When you think about it…shouldn’t studies related to human beings be conducted using data from humans?

Shouldn’t data from humans be used instead of animals in order to study our own kind?

Did you know that stressed rats drank more alcohol than non-stressed rats? How does knowing this help humans? Additionally, studies that test for the effects of nicotine on the lungs of baby mice or seek to understand the sexual preferences of hamsters seem a tad bit off the mark when it comes to extrapolating data for human use.

What are we gaining in improving the health and well-being of humans when we focus on the drinking, smoking, and sexual activities of rodents? These studies, which number in the hundreds if not the thousands, are often funded with taxpayer dollars.

There is little return on these investments of millions of dollars while at the same time there is a huge investment in animal abuse. And just as lab beakers and other laboratory equipment are often discarded when no longer of value, so too are the lives of these animals.

When you think about it…why are we studying mice when we should be studying humans? Why are we perpetuating animal abuse when humans are suffering and dying…shouldn’t studies related to human beings be conducted using data from humans?

When you think about it…you’re not a mouse, a cat, a guinea pig, or a monkey.

Many drugs tested on animals that are considered safe may not have the same effects on humans.

Mice, cats, guinea pigs, and monkeys are among some of the animals used in laboratories to test pharmaceuticals to ensure their efficacy and safety for use in humans. There’s just one major flaw. Humans aren’t mice, cats, guinea pigs, or monkeys. So, drugs that may be safe in them can turn out to be harmful to us. For example, a drug trial of an Alzheimer’s vaccine that had been tested on mice had to be stopped because it caused brain inflammation in humans. And drugs harmful to mice, cats, guinea pigs, or monkeys may never get on the market yet may be just the cure that’s needed for a human-related diseases. Tamoxifen caused tumors in rats but fortunately tests were continued and it was found to be an effective drug against some human breast cancers.

Animal testing wastes many lives—not just those of the animals used in experiments but also the lives of humans. Some are harmed by what were considered harmless drugs and other suffer without drugs that could help them because they harmed laboratory animals. When you think about it…you’re not a mouse, a cat, a guinea pig, or a monkey. So why should the drugs you take be tested on them?

When you think about it…do we really need transgenic monkeys?

Instead of using mice for research purposes, transgenic monkeys are being created for use by scientists.

According to an article in Scientific American, customized monkeys are now all the rage in the biomedical community. Instead of using mice, researchers are looking toward using primates. This comes at a time when airlines are refusing to transport research monkeys and when many primates are being retired from research facilities. So, which direction are we going in when it comes to using nonhuman animals as research subjects? Are we committed to reducing the numbers who are subjected to the rigors of the research laboratory, or are we creating mutant monkeys so we can use more of them in the labs? We seem to be fractured in our thinking about animals in research. What we do know is that animals who are used in laboratory research suffer, regardless of how well researchers care for them. They suffer because they are denied their lives. So, when you think about it…do we really need transgenic monkeys?

When you think about it…animal advocates have been right all along.

Many drugs that have been effective on lab animals have proven to be ineffective on humans.

Animal advocates have for years been criticizing the need to experiment on animals as a way to find cures for human diseases. Today, we are vindicated.

According to Dr. Akhtar, “Again and again, drugs found effective in animals in the laboratory have failed when tried in humans….The main reason for these high failure rates? Animal experiments simply don’t make good “models” of human physiology and human diseases.”

Finally, the research community is waking up to what those of us who treasure animals know intuitively to be right. Animals have a purpose and being unto themselves and are not here for us to poke, prod, and otherwise abuse in the name of scientific experiments. Animals in the laboratory are wrong, wrong, wrong.

Akhtar goes on to say, “If we want to truly improve our lives and find cures for our diseases, wouldn’t we be better served if we stop wasting immense time and resources using misleading animal experiments?…By doing so, we will better help our loved ones and ourselves as well as save millions of animals annually from lives of misery.”

Seems when you think about it…animal advocates have been right all along and now some scientists are getting the message too—a mouse is not a human.

When you think about it…sending animals into space is simply unnecessary.

Scientists have been sending animals such as geckos, gerbils, and mice into space to determine the effects of space travel on humans.

Why must space agencies continue to send animals into space to determine the effects of lengthy space travel on humans when we’ve had so many humans in space and for long periods of time? Recently, Russian scientists sent mice, gerbils, and geckos, among other animals, into space for a month to determine the prolonged effects of space exposure and weightlessness on living organisms. Many of the animals returned dead.

Humans have lived in space for much longer than 30 days; for example, Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov, a Russian cosmonaut, spent 14 months aboard the Mir space station. Why then do we need to subject gerbils, geckos, and other animals to space travel when there are enough humans who have already experienced prolonged space living? When you think about it…sending animals into space is simply unnecessary.

Protect ALL Animals under the Animal Welfare Act

Mice, rats, and birds make up approximately 95 percent of all animals used in research.

The Animal Welfare Act was signed into law in 1966. It is the only Federal law that regulates the treatment of animals in a variety of settings from research laboratories to zoos and circuses. In 2002, the Act was amended to remove from protection several species of animals used in laboratory experiments, including rats, mice, and birds. These species make up approximately 95 percent of all animals used in biomedical research laboratories. Recently, HR 6693 was introduced to amend the Animal Welfare Act to provide for the protection of birds, rats, and mice, and for other purposes.

Please contact your representative and urge him or her to support the protection of all animals used in biomedical research.

When you think about it…can we build a better mousetrap?

When thinking about mice traps, some people automatically think “humane” trap. That certainly is a better mousetrap than a glue or spring-loaded trap. The first causes the mouse to become stuck to a surface and any attempt to pull away from the trap results in torn paws and fur. Of course, if the mouse can’t get free of a glue trap, the mouse dies a slow death stuck to the trap. A spring-loaded trap acts like a guillotine, instantly killing the mouse. While both rid of us the mouse in our house, the humane trap (one into which a mouse can safely go and become confined, thereby allowing the human to release the mouse into the wild) is certainly the best alternative.

Can we find better methods to remove or reduce the number of animals who seem to be “nuisances” wherever they are found; for instance, feral cats and pigs and wild horses and burros? Some people want to kill these animals—that’s their solution. While killing may be less time-consuming and less costly than other alternatives, if we want to be humane in our treatment of animals, shouldn’t we be looking for humane methods of controlling species that we introduced into our communities? It is, after all, we humans who have allowed some of these animals to take up residency in locations where they are not native.

One method of controlling unwanted populations, especially of feral cats, is to trap, spay or neuter, and return them either to where they were living or relocate them to safer territory—safer for them and the general population as well. Other birth control methods for wildlife are being or have been developed. When you think about it…employing less violent means to control some species is one way we can build better mousetraps; while at the same time, we are building more humane communities.