• Question: do you work with animals if so do you thinks its ok to test on them?

    Asked by hannahplik to Ed, Katie, Sam, Steve, Vera on 21 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by lucylu, gissella99, xanthenims, gelline23, jellytotgumdrop.
    • Photo: Ed Morrison

      Ed Morrison answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      I only do a little work on animals, on how they think. So this means studying animals behaving naturally in the wild or in zoos. I don’t do anything invasive where I inject them with anything or cut them open.

      Some scientists do so-called invasive work though, and it is hugely important for advancing our knowledge. There are very strict rules about what you can do with animals though ,and you have to show that there is a potential for good to come out of the research ,which I think is right. For example, drugs and medical treatments are often tested on animals, because in the future they could save humans’ lives. There are loads of examples of how invasive research on animals has helped people in the past.

    • Photo: Vera Weisbecker

      Vera Weisbecker answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      I do work on animals, but mostly on animals that have been killed for other purposes and I can use them for my research. Only in one case did I actually specifically ask for animals to be humanely killed for my research.

      Like Ed, I think it is ok to test on animals AS LONG as they don’t suffer and as long as there is an actual use for humans, rather than just a re-hash of the same old painkiller. I also think that testing should involve as few lab animals as possible. For example, for many years there was a crazy and very painful test called the LD-50 test – it is now banned at least partly in Europe, but when I was young it was required for each and every new cosmetic and minor re-formulation of already commonly available drugs. The LD 50 test is short of “Lethal Dose 50%”, meaning that you expose rats or mice to such a huge dose of whatever it is you are testing that half of them die. You can imagine how horrible some of these deaths are. Those test I personally don’t find justifiable.

    • Photo: Katie Marriott

      Katie Marriott answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      I don’t work with animals but I do think it is OK to test on them.

      Biology is such a complex subject it is impossible to know how a drug will affect something without testing it on a living thing. Computer programmes are getting better but they are not good enough at the moment for scientists to rely on. The animals that are used for testing drugs on are bred for this purpose and are very well looked after. Every place that tests on animals has it’s own vets who are there 24hrs to look after the animals.

      I don’t agree on testing on animals for cosmetic purposes though.

    • Photo: Sam Tazzyman

      Sam Tazzyman answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      I don’t do experiments personally, so i don’t test on animals. But a friend on mine works on rats. He is a neuroscientist and needs to find out about real brain cells so he has no choice but to use animals. But he treats the rats very well and only uses them when it’s absolutely necessary.

    • Photo: Steven Daly

      Steven Daly answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      I do not do any experiments on animals, and I think that they should only be done if humane or if absolutely necessary for something. I don’t know enough to judge most scientific reasons, so I can’t comment on, say, use ni medicine. But for things liek cosmetics I think this is absolutely wrong.

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