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Vivisection is Scientific Fraud

Smoking was once thought non-carcinogenic because smoking-related cancer is difficult to reproduce in lab animals. Many continued to smoke and to die from cancer.

Benzene was not withdrawn from use as an industrial chemical despite clinical and epidemiological evidence that exposure caused leukemia in humans, because manufacturer-supported tests failed to reproduce leukemia in mice.

Animal experiments on rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, monkeys, and baboons revealed no link between glass fibers and cancer. Not until 1991, due to human studies, did the government label it carcinogenic.

Though arsenic was a known human carcinogen for decades, scientists still found little evidence in animals to support the conclusion as late as 1977. This was the accepted view until it was produced in lab animals.

Many continued to be exposed to asbestos and die because scientists could not reproduce the cancer in lab animals.

Pacemakers and heart valves were delayed in development because of physiological differences between animals they were designed on and humans.

Animal models of heart disease failed to show that a high cholesterol and high fat diet increases the risk of coronary artery disease. Instead of switching to a vegetarian or vegan diet to prevent the disease, people continued their lifestyles with a false sense of security. Patients received medications that were harmful and/or ineffective due to animal models of stroke.

Animal studies predicted that beta-blockers would not lower blood pressure.  This withheld their development. Even animal experimenters admitted the failure of animal models of hypertension in this regard, but in the meantime, there were thousands more stroke victims.

Over half of the 198 new medications released between 1976 and 1985 were either withdrawn or relabeled secondary to severe unpredicted side effects. These side effects included complications like lethal dysrhythmias, heart attacks, kidney failure, seizures, respiratory arrest, liver failure, and stroke, among others.

Flosint, an arthritis medication, was tested on rats, monkeys and dogs; all tolerated the medication well.  In humans, however, it caused deaths.

Zelmid, an antidepressant, was tested on rats and dogs without incident. It caused severe neurological problems in humans.

Nomifensine, another antidepressant, was linked to kidney and liver failure, anemia, and death in humans.  Animal testing had given it a clean, side effect-free bill of health.

Clioquinol, an antidiarrheal, passed tests in rats, cats, dogs and rabbits.  It was pulled off the shelves all over the world in 1982 after it was found to cause blindness and paralysis in humans.

Eraldin, a medication for heart disease, caused 23 deaths despite the fact that no harmful effects could be shown in animals. When introduced, scientists said it noted for the thoroughness of the toxicity studies on animals. It caused blindness and deaths in humans. Afterwards, scientists were unable to reproduce these results in animals.

Opren, an arthritis medication, killed 61 people. Over 3500 cases of severe reactions have been documented. Opren had been tested on monkeys and other animals without problems.

Zomax, another arthritis drug, killed 14 people and caused many more to suffer.

The dose of isoproterenol, a medication used to treat asthma, was worked out in animals. Unfortunately, it was much too toxic for humans. Thirty five hundred asthmatics died in Great Britain alone due to overdose. It is still difficult to reproduce these results in animals.

Methysergide, a medication used to treat headaches, led to retroperitoneal fibrosis, or severe scarring of the heart, kidneys, and blood vessels in the abdomen. Scientists have been unable to reproduce this in animals. Suprofen, an arthritis drug, was withdrawn from the market when patients suffered kidney toxicity. Prior to its release researchers had this to say about the animal tests: "...excellent safety profile. No ...cardiac, renal, or CNS [central nervous system] effects in any species."

Cylert (pemoline), a medication used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, caused liver failure in 13 children. Eleven either died or needed a liver transplant.

The diet drug combination of fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine was linked to heart valve abnormalities and taken off the market although animal studies "had never revealed heart abnormalities."

The diabetes medication troglitazone, better known as Rezulin, was tested on animals without significant problems, but caused liver damage in humans. The company admitted that at least one patient had died and another had to undergo a liver transplant as a result.

Despite the ineffectiveness of penicillin in his rabbits, Alexander Fleming used the antibiotic on a very sick patient since he had nothing else to try.

Luckily, Fleming's initial tests were not on guinea pigs or hamsters--it kills them. Howard Florey, the Nobel Prize winner credited with co-discovering and manufacturing penicillin, stated: "How fortunate we didn't have these animal tests in the 1940s, for penicillin would probably never been granted a license, and possibly the whole field of antibiotics might never have been realized."

The notoriously dangerous drugs thalidomide and DES were tested in animals and released. Tens of thousands suffered and died as a result. Animal experiments misinformed researchers about how rapidly HIV replicates. Based on this false information, patients did not receive prompt therapies and their lives were shortened.

Animal-based research delayed the development of the polio vaccine, according to Dr. Albert Sabin, its inventor. The first rabies and polio vaccines worked well on animals but crippled or killed the people who tried them. Researchers who work with animals have succumbed to illness and death due to exposure to diseases that though harmless to the animal host (such as Hepatitis-B), kill humans.

Time, funding, and resources devoted to animal experiments could have gone to human-based research. Clinical studies, in vitro research, autopsies, post-marketing drug surveillance, computer modeling, epidemiology, and genetic research pose no hazard to humans and provide accurate results. Importantly, animal experiments have exhausted resources that could have been dedicated to educating the public about health hazards and health maintenance, therein diminishing the incidence of diseases that require treatment. Vivisection is scientific fraud. Animal experimentation does not make sense. Human-based science prevents disease and creates valid therapies.

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