The use of animals for medical experimentation has been one of the most controversial issues in our world since the seventeenth century. Edward Augustus Freeman stated, "The awful wrongs and sufferings forced upon the innocent, faithful animal race form the blackest chapter in the whole world's history." In the United States, it is estimated that twenty to seventy million animals including cats, dogs, primates, rabbits, rats, and mice suffer and die in the name of research. At least thirty-three animals die in laboratories each second worldwide, in the UK, one every four seconds. Who has the authority to make a choice that the human race is a greater race than that of animals? People say: "We have rights over animals. They are given to us for use." You have no rights over them. You have duties towards them. At no point and time should we ever justify ourselves through the pain and suffering of another being. I have always felt that the way we treat animals is a pretty good indicator of the compassion we are capable of for the human race.
Throughout years of practicing animal experimentation, researchers have stumbled across findings that have promoted the well being of humans and animals alike. It has helped provide antibiotics and vaccines, insulin for diabetics, treatments for leukemia, local and general anesthetics, and has made possible advances in medical technology such as blood transfusion, kidney dialysis, and the heart lung machine. Distemper, which killed dogs, seals, and dolphins, and is now prevented by a vaccine, was developed using dogs in the 1920s. .
Media reports of medical research often give us the impression that progress moves in leaps and bounds, from one "breakthrough" to another. In reality, the original "blue skies" research that underpins each advance may take decades. About 40 years of research using monkeys, rats and mice led directly to the introduction of the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines in the 1950s.
