Animal testing and research
Animal testing is scientific experiments or tests animals are forced to undergo. This causes immense pains, mental trauma and long lasting physical harm to them.
The animals are bred in captivity, kept isolated in dirty cages without food and water. The lack of enriched environment causes some animals to develop neurotic behaviors including spinning in circles, rocking back and forth, biting themselves and pulling out their fur.
Tests include injecting or force feeding potentially harmful chemicals, exposing to radiations, surgical removal of organs or tissues, exposure to toxic gasses, subjecting the animals to situations that causes stress and anxiety.
These tests are conducted mainly for medical and cosmetic purpose. Researchers claim that alternates for animal testing are being developed, but until then the procedure is absolute necessity, especially for development in medical research. Animal testing has led to break through in polio vaccines, HIV and AIDS medication and many more.
Under medical research, the animals are exposed to deadly viruses and then tested on with various drugs to stop the virus from spreading. If unsuccessful, the animals are either killed by the disease or euthanised.
For approval and marketing drugs have to go through "In-vitro studies for initial screening, animals studies to confirm the effect of drugs, animal toxicity studies and human clinical studies," said Vangaveti Sneha, Junior Resident of Department of Pharmacology, AIIMS.
According to reports, 9 out of 10 drugs approved during animal testing are rejected at later stages.
Unlike medical research, around 40 countries, including European Union and India, have banned animal testing for cosmetic purpose. People working for animal welfare have supported this move, arguing that there are thousands of skin-friendly safe materials available already.
More than 600 beauty brands are labeled as “cruelty free” meaning they use the already established ingredients for their products, without doing more research in this field.
Animal testing industry is a multi million dollar industry. According to the official statistics of USA, around 20 million animals tests were conducted in the country in 2016.
The actual number would be much higher, since USA does not consider rat, mice, fish, amphibians and birds as 'animals.' No license or prior permission is required to conduct tests on them.
India banned animal testing for cosmetic research in 2013, and any other animal testing in India has to be approved according to CPCSEA (Committee for Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experimentation on Animals) guidelines.
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