• Question: Do you test on animals?

    Asked by Siena:* to Francesca, Laura, Matthew, Andrew, Rebecca on 7 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by Zoe, jess, megan, ohheyitsizzy, 635spea45.
    • Photo: Andrew McKinley

      Andrew McKinley answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      I don’t do any work in this area and don’t really have things to test. Except new teaching methods – while I’m sure my cat has learned a great deal about optical spectroscopy, she hasn’t yet managed to pass my exams….(!)

      In seriousness though, this question however will spark a great debate on whether we “should” test on animals. There will always be people unhappy with the idea, and who think we shouldn’t be testing on animals. The truth of the matter is that we have to test on *something* before we start clinical trials on humans. Much of our modern medical treatments rely on preliminary testing an ‘live beings’ (bacteria, cells, moving up in complexity towards humans) because sometimes we may not know if something is toxic.
      Vaccines, antibiotics, anti-hypertension drugs; they will all have been tested on something before being given to humans, and we owe our longevity – and success – to these treatments.

      I am sure any biologists/life scientists will have a better answer, but the truth is things have to be tested in order for us to use them and to keep at bay the threat of serious diseases.

    • Photo: Rebecca Ingle

      Rebecca Ingle answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      None of my research involves animals in any way, although I am currently doing some experiments on a molecule that frogs make to protect themselves from the sun. Turns out frogs use suncream like we do too! However, it’s really easy to make in a lab so there’s no need to extract it from frogs or anything like that.

    • Photo: Laura Schofield

      Laura Schofield answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      Hi! I also don’t have anything that needs testing on animals and am now fascinated that frogs use suncream!
      In all seriousness though, I do agree with Andrew. I am a massive animal lover (though I’m not the biggest fan of snails, slugs and worms) but there are some things that need testing on animals. I think cosmetic products could be tested on humans alone, but there are huge problems with testing a new medicine on humans without seeing how other living things react to them first. All in all, I’d say it is a very unfortunate but necessary evil.

    • Photo: Francesca Palombo

      Francesca Palombo answered on 8 Nov 2014:

      No. However I believe that in research these tests may be necessary and nowadays they are done according to strict ethics rules

    • Photo: Matthew Camilleri

      Matthew Camilleri answered on 9 Nov 2014:

      I don’t currently do any tests on animals, but if the time comes that my reactions are used for medicine production then it will be important that these drugs would be tested, which is normally first done on animals, followed by human trials.

      This process is important, and although some animals might actually die due to animal trials, one will be saving hundreds of human lives once the drug is perfected.

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