History
Non-human animal experimentation dates all the way back to the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. This was mainly because people were still understanding the world around them with the availability of minimal tools and technology. These experiments were conducted to understand the anatomy and physiology of living beings. However, the mandatory use of non-human animals for regulatory purposes, is very recent and was brought about around the 1930s, as a result of the emotional interaction between scientists, politicians, public, and the media rather than rational deliberation following a disaster surrounding the use of a drug called Sulfanilamide Elixir which killed more than 100 people in the USA.
192.1 Million Animals Impacted
Physical
& Mental Distress
Efficacy of testing human drugs on animals-
Most human diseases do not occur in non-human animals, and hence they are induced with the disease and experimented upon to either understand the disease or to find cures for the disease. Non-human animals vary significantly from humans, both genetically and physiologically. The interaction between genes in humans differs from that in non-humans which also adds to the complexity of the issue.
Human physiology and genetics vary from human to human i.e,. there is a vast difference within the same species and due to species differentiation, non-human animals vary even more when compared to humans. These animals are tested in controlled conditions in a laboratory as opposed to the diverse environmental factors that humans come in contact with. They are also kept in conditions that do not mimic their natural habitat which increases stress and this affects the outcomes of the experiments. This affects the extrapolation of animal testing results to human outcomes.
89% of new drugs fail when they reach human trials – half of which are due to the unpredicted toxicity that is not seen in non-human animal trials.
Lifesaving drugs like penicillin, aspirin, paracetamol are harmful to non-human animals and would have never entered the market had the current regulatory testing standards been applied when these drugs were discovered.
There is growing acceptance within the scientific community for the need to move away from non-human animal testing by obsoleting their use and bringing in more technologically advanced science that effectively replicates human outcomes aiding more successes in biomedical research and toxicology testing.
The issue of non-human animal testing is tightly linked with human well-being, which means that moving away from these practices is ethically sound not just for the non-human animals used but also for humans that by extension bear the final consequences.
Scale
Animals are extensively used in biomedical research where there is no account of the number of animals that may be used. Additionally, regulatory mandates in many countries demand toxicity testing in animals as a prerequisite for the sale and import of various products like pesticides, pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, medical devices, genetically modified foods, biological products like vaccines, and some consumer products. Based on various factors like the expected exposure to the product and its toxicity, hundreds or thousands of animals may be required to be tested upon mandated by the law. These animals are forced to swallow or inhale a substance or have it applied to their skin or eyes.
A recent study estimated that around 192.1 million non-human animals were used across the globe in 2015 for scientific puposes. This number is only based on the 37 countries worldwide that publish national statistics on number of animals used, and estimated guesses are made to fill in the gaps for countries that do not provide the national statistics – this includes the numbers in India which does not mandate disclosure of these numbers as yearly statistics. An estimated 207,724 tests using dogs and 158,780 tests using monkeys were conducted in 2015 and India ranked within the top 10 users of dogs and monkeys according to this study.
Suffering by Species
Apart from using non-human animals for practice for education, various painful tests are conducted on them – for example they are subjected to varied degrees of physical and psychological distress – used for invasive categories of experimentation and stressful procedures without any pain relief medication. Substances that cause damage to their skin causing itching and swelling are tested on them. Various chemicals are tested to check if they are cancer causing or cause any reproductive, developmental, neurological issues. These chemicals are either administered orally, placed over the skin, or inhaled over a prolonged duration to mice or rats who are killed after the experiments are completed.
A variety of animals are used in different kinds of experiments. The following are very few examples of the plethora of tests and experiments that these animals are subjected to:
Dogs: The lungs, kidneys, and hearts of dogs are damaged intentionally and dissected to check the effects of the substances that have been used to damage them and extrapolate the results to human organ function.
Cats: They are forced to run on treadmills after having their spinal cords damaged to study the effects of nerve activity on limb movement and translate the results to human outcomes.
Rats: Toxicity tests to understand the effects of cigarette smoke on humans are conducted on rats by placing them in small tubes are forcing them to inhale the smoke. Pregnant rats have chemicals administered to them for reproductive studies, and the animals are killed before the babies are born and the foetuses are tested for toxic effects.
Mice: Multiple toxicity and safety studies are conducted on mice. For one of them, they are force-fed chemicals for 2 years to check the cancer-causing effects of the substance on humans.
Monkeys: Infant monkeys are forcefully separated from their mothers to study the effects of extreme stress and extrapolate it to human behaviour.
Baboons: Endometrial tissue is injected into their system to induce the symptoms of endometriosis to understand the effects that humans may have with this disease.
Rabbits: Impregnated rabbits are force-fed toxic pesticides every day for several weeks to study the effects of the pesticides on the mother and babies and then extrapolated to human outcomes. Certain tests have chemicals placed in one eye of a rabbit and the effects are compared with the other eye where the substance has not been applied. These effects can be redness, bleeding, ulcers, and even blindness.
Pigs: Medical devices like pacemakers and dental implants are implanted in pigs to study the reaction that they may have and translate the results to human outcomes.
Sheep: Burn studies are conducted on sheep where they are subjected to third degree burns and inhale the smoke to extrapolate it to human results and understand the similar experiences that humans may have.
Horses: Potentially fatal viruses are injected into the horses to study the symptoms that the virus may have and extrapolate it to human outcomes for the same disease. Horses have also been used for decades now for the production of diphtheria antitoxin. They are repeatedly injected with the diphtheria toxin and large quantities of blood is drained from them to collect the antibodies that their bodies produce.
Ferrets: To study the way humans may be affected by diseases like Rabies, HIV, and Tuberculosis, they are infected with the diseases and not given any treatment or pain relief before they die of the disease.
These experiments vary in duration from days to months to years during which time the tests can cause various effects like diarrhoea, vomiting, rashes, irritation, bleeding, weight loss, loss of appetite, convulsions, respiratory distress, paralysis, lethargy, organ abnormalities, tumours, heat failure, etc. Most of the times, no pain relief medication or treatment is given to the animals to ensure that this does not interfere with the outcomes of the tests being conducted. Animals are killed once the experiments are over to harvest the tissues and organs for examination. This makes the intensity of their suffering exponentially high considering the fact that they are intentionally put through such distress purely for observation. There are no accurate statistics available on the scale of animals used and killed in laboratories each year.
Ongoing Interventions
Regulatory testing on non-human animals was conducted when there were fewer advances in technology and the manufacturing practices were not sterile and standardised. We now have progressed by leaps and bounds with respect to understanding and mimicking human physiology – we have technology like organ-on-a-chip where the functioning of organs can be mimicked on a silicon chip and various chemicals and drugs can be tested on them. These can also be customised using the diseased cells of the patient to give a better and precise understanding into the drugs that will work for them aiding in precision medicine. In silico models and other methodologies like the Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) are available for predicting toxicity testing in animals. Various simulations also aid students without having to dissect animals.
The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) issued a directive in 2019 to reduce its requests for, and funding of, mammal studies by 30% by 2025 and eliminate all mammal study requests and funding by 2035. Additionally, it announced close to $ 5 million to advance research on alternative methods to animal testing. India needs a similar regulation in place.
Milestones in India
India is one of the frontrunners when it comes to applying the 3Rs – Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement principles for animal testing.
Funding Opportunities
The unavailability of animal testing data in India has left a gap in understanding the depth of the issue in India, and needs to be addressed. It is prudent for regulatory bodies to encourage research and development into non-animal methodologies by increasing funding into it and ensuring timely regulatory uptake of non-animal methodologies.
FAQs
Why are animals experimented on?
Non-human animal experimentation dates all the way back to the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. This was mainly because people were still understanding the world around them with the availability of minimal tools and technology. These experiments were conducted to understand the anatomy and physiology of living beings. However, the mandatory use of non-human animals for regulatory purposes, is very recent and was brought about around the 1930s, as a result of the emotional interaction between scientists, politicians, public, and the media rather than rational deliberation following a disaster surrounding the use of a drug called Sulfanilamide Elixir which killed more than 100 people in the USA.
Is there a way around it?
Regulatory testing on non-human animals was conducted when there were fewer advances in technology and the manufacturing practices were not sterile and standardised. We now have progressed by leaps and bounds with respect to understanding and mimicking human physiology – we have technology like organ-on-a-chip where the functioning of organs can be mimicked on a silicon chip and various chemicals and drugs can be tested on them. These can also be customised using the diseased cells of the patient to give a better and precise understanding into the drugs that will work for them aiding in precision medicine. In silico models and other methodologies like the Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) are available for predicting toxicity testing in animals. Various simulations also aid students without having to dissect animals.
Is animal testing banned in India?
Animal testing is not banned in India. Cosmetic testing on animals was banned in India in 2013, followed by an import ban on cosmetics tested on animals in 2014. Animals are still widely used for biomedical research, toxicology testing of chemicals, food additives, pharmaceuticals, etc.
Why is animal testing not always best approach?
Human physiology and genetics vary from human to human i.e., there is a vast difference within the same species and due to due to species differentiation, non-human animals vary even more when compared to humans. These animals are tested in controlled conditions in a laboratory as opposed to the diverse environmental factors that humans come in contact with. They are also kept in conditions that do not mimic their natural habitat which increases stress and this affects the outcomes of the experiments. This affects the extrapolation of animal testing results to human outcomes.
89% of new drugs fail when they reach human trials – half of which are due to the unpredicted toxicity that is not seen in non-human animal trials. Lifesaving drugs like penicillin, aspirin, paracetamol are harmful to non-human animals and would have never entered the market had the current regulatory testing standards been applied when these drugs were discovered.
Projects
With its strategic associations with various NGOs doing good work at ground zero, India Animal Fund is changing the speed and scale of their work. We engage with these NGOs to identify the most efficient means of execution, build economies of scale; all backed by a strong sense of integrity, transparency and measurability. Read on and find the project that resonates with you.
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