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2016.
<http://aavs.org/animals-science/how-animals-are-used/testing/>.
"Types List." Types List. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016.
<http://typeslist.com/different-types-of-animal-testing/>.
"What Is Vivisection? | About NEAVS." What Is Vivisection? | About NEAVS. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.neavs.org/about/vivisection>
and Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016.
<http://www.neavs.org/alternatives/in-testing>.
"Last Chance for Animals - Vivisection / Animals in Research." Last Chance for Animals - Vivisection / Animals
in Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016.
<http://www.lcanimal.org/index.php/campaigns/class-b-dealers-and-pet-theft/vivisectionanimals-in-
research>.
"Testing - American Anti-Vivisection Society." American AntiVivisection Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2016.
<http://aavs.org/animals-science/how-animals-are-used/testing/>.
"Types List." Types List. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2016.
<http://typeslist.com/different-types-of-animal-testing/>.
"What Is Vivisection? | About NEAVS." What Is Vivisection? | About NEAVS. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.neavs.org/about/vivisection>