6 Horrific Experiments on Animals and What You Can Do to End Cruel Tests
It’s estimated that around 115 million animals are used in cruel and archaic experiments worldwide every year – a number that‘s almost impossible to imagine. Experimenters drill holes into alligators‘ skulls, clone and castrate monkeys, and purposely damage the insides of dogs‘ mouths – all in the name of science.
Because the results of these inhumane tests are nearly always irrelevant to humans, many of the diseases that experimenters say they‘re attempting to study are left without effective treatments and cures. Therefore, human patients end up suffering, too.
The following are just a few examples of the procedures that experimenters have conducted on animals:
1. Experimenters Drugged Alligators and Drilled Holes Into Their Skulls
In the US, 40 alligators were imprisoned and drugged with ketamine before experimenters fixed head-restraining devices to their snouts with cement, drilled holes into their skulls, and attached electrodes to their brains. This is no way to treat any sentient being.
2. Monkeys Were Cloned and Plagued With Mental Health Problems
Chinese experimenters genetically manipulated monkeys so that they’d be plagued with mental health issues, including anxiety, fear, depression, behaviour associated with schizophrenia, and sleep disorders – and then cloned them.
The experimenters plan to create a whole colony of monkeys who are likely to experience the most severe forms of psychological suffering. Genetically manipulating and cloning animals won‘t solve human medical problems but certainly will cause these intelligent, sensitive beings a lifetime of misery.
3. Experimenters Pulled Dogs‘ Teeth Out, Cut Their Gums Apart, and Killed Them
In a Swedish laboratory, experimenters took six black Labradors – Mimosa, Milia, Luna, Venus, Lotus, and Zuri – removed their teeth, and cut apart their gums, likely subjecting them to swelling and bleeding. The dogs were also put at risk of suffering from chronic pain as a result of nerve damage or infection. After the tests, they were killed and further experimented on – treated as if they were nothing more than test tubes with tails.
Dogs‘ status as “man‘s best friend“ offers them no protection from being locked up in laboratories and forced to endure excruciating procedures.
4. Experimenters Castrated Monkeys and Regrew Their Testicles
Experimenters castrated five young monkeys, chopped their testicles into tiny pieces, and then regrew these organs on their backs in an attempt to produce viable sperm. It‘s as disturbing as it is sadistic – and these monkeys weren‘t the only victims. Grady, the only “healthy“ individual born from 138 fertilised eggs and dubbed the “success story“ in this horror show, is the product of cruel Frankenscience. She‘ll likely spend the rest of her life under the clinical lights of the laboratory, confined to a cramped cage and subjected to painful, intrusive procedures.
Monkeys aren‘t miniature humans: fundamental differences exist between our species – from the DNA, cells, and tissues to the reproductive biology – often resulting in one catastrophic failed experiment after another.
5. Octopuses Were Given MDMA
Octopuses aren‘t under-evolved humans, but some experimenters seem to think they are. A mother octopus and her eggs were captured from the ocean so that experimenters in the US could use her offspring to test psychiatric drugs. The octopuses were isolated in small tanks for seven months before being transported to another facility, where they were kept in buckets containing artificial seawater. They were then forced to absorb the drug MDMA (ecstasy) through their gills.
The experimenters claimed that their outlandish study lays the foundations for further testing of psychiatric drugs on these intelligent, mysterious marine animals – even though the results of tests on animals are often unreliable and inapplicable to humans.
6. Pregnant Mothers Force-Fed Viagra-Like Pills
Viagra-like pills (sildenafil) have been repeatedly force-fed to or injected into dogs, mice, rabbits, and sheep. Even pregnant animals have been given the drug with the express intention of causing them to suffer from pre-eclampsia – their offspring were then killed and dissected, either before or shortly after birth.
In another study, sildenafil decreased the mortality rate of rat foetuses whose mothers had been injected with the drug. But results from experiments on animals don‘t translate well to humans. Experimenters gave sildenafil to pregnant human women whose placentas were underperforming, telling them that the drug could help by improving blood supply through the placenta and promoting the growth of the foetus in the womb. Tragically, 11 babies died as a result of lung problems associated with the drug. These fatal side effects weren‘t predicted by any of the tests conducted on animals.
What You Can Do
Experiments using animals are unethical and wasteful and produce misleading results because of fundamental biological and metabolic differences between species. Experimenters must switch to innovative, non-animal, human-relevant methods – such as computer models that can accurately simulate what happens in humans, organs-on-chips, and 3-dimensional human tissue cultures – in order to advance medicine and spare animals unconscionable cruelty.
Please click the button below to take five crucial actions – firing off e-mails to decision-makers and adding your name to petitions and open letters – to help animals trapped in laboratories. It only takes 30 seconds, and every signature makes a difference for animals.
