Kill for life

Dear readers of our blog, our team and I wanted to touch on the topic "Experiments on animals." This topic is now very relevant, since now various videos have been released, which show how different experiments are carried out on animals, thereby dooming them to painful death. One of the striking examples is the short animated film "Saving Ralph", which is currently viral in tiktok and is actively discussed among people. We wanted to touch on this topic and try to reveal the essence of this problem. The above cartoon shows how rabbits are used to test cosmetics. It is also called "vivisection".

What is vivisection?
Vivisection is the practice of interfering with a living organism, using violent technology on live animals.
Surely many have already encountered this topic, heard from friends, or maybe not at all in the know.
In truth, few people think about when they buy another jar of shampoo or dish detergent, not knowing how the process of their production takes place. More often people are not chasing after quality, they are attracted by beautiful packaging, advertising or even just a discount.
The truth behind all this will not be shown on TV or written in newspapers or magazines. Because this truth is not needed by anyone, because people do not want to know it. Human psychology works in such a way that he does not always want to know the truth. Especially if it is unpleasant or shocking. Many people even think that testing a cream on animals is just applying it to the skin of a mouse and see if it turns red or not.
But unfortunately, everything is much worse.

People amaze with their experiments, which, in many cases, take place in the name of science, development and innovation. Many of them have benefited humanity, but some cause harm by their inhumanity and stupidity. According to some sources, an analysis can be made that the experiments have several directions: 65% - checking the safety of medicines, 26% - scientific research, 8% - cosmetic production, 1% - educational process. The numbers prove once again that such experiments are not going to stop.

Below is an example of violent cases in an experiment:

Two-headed dog

Several decades before the monkey head transplant, in the early 1900s, the American scientist Charles Guthrie conducted a similar experiment on a dog. However, the peak of these operations fell on the war years, and Russian scientists were the favorites in this unusual competition. So, Vladimir Demikhov performed 20 operations on the transplantation of canine heads and improved the technology of vaccination of dogs. In the course of his most famous experience, he transplanted the head and legs of a puppy onto the body of a dog. Subsequently, the operation of the experimental "duet" lived within 6 days. The second creature with 2 heads, which the scientist was still making, lived for a month.

"Animal addicts"

Scientists-psychologists tried to find out how quickly drug addiction occurs in a person, therefore, in 1969, they tested on monkeys and rats, since from a physiological point of view, the human body is similar to these individuals. In the course of the study, they trained animals to inject drugs like cocaine, morphine and amphetamine into themselves. The result amazed everyone: the rats and monkeys were completely at a loss. Some tried to escape, some hurt themselves in spite of the pain.
Also included in the example is the case of a hallucinating elephant, to which Oklahoma scientists Louis Jolyon West and Chester M. Pierce injected 297 milligrams of LSD, which is three thousand times the standard dose for humans. They got the effect immediately: after five minutes the elephant collapsed on its right side and began to beat in an epileptic seizure. He bit his blue tongue and died one hour and forty minutes later.
Popular brands like Adidas, Calvin Klein, Garnier, Giorgio Armani also do not do without animal research, which makes the situation extremely sad. Victims can also suffer damage from cosmetics, which we know are in high demand among buyers. It's no secret that chemical agents can harm a person, and even more so cosmetic ones. It is also worth noting that the tests are carried out without anesthesia, that is, the animals are immobilized.

One might wonder if there is any point in experimenting?
We admit to you honestly, when we started looking for materials for the article, we assumed that most countries no longer conduct such experiments. After all, there are alternative methods that give an accurate safety result. In addition, an analysis of the achievements of modern medicine has shown that the progress of medicine is largely associated with clinical observations of patients, and not with experiments on animals. This can include a whole list of diseases such as hepatitis, rheumatism and a few more similar ones. There is no benefit from animal experimentation in the study of AIDS.
Also, the opinion of people who are fighting for the complete abolition of this practice offer many arguments. First, they argue that animals differ from humans in DNA, genes, and organs. Even if a drug or other product is found to be effective in animals, this does not necessarily mean that it will be as effective in humans. Secondly, it is immoral and inhuman for researchers to make other creatures suffer or even die during laboratory tests. Some examples that can show the obvious ineffectiveness of the practice on animals:

• 40% of patients (consistently) suffer from all kinds of drug side effects that have not been identified in animals.
• Experiments on rats (the main victims of vivisection) can determine the causes of cancer in humans only in 37% of cases.
  
• Human toxicity has never been tested in animals.

Therefore, from all of the above, come to the conclusion that you can get harm from the experiment, rather than benefit, and it is worth stopping doing such experiments.

Alternatives

Although many tests do not require experiments on mammals, they probably cannot be done without them. Testing begins with determining the physicochemical properties, such as boiling point, flash point, solubility in certain media. Then it comes to toxicity testing, which can be carried out, for example, on daphnia - they are also called water fleas, these are tiny freshwater crustaceans. But for testing chemicals, say, for carcinogenicity and mutagenicity, rodents are used - rabbits, mice, rats. Of course, it is very important to protect consumers from exposure to harmful substances, but animal testing is a completely inappropriate way. And it's not just about the fact that animals are simply sorry, that causing them suffering is unethical.

Often this is also completely meaningless, since humans and animals react differently to the same substance. For example, for humans, hydrocyanic acid is very toxic, but for a koala bear, sheep and some other species of mammals, it does not pose any danger even in significant quantities. Parsley is poison for a parrot, but not for humans. And there are a lot of such examples. On the other hand, animal testing is very expensive. Animals must be kept, fed, looked after, and so on. It takes a lot of money and a lot of time. Therefore, the chemical industry has a strong interest in replacing animal experimentation with alternative testing methods wherever possible.

Currently, 170 methods have been submitted for examination at ECVAM. But in the next 2-3 years, 40 more methods will be successfully examined. In particular, skin tissue grown in laboratory conditions has already proven its suitability for such experiments. Initially, it was assumed that this tissue will be used to treat burns. In clinical practice, this technique has not yet found its place, but there are firms supplying to the market very small, with an area of about one square centimeter, samples of skin tissue, which are used to test chemicals for toxicity.

However, in recent years, there have been many innovative developments that may help to further reduce the number of experiments on animals. Improving imaging techniques that allow scientists to look inside the animal's body allow scientists to receive more information from each experiment than before, and of better quality. For example, earlier researchers had to kill many mice at different stages of tumor development, but now you can observe the development of the disease without surgery using a fluorescent dye as an example. Brain imaging techniques are also developing, so that some of the experiments now being carried out on monkeys can certainly be avoided by observing the human brain.

Conclusion

As we know, people's opinion on such a sensitive topic is usually divided into two camps: someone believes that experiments on animals are simply necessary for all mankind and it is worth sacrificing another species for our good, another says that it is too cruel and immoral to facilitate the birth and ensure the life of the creature, in order to further use it for their horrific purposes. There may be a third type that emphasizes human hypocrisy, noting that even if he stops using animals for experimental purposes, it still does not make their life easier: after all, in addition to this, we use them as food, material, etc.
You can draw an analogy with the plot of the anime "The Promised Neverland", which shows how children are raised in special "orphanages" in order to then feed them to monsters who are higher than people in the food chain. Accidentally learning about this frightening fact, the children prepare an escape plan. Of course, watching this picture, we are amazed at the composure of the monsters and curse them, sincerely empathizing for the innocent kids. Until we remember that we are no different from these monsters themselves. Indeed, people themselves in the same way raise livestock on a huge scale for further purposes. And if we replace in this story terrible monsters with people, and children with animals, it turns out that we are looking at real events from our lives, which we ourselves do every day.

Summing up, we want to say that this topic will definitely not leave anyone indifferent and will make everyone think. And it is not known when people will stop abusing animals altogether and will switch to more humane methods to get what they need for our comfortable life. And will it ever happen?