It's such a shame that the family that runs a farm breeding guinea pigs for research feels they had to close. I hope that the remains of Mrs Hammond which were taken from her grave last year will now be returned to the family. The regulations controling the use of animals are so stringent in this country and if farms like this continue to close we will have to obtain the animals from elsewhere, where there are less strict regulations.
Unfortunately, there are no alternatives to the use of animals in either drug development or in order to understand more about the biology of health and disease. Computer simulation and in vitro methods are not yet able to replace the animals. I use animals in my own research and if there was an alternative I would use it, it is the least favourite part of my job, unfortunately I have no option. Having said that, the animals we have are better looked after than a lot of pets are!
I was interested to read that around 2.8 million animals were used in the UK in 2003 (of which 80% are rodents). Last year there were over 3 million deaths from AIDS worldwide (approximately three-quaters of these were in Africa alone) and nearly 40 million are infected with HIV. And this is just one disease that scientists are using animal research to try and come up with a solution to.
1 comment:
Of course no intelligent person would enjoy using animals for research purposes but, unpleasant as the whole thing is, the human race would undoubtedly be in much worse condition without such research.
Your figures on Aids & HIV alone justify the use of animals, but such realities, I fear, are lost on animal rights activists.
Well put, Holly.
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