Right now avian flu virus threatens all of us with an international pandemic. The adaptation of this H5 class virus into a human compatible strain created a disease that is new to all human immune systems. There currently is no commercially available vaccination. The world’s laboratories are working on mass-producing the vaccine. At birth, people receive vaccinations that prevent many types of disease. Along with these vaccinations, there are thousands of drugs that prevent bacterial disease and/or suppress viral infections. Have you ever thought about how the scientific community produces these drugs? Today we depend on medicine to the extent that it has become an indispensable part of all our lives. Drugs are necessary. Animal drug testing is a necessary part of producing our medicine.

     Medical research has benefited by the use of animal tests since the beginning of medical science. Ancient Grecian and Romans used pigs to study the inner workings of the mammalian body. The scientific revolution occurred during the late 16^th century and in the 18^th century animal testing evolved from an unconventional method into scientific mainstream practice. During this time, there was some opposition to animal testing mainly in Britain and less in America. Up until the mid 20^th century, there was not much parameter on the use of animals in scientific testing. Around 1950 American groups such as the ASPCA and the Humane Society of the United States formed to push for the regulation on a number of issues in animal laboratory testing. 
     A multitude of pharmaceutical companies, drug research and manufacturing facilities, and universities practice animal drug testing. Scientists use animals in preclinical trials that test many variables in a developing drug. Today there many efforts including legislation that encourage humane laboratory practice. In 1966, congress passed the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act, which regulated the acquisition and handling of animals by lab animal dealers. Congress amended the act in 1970 to include the care of animals in the laboratory and shortened the name to the Animal Welfare Act. There are ongoing efforts to convert to alternative methods but currently live animal testing remains a necessary part of laboratory science.
     There is a negative aspect to animal testing. Animals bred for lab use spend their lives in a cage; after the experiment, the animals are destroyed. Despite the use of alternative methods, as many as 115 million animals die every year in American laboratories. The Animal Welfare Act does not regulate the use of mice and rats therefore the number of animals actually used is an estimate. While the majority of labs practice humane treatment and care for their animals there are others that do not. There is proof of animal abuse at laboratories. Many animal rights groups such as PETA fight to regulate the use of animals for experimentation. There is progress in finding alternative methods to animal testing. One promising alternative involves the use of stem cells in a culture rather than destroying a living animal. Stem cells are essentially “blank” cells that can be changed into any type of tissue. These cells offer an alternative to animal testing due to this ability. Scientists test many types of infectious foreign bodies in tests that only target specific cells in an animal’s body. For example certain types of cancer only effect one specific tissue in our bodies such as some heart cancers will not spread to other parts of the body but only afflict heart tissue cells. With stem cells, it is possible to create an in vitro culture of only these heart cells without using an animal’s heart at all. Stem cells are an effective controlled experimentation medium. An article from the PETA organization says, “Even though stem cell research currently involves animals, it has the potential to end the vast majority of animal testing.” Stem cells are important for future lab workers because they have many properties that allow tests that do not take the life of an animal. Vivisection is currently the more accepted practice. Vivisection is a proven method of testing. However, many conventional tests prove to be inconclusive. There might be one out of five hundred tests that results in the further development of a substance. Dr Ralph Heywood, former director of Huntingdon Research Centre, said, “… the best guess for the correlation of adverse reactions in man and animal toxicity data is somewhere between 5 and 25%.”Stem cell tests produce a similar if not a larger amount of inconclusive tests but there are not lives at stake. Currently the Food and Drug Administration requires that scientists must test the new drugs on two species before human trials may begin. Many experiments involve procedures that are very painful to the animals and almost all experiments result in killing the animal because once used the animal is no longer a pure test subject. Despite the negative portion involved with testing substances on animals in the laboratory, the tests are an essential piece in deriving new medications and treatments. 
     The moral justification for the use of animals in the laboratory is an ongoing argument. Many morality arguments stem from the animal rights community. These philosophical issues are an important part of animal testing. Rights groups argue that we do not have a given right to exploit living organisms for our gain. Which rights are not derived by human communication but given to all things? Who gives rights? Which species worship higher beings? The very belief in any of many indistinctly defined higher powers is justification that humanity believes that it is the supreme species in our sensorally defined universe. Is it moral to co-exist as unique entities? Individuality defines judgment. Whether it is moral to one and not moral to another we all appreciate the ability to treat illness and extend the lives of ourselves, our colleagues, and even our pets. “We would rather not use animals and we try hard to find alternatives.” – Robin Lovell-Badge NIMR. Medicinal scientists who use animals in their laboratories are not depraved people who torture animals for personal enjoyment; they are people like you and me who use proven methods to help people live longer, less diseased lives. 
     So why do we do animal drug testing? We do animal drug testing to procure safe chemical substances that assist in preventing disease, and extending lives. We do it for the well-being of the people of the world. Animal testing is not the only procedure we use to build new drugs but eventually tests need to be performed on a living organism. In an informative brochure Oregon Health and Science University says, “A great deal of research is conducted in the laboratory, using test tubes and computer analysis to uncover the basic biological issues related to a disease. Later, a potential treatment, cure or preventative strategy frequently must be tested on a complex living organism. Finally, if research with animal models proves promising, human clinical trials are begun.” We administer millions of doses of drugs every week all over the world saving the lives of the patients taking them. While we may not enjoy the thought of ending the life of another organism to extend the life of another, humanity sees that it is fit to extend life. The number of animals used in drug development has fallen by nearly half in the past 20 years. We are working on ways to lessen animal sacrifice.
     Some of the many accomplishments animal drug testing science has afforded humanity include; treating brain tumors, helping to reduce worldwide infant malnutrition, treating depression, understanding and treating infertility, investigating the AIDS virus, reducing the risk of heart disease, treating leukemia, helping premature infants survive, treating coronary artery disease, insulin for diabetics and many other treatments. Animal testing has generated disease-destroying vaccines for diseases like rabies, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, and tuberculosis. Animal testing has also helped to produce safer methods for life saving organ transplantation and other major surgical procedures.

     We use the lives of animals to learn about the means upon which biological systems function. It is necessary to test our developing drugs on living organisms. We trade the lives of animals to save our own. No computer simulation can foresee the path of disease that evolves all around us. No single cell culture can model the effects that foreign chemicals have on the complex systems of living tissue that make up an organism. Scientists will continue to use animals as a model; ensuring safety in medicine for all of us.