• Question: Do you test anything on animals?

    Asked by kimstar910 to Alan, Damian, Emma, Liam, Luca on 19 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Liam Bagley

      Liam Bagley answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Hi kimstar910,

      I personally don’t no. As I’m strictly a human physiologist, however a lot of the research I read uses animals as subjects.
      Whats your opinion on animal testing?
      My personal opinion is that we shouldn’t use animals unless strictly necessary. I disagree with animal testing in cosmetics like skin creams, make up, aftershave etc etc. However I think in medical research, like anti-cancer drug research or new treatment research, it has to be used as we can’t test these things on sick people.
      The government really closely regulate when animal research can be used now and in the UK we’re actually one of the strictest on it! The government and all companies that animal test have a policy called the 3Rs, these are:
      Replace- So if you don’t need to use animals in testing then we don’t!
      Refine- Get the techniques for research right first time so we don’t have to harm more animals than we need to, if we harm them at all
      Reduce- We reduce the number of animals used in experiments so eventually we use none!

      Check out this website for a bit more information on animals in research:
      http://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/how/the-three-Rs

    • Photo: Emma Ross

      Emma Ross answered on 19 Jun 2013:

      Like Liam, I am a human physiologist, so I do all my experiemnts using human subjects. However, I think its really important to understand that somethings there is a need to do testing with animals, since it is the only way that we will find treatments and cure for cancer, heart disease, Parkinsons disease, and all the other illnessess that affect peoples lives. All the research into medicines to help these people has to start out, first in a single cell in a petri dish, and then move onto experiments in animals who have been bred specifically for use in research, and only then, many years later is the medicine considered safe enough to test out in humans, and then only after a lot more testing does it eventually get onto the shelves of our chemists to treat us when we are ill. As Liam says, there are really strict rules about using animals for medical testing, which means that they are kept in a very humane way, and don’t endure any unecessary suffering.

      I don’t agree with using animals in any other non-medical research though (like make-up or perfumes).

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