• Question: how did you decide that you wanted to work with drugs on animals?

    Asked by to Daren, Lynne, Phillip, Simon on 13 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Daren Fearon

      Daren Fearon answered on 13 Jun 2014:

      Unfortunately, for most drugs testing on animals is necessary and it is not something that people do by choice (it wouldn’t be allowed if that were the case). It is actually illegal for makeup and cosmetics to be tested on animals now and animal testing is only used for new drugs which could save lives. It is very important that any potential new drug is shown to work properly and be safe before being given to humans and there is very strict laws about how the animals are treated.

      If we could find a way to test the effectiveness and safety of new drugs without using animals, we would.

    • Photo: Lynne Thomas

      Lynne Thomas answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      I don’t work in this area – my interest is further down the line when we are trying to turn a medicine into something that is easy for human’s to take like a tablet for instance and this is called formulation.

    • Photo: Phillip Manning

      Phillip Manning answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      The only time I work on animals is when I dissect their remains in anatomy classes. I have to admit it is not my favourite thing to do, but we can learn so much to help a whole species, through a sacrifice of a few. Most of the dogs, cats and horses I have dissected came from animal shelters (this was in the USA), as they have far too many animals they can care for, so after a given period of time they euthanise some of the animals and their remains are used by vet and anatomy classes.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      I don’t go anywhere near animals in my work. I think I’d find it very difficult to test things on animals, but I admit it is necessary for science to advance.

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