Animal Experimentation and Research Commons^™

Developmental Toxicity Testing: Protecting Future Generations?, Jarrod Bailey

Experimentation Collection

A recent editorial is discussed, which implied that animal-based developmental and reproductive toxicology tests will continue to be crucial, that the thalidomide disaster could have been prevented by more animal testing, and that tests on juvenile animals would help to protect children (as developing adults) from the adverse effects of pharmaceuticals. It is argued that animal tests in these scientific areas do not provide reliable data that are predictive for human responses and, even if they did, the tests are too expensive and time-consuming for application to the very large number of substances that need to be tested. It is …

Gender Differences In Attitudes Toward Animal Research, Jennifer J. Eldridge, John P. Gluck

Experimentation Collection

Although gender differences in attitudes toward animal research have been reported in the literature for some time, exploration into the nature of these differences has received less attention. This article examines gender differences in responses to a survey of attitudes toward the use of animals in research. The survey was completed by college students and consisted of items intended to tap different issues related to the animal research debate. Results indicated that women were more likely than men to support tenets of the animal protection movement. Likewise, women were more likely than men to favor increased restrictions on animal use …

The Animal Research Controversy: Protest, Process & Public Policy, Andrew N. Rowan, Franklin M. Loew, Joan C. Weer

Experimentation Collection

The controversy today regarding the use of animals in research appears on the surface to be a strongly polarized struggle between the scientific community and the animal protection movement. However, there is a wide range of opinions and philosophies on both sides. Mistrust between the factions has blossomed while communication has withered. Through the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, the animal movement grew in numbers and financial resources, and developed much greater public recognition and political clout. The research community paid relatively little attention to the animal movement for much of this period but, alarmed by several public relations coups …

Animal Protection And Medical Science, David O. Wiebers, Jennifer Leaning, Roger D. White

Experimentation Collection

Over the past decade, the debate concerning animal use in biomedical research, education, and testing has contributed to an environment of public posturing on both sides. Many in the medical and animalprotection communities have come to view one another as adversaries with hopelessly different goals.

In the face of rapid and substantial increases in public concern over the wellbeing of animals, many in the medical community have sought to fend off what they see as an increasingly threatening social trend. Those who have spoken out on behalf of various medical organisations or institutions have generally been avid animal-research advocates. Those …

The Ld50--The Beginning Of The End, Andrew N. Rowan

Experimentation Collection

Measurement is very important in science. Early lessons in the science classroom involve teaching students to measure lengths, volumes, weights, specific gravities and anything else within the mental and economic compass of the teacher. At the same time, the question of significance is drummed into the students' heads. Thus, if one has a meter-rule which is subdivided into centimeters (but not millimeters), one is taught that the measurement of its length to one decimal point (for example, 10.3 em) is acceptable, but that the addition of any more figures (for example, 10.325 em) is mere braggadocio. The eye can only …