Animal Experimentation
ANIMAL RIGHTS-- The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded in England in 1824 to promote humane treatment of work animals, such as cattle and horses, and of household pets. Within a few decades similar organizations existed throughout Europe. An American society was founded in New York in 1866. Then after, these organizations were protesting the use of animals in laboratory experiments and the use of vivisection for teaching. Until the mid-1970s the focus on humane treatment of animals continued. After that period, animal rights activists enlarged their priorities, considerably. It is estimated that 70 million animals are used in research every year in the United States alone. The trained psychologist must reflect carefully on the limitations of making comparisons of animal and human behavior. Without analyses, animal studies may lead to faulty conclusions of animal and human behavior. A mental illness in a rat is different from that in a human. Just as researchers would rule out harmful experimentation on human subjects, they should stop experimentation that causes animal suffering.
Unfortunately, the use of laboratory animals will not end soon. Also, Psychologists and others involved in animal research make few efforts to find alternative means of gathering data. But many experiments, like systematic brain surgery, for example, cannot be performed on human beings and must be done on animals if anything at all is to be learned. Some psychologists believe that since psychology is the science of behavior, animal behavior is just as interesting and important as human behavior. Not surprisingly, however, humans don't want to be guinea pigs and scientists have in the past had little choice but to use animals. No other animal shares all our biochemistry so we can never be sure that a drug that works on animals will work on us. The questionable substance may be applied to a small area of the animal's skin to determine the development of allergic responses after some applications. Animal behavior is simpler than human behavior. Why should we experiment on animals with products that are not important in medical research!? Pharmaceutical and other industrial labs will use animals to screen drugs, cosmetics, and other substances before selling them.
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