"THE GUINEA PIG The basement of science" ""Animal experiments don't represent the pinnacle of scientific achievement, but the basement."" " Aysha Akhtar, neurologist." "Every year, the US government spents 12 billion dollars in animal research they use tax payer money for those purposes." "The financing is made through National Institute of Health, that supports this practise." "In Brazil, hundreds of laboratories and universities uses animals in experiments." "Differents fields like biology, medicine and psicology uses animals." "They're submitted to procedures that causes pain, suffer and distress, the scientists, however, wants you to believe that these animals do not suffer in those experiments and that animal testing made it possible a great step to science" "but you'll understand the reason it is wrong to do tests in animals, morally and technically speaking." ""Animal experimentation has three purposes: money, power and titles."" " Dr. Heide Evers." "When whe think about it, not just about the use of animals in laboratory, but also any other form of animal exploration we need to ask ourselves, from the ethic point of view, what give us permission" "to use animals..." "What was the thought that originated the belief that animals are at our disposal?" "What I've frequently have been hearing lifelong is that animals can't think... they don't speak, they're not conscious of themselves, they don't have a soul." "I have heard that they don't own moral... with that in mind, we are able to explore them." "They don't creat stuff, they simply act out of instinct, they're not smart, they don't believe in God, once I've heard..." "So, any person who doesn't believe in God can be exploited?" "We are superiors to animals, this idea of superiority that we've been created by last, in the last day of the creation, and that we're the crowning glory of creation the creation's pearl... and all the rest of this Creation was given to us so we could use the way it pleases us." "The idea that God said that we could use animals, all this religious concepct, basically." "What is that diferentiate, if there's something that does, humans of non-humans in a way that allows us to do experiments in one but not in another?" "Succintly, nothing." "Usually, the supposed exclusive features of human being, like cognitives cappacities or certains relantioships that humans can mantain among each other, to defend our moral consideration, relatively superior to other animals... but there is no morally relevant feature that every human being own" "which does not exist in other animals;" "for example, complex cognitives capacities that don't exist in large part of humanity, sometimes in a transitory way, as it is the case of babies, or in a permanently way, like people with any intelectual disability." "That said, animal research defenders are forced to accept and allow the same exact experiment in human beings with similar cognitive capacity the rest of the animals..." "The majority of people, thought, wouldn't support this idea, coundn't accept something like that..." "And given the capacity of these human beings of suffering and enjoying life, they're right." "Doing experiments with those people in a way that would cause suffering or death, would be unjustified." "But this capacity for suffering and enjoying life are also present in other non-human animals." "Therefore, animal's researchers defenders would have to accept that this capacity is also relevant in another animals." "Those whose, for this same reason, opposes to animal experimentation, are against the idea of doing experiments with any being that own this capacity, any sencient being... human or non-human." "We need to stop using excuses that are nothing but fallacies used to validate our animal exploration." "Because the same excuses once justified others human being's exploration." "If we believe that animals are sentients beings, that they have their own interests interest in being alive, preserving their physical integrity don't being harmed by the act of human beings we need to understand that they're vulnerable on our society" "and because of that, we need to exercise one principle that an author named Gary Francione will point out as the "equally consideration principle", this principle says that everyone has to be considered all the same." "All sentient beings must take part on this moral community and to be part of this community, the only morally relevant feature is sentience." "The sentience brings another attribute, and that is the interest, so the species starts to have interests that are not the same as ours, it is their own particular interests and we shouldn't be contrary to those interests because that would be antiethic." "When we counter the interests of other person in order to predominate ours we're acting unethically and the same thing goes to the animals." "Society may think that we're allowed to explore animals but this it won't make it ethical or correct." "The society's moral may say that it iscorrect, but ethics is always going to claim otherwise." "Not being used is one of those animal's interests, and we should seek to preserve this will..." "What is the animal's interest?" "To have his life, his phisical integrity and freedom respected." "No law that regulates the animal's use protects the animal... the animal's interest is violated by the law." "The pharmaceutics industry moves almost 1 trillion dollars, every year, killing more than 100 thousand people per year in United States, due to the colacteral effects of a variety of medication." "We're talking about medicine tested on animals and yet, damaging for human being." "Our life expectation is related to enviromental elements, which envolves basic sanitation, eating and preventive medicine." ""The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer in the mouse..." "We have cured mice of cancer for decades - and it simply didn't work in humans."" " Dr. Richard Klausner, former director of the National Cancer Institute." "Why animal research presents us a moral problem?" "In the firts place, due to the quantity of affected animals; making an conservative estimate, every year, experiments submit approximatelly 100 millions animals." "Secondly, those animals are sentients, that means that they're capable of being affected negatively by what happens to them, they can go through phisically and emottionally suffering." "The welfarist approach and the abolitionist approach." "The welfarist approach focus the discussion on the way that we're going to use animals, it is based on the assumption that the animal is going to be used either for eating, dressing and recreation, or for a cientific research," "they discuss the way this use is going to go through... welfarists stands up for methods that are able to minimize the animal's suffer in differents types of use." "Abolitionist approach, on the other hand, don't focus on the way the animal is going to be utilized, it is based on the premisse that the animal is not going to be used, because it recognizes the animal's interests," "interests that results from this phenomenon called sentience, which is the capacity of feeling." "So, if the animal is sentient and have interests and above all, the interest to preseve his own life, his own freedom and his own physical integrity, these interests needs to be respected, and abolitionist, therefore, stands up for the prohibition of animal's use." "The question isn't about our choice to utilize or regulate the use." "If we can regulate the use, the animal research practices are still permitted something that we can do..." "You can't make the animal suffer but you still can use him..." "And what we're trying to show is that we can not use him, and it doesn't matter the way you're going to use it, you can't do it and that's it." "So, when science is associate to ethics commites, or animal experimentation with ethical comites..." "The ethics committe are not taking care of the animal's interest, they look after the researcher's interest." "They do not have a proxy signed by the animal saying:" ""This one here is speaking on my behalf of myself"." "If the person isn't speaking on the animal's behalf, she's certainly isn't going to be asking for bigger cages, ar conditioner and appropriate ilumination for the animal's living." "Most of the laws in the legal order are not useful to protect the animal's interest but to protect the person who wrote this law." "Basically, this person has interest in the animal..." "economical, political and cientific interest, but this law isn't made so the animal can protect his right to do not be a property protect his right to live and be free." "This law is used to protect this person's interest not the animal's interest." "Therefore, the animal is treated like means to an end, the animal isn't the end itself." "When we talk about humans beings, we are the end itself and this means that" "I can't be used as an means to another thing because I am not an object." "With the same mentality, the abolitionist approach tries to treats the like means to an end." "Putting yourself in the animal's shoes is one simple exercise..." "If you're and sentient being and so it is the animal, let's put ourselves in the animal's shoes." "It would be right if someone caused pain and suffer to you, in the name of an alleged benefit, an alleged advence in science?" "That's our doubt... even if the experiment is made with the ethics commitee's permit, it does not worth anything by the ethical point of view." "The animal model has being a failure even with decades of research on that area in the search of cure to cancer." "The government, however, still invests billions in disappointing researchs or researches that actually create new problems." ""The people who scream the loudest that we have to do animal experimentation are the people whose mortgages are being paid because of experiments on animals."" " Dr. Ray Greek" "Animal's experimentation doesn't always means advances." "Things that works well with an animal... does not mean that will work with human beings." "So, we need to discuss this also by the technical point of view." "If it is wrong to use animals by the ethical point of view questions need to be made from the technical point of view, also." "Since the 80's, we have discover the cure to a great number of diseases on animals and we can't say the same about these diseases in human beings." "How are we going to afirm that resarches on animals are able to cure humans?" "The ones that supports this technique are used to say that the experiments are necessary to ease the suffering." "The animal experimentation is represented like a necessary evil to reach a greater good." "But this doesn't work;" "It is not true that most of experiments in animals are able to help humans." "The animals that are being used they suffer from the day they're born until the day they die, so people can test products that can't contribute to relieve human being's suffer, for example... tests with Botox injections has killed over 50% of the animals used," "and the same situation happens with other tests, to products that doesn't contribute with anything, but that cause lot of suffer and death to these animals, for the main reason to enter the market some new shamppoo" "or some new cleaning product." "So, if this method can't be scientific, it cannot exist." "Somebody, in the past, for some reason believed that animal testing was scientific and that all substitute methods proposed to replace animals should be validated having animal testing as a basis a method that wasn't tested or approved..." "It is not scientific." "We have the difficult to put alternatives methods into practise because they need to be validated having bad methods as reference..." "Methods that aren't scientific." "Animal testing is one of the major difficulties that we have to make science move forward..." "Animal testing delays science." "As it is considered the standard method, any method that would substitute should be as bad as that." "And that's not what we are offering when we work with alternative methods we're thinking in making progress so we can serve human's health." "Alternative methods shoudn't replace animals it should befit with the reaction that we expect from a human being, and these methods are scientific, in contrast to animal testing." "There is an alternative to almost every experiments with animals that doesn't involve suffering and death." "But even with those availables alternatives, they say that animal testing is more trustworthy." "But if it is a question of trust, it would be way more efficient to make those tests directly in human beings..." "And why we don't do that?" "That's because we are conviced that there are ethical reasons that doesn't allow us to test in human beings, and those reasons are not applied to other animals..." "But, is this way of thinking justified?" "No; the one and only reason that human and non-human animals are distinguished, morally speaking is that the human race belongs to the human species." "But the species, as it is well-known, is a feature and from the ethics point of view, it is irrelevant." "And appeal to the species in order to disfavour non-human animals, should be considered similiar to those who appeals to the skin's color or to the individual's gender." "Scients force monkeys to ingest cigarettes, heroin, cocaine and weed." "That results in constant state of stress." "Laboratory animals develops what we called stress-inducted psychosis." "They begin to frantically move in their cages, they strip off their own hair, they separate babies from their mothers, causing despair in both of them." "As it wasn't enough the suffering, laws offer almost none protection to laboratory animals this means that, inside a laboratory, everything is permitted on the name of science." ""Money talks..." "If the flow of taxpayer dollars that supports the foolish or dangerous practices of official science is cut off, these practices will stop."" " Dr. Irwin Bross, MD, Ph.D." "Pharmacogemonics is a technology that creates especific drugs in accordance with the person's genetic profile because they realized that the human body contains a wide range of genetic variety and a drug that can be useful to someone, can be dangerous to other one..." "What can be said about different species, then?" "When we give the same drug to different species of animals, we get different results and they can't be linearly extrapoled having weight, height and othar things as basis because they respond differently, not with quantitatively, but qualitativaly difference." "The answer's quality is different." "If you can't extrapolate data from a species to another, if I am not treated like a property, I have the right to live, the right to be free and preserve my well being..." "But from the moment I don't own this right, I am just a property." "And my owner, the case, the scientist is able to do everything in effort to fullfil his interest, because I don't have the rights." "The smallpox vacination, for exemple, was developed by Edward Jenner without any animal testing." "Animal experimentation, in fact, can delay the development of vacinations... even so, a unbelievable number of sources is invested in a model with low predictive value, minimum security and low efficiency." "According to ANVISA, 50% from the medicines are taken out from the market in five years, duing tocolacteral effects that harmed persons." "It's like playing "heads or tails", as the doctor Ray Greek said." "And all of that, with your money..." "You're the real guinea pig in this billionary business." ""This continues for three reasons: money, money and money."" " Dr. John Pippin" "All this idea that if we stop testing in animals we will return to Middle Age, to a dark era is a big falacie, caused by fear." "With the abolition of animal testing, we don't want to make science make a step backward, it is exactly the opposite, we want to make it go forward, in a ethical way because, today, science benefits only a few, and I am not even talking about the general population" "it benefits economical interests." "Today, our health system is based on the disease, it should be called disease system because you live as you wish, there's no preventive medicine and it is expected for you to get sick soon, so you'll need a treatment" "Richard Ryder, clinical pshychologist of the Oxford University, defined this situation with animals..." "In 1970, when he coined the term "especism", that means the discrimination against species and the man seen as the superior." "This is the ground of animal experimentation and of any kind of exploration that animals suffer on our society." "Here, the ends justifies the means." ""Scientific research with animals is a fallacy."" " Dr. Ray Greek" "The way we choose to do researchs... is a assumption from the beggining of modern medicine, where everything must be tested on animals even if it is not scientific..." "It is a philosofical matter, and we are about to enter an epistemological debate but this technique it is the standard one, it was considered safe for some reason, although data can show us that it isn't safe, but it is considered the scientific and standard choice" "and even when thousands of people die when we apply this method, we just consider it fatalities because it is the "scientific method"." "It is the standard method, but no one ever scientifically questioned it... and if we do it, we can see why we can't keep up with this." "But, in that case, why do we insist to test in non-human animals?" "For a very simple reason: the animal's use in experimentation is fruit of especism it is a direct consequence of especism, and it seachs for that is profitable, from the economics point of view, for human beings, that means that is incompatible with what is the best" "for the animals used on the experiments." "Basically, sentient animals has interests in preserving their lives their phisical integrity and their freedom... that are the basical rights, natural rights that animals are born with." "Every sentient animal, therefore, needs to have this interest respected." "Using animals for feeding, dressing, entertainmment or scientific research is to violate the animal's interest." "There is some alternative method that treats diseases in a efficient way?" "Researchers have been saying that studying our own species is the best way to understand the evolution and the disease's features." "We have a variety of alternatives, like computarized models and artificial dolls and when somebody tries to develop a medicine the search is for the effect in a specific organ." "And some pharmaceutic companies already said that the future of science is to stop using animals." "Through technological evolution, we are able to get rid of this dangerous and outdated method." ""Who breaks into a research lab to rescue a tortured animal is as criminal as an abolitionist that one day raided a slave quarters to free slaves."" " Pedro Abreu (activist of Animal Rights)." "The question is:" "who actually are the guineas pigs?" "Apparently, human beings are." "So if we use animals to test something, and the results are useless, the people that receive the treatment end up being the guinea pigs." "Then, what should we do?" "Firstly, we should reject specism and all its consequences... that requires the understanding that defending animal testing imply, necessarily, to accept to realize experiments in human beings with similar capacities." "Secondly, we should seek for transfering the money that is invested on animal experimentation to new methods of investigating that does not cause pain and suffering to anyone, human or non-human." ""We don't want bigger cages, we want empty cages."" " Tom Regan"