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| ALTERNATIVES TO ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS? |
| There are NO "alternatives" to vivisection. Nothing could be as widely inaccurate, nor as irrelevant to humans as animal experimentation. |
| THE "3Rs" This compromise means - Refine: but, no matter how much "fine tuning", the end result is still an animal experiment which has no bearing for humans. Reduce: e.g. statistically reduce the numbers of animals on test or in the experiment - but the scientific invalidity is then extenuated by the statistical data. Replace: e.g. the use of a species lower down the ecological ladder - but, it is impossible to replace one failed method with another - any more than a broken watch can replace a broken clock to tell the time. However, the idea is that the 3Rs will appease the public, politicians, and the vivisectors alike. Indeed, it has - even to the extent that some of the (supposedly) anti-vivisection societies either outrightly endorse it - or, indirectly, through "humane/alternative research" wings. |
| "There are no alternatives to vivisection, because any method intended to replace it should have the same qualities, but it is hard to find anything in biomedical research that is, and always has been, more deceptive and misleading than vivisection. So the methods we propose for medical research should be called "scientific methods" rather than alternative methods" Prof Pietro Croce. `Vivisection or Science - a choice to make`. 1991. |
| To validate the "alternatives" (3Rs), studies would have to be made to compare the results of the "alternative" methods with the results from animal experiments - meaning MORE animal experiments - PLUS, an acceptance of an "alternative" based on animal experiments, which themselves are scientifically and medically flawed. The promotion of "alternatives" also leads to the erroneous belief that animal experimentation must continue until such time as "alternatives" can replace each and every experiment. The demand for abolition on scientific and medical grounds will bring about medical benefits - just as it has done throughout history. It is abolition which will make the researchers seek true scientific methods - not the other way round. There is only one "R" which should be demanded with regards to all animal experiments - "REMOVE" |
animals or babies? |
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