As a medical doctor and scientist, I have been aware of many animal experiments. Indeed, I have participated myself (under licence) in many experimental protocols. But i am starting to change my mind.
Animal testing is important because it will show us if new drugs might kill people rather than cure them. I understand the arguments here, and they are far too complicated to go into in this answer. I will just tell you my thoughts.
I love animals, I always did, which is why i did Zoology as a degree. I have seen them horribly abused in the name of "science". And I have yet to see evidence of the benefits of those experiments. I abhor those experiments that sacrificed animals to test cosmetics and cigarette smoke (the latter of which I have witnessed first hand).
But there is a point here. Is a mouse worth more than a human being? We kill them with traps, we allow our pet cats to kill them. We would never consider letting our pet cat (a tiger) kill a human. Anyway, if the death of a mouse can save one human being, I would not stand in front of the mother of that child and say that the life of a mouse was more important than that of her daughter.
I also believe there are new technologies that allow experimentation without animals. We should be focussing all our energies there.
Good luck!
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