Animal Experimentation
More information on animal experiments
Animal experimentation can involve drugging, burning, shocking, addicting, shooting, freezing, infecting and surgically mutilating live animals, sometimes without pain relief.
Factsheet: The Use of animals in Scientific Research: the Current Situation and Non-Animal Methods (produced by Animal Justice Project)
The use of animals for scientific purposes has been debated for centuries, pitting the pursuit of knowledge and human health against compassion for animals. Society has allowed it because people have been convinced that it is a “necessary evil”, and the only way to find cures for human diseases and to make drugs, cosmetics and other products safe.
Report: The Case Against Animal Experiments (produced by Animal Aid) available for download at: bit.ly/2Ml0AZC Video: Our Lifeline Vivisection video is available to watch at: vimeo.com/282729483
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Secrecy and security have ensured that people are unaware of what happens behind the laboratory doors and they are falsely led to believe that the laws intended to prohibit cruelty to animals include the protection for animals used in research. They do not. Over the past few years, researchers have repeatedly shown that many animal studies lack scientific rigor; they are often prone to biases, for instance, and are sloppily reported in scientific journals. However, even if animal experiments did work, Animal Justice Project and The Save Movement oppose them on moral grounds.
Lifeline is a campaign that raises awareness of the two biggest causes of animal exploitation globally – ‘food’ production and experimentation. It brings together activists from different groups to create strong and effective outreach events.
JOIN ANIMAL JUSTICE PROJECT AND THE SAVE MOVEMENT TO RAISE AWARENESS ON ANIMAL EXPLOITATION AND URGE PEOPLE TO BE A LIFELINE FOR ANIMALS: LIFELINECAMPAIGN.ORG
Lifeline is an Animal Justice Project and The Save Movement collaborative campaign that provides a means for campaigners to reach thousands of people at both universities and on high streets across Britain. Showing video footage, holding placards, talking to the public, and handing out resources, campaigners can effectively communicate their message on speciesism to the public and, more specifically if they wish, animal experiments to students. The public are asked where they draw the line with regards to the exploitation of animals.
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Campaigners can then ask people to be a lifeline, literally, for animals and inform them how they can make all important changes in their daily lives to help protect and save animals.
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Speciesism is a prejudice similar to racism or sexism. Animal agriculture is one of the main consequences of speciesism. Over a billion farmed animals are killed for meat each year in the UK. Yet eating animals is
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ANIMAL AGRICULTURE Milk Mammals, including humans, only produce milk once they have given birth. Females are forcibly impregnated each year to maintain their milk production. Farmed animals such as cows, sheep and goats have their babies taken from them within hours of them being born so that humans can take the mothers’ milk that is meant for baby animals. Just like all mothers, farmed animals grieve over the loss of their children. The separation of mothers and babies is cruel and a painful experience. Mother cows have been known to cry out for their babies over days and days. Female calves will become dairy cows – forced into pregnancy and being milked each day until their milk production reduces and they are sent to slaughter. An unnatural build-up of 20 litres of milk in the udders of cows leads to lameness of the hind legs and a painful infection of the udders called mastitis. The infection causes pus to enter into the milk and one litre of milk can contain as many as 400,000,000 somatic (pus) cells before it is deemed unfit for human consumption.
Male dairy calves are seen as a ‘waste’ because they cannot produce milk. They are killed shortly after birth or are transported across Europe to be raised and killed for veal. Eggs Currently, around 12.9 billion eggs are eaten each year in the UK, and 35.3 million every single day. It is estimated that there are 38 million egg-laying birds in Britain. Half of these are incarcerated in so-called “enriched” cages housing up to 80 hens. There are different methods used to house the hens; cages, percheries (barns), free range and organic. The birds have so little space in many farms, they can never spread their wings easily, let alone fly. The term ‘free range’ simply means that barns must have ‘pot holes’ leading to an outside range… though many birds never reach the outside. In the wild, hens lay a clutch of eggs once or twice a year, yet modern farming industry forces hens to lay 300-500 eggs per year. To increase laying, all hens are fed a protein-rich diet and are exposed to light for almost 24 hours a day. This pressure placed on the bodies of hens means they develop reproductive diseases. Chickens are intelligent, inquisitive, and have a natural instinct to explore. On farms they are prevented from exhibiting natural behaviours such as nesting, foraging and dust-bathing. Their confinement can lead to physical and psychological problems such as; osteoporosis, muscle-wasting, tumours, depression, frustration and grief. New born chicks are sorted into males and females. The females go on to become egg-layers. Hens will peck at each other as a result of being unable to move around on farms so these birds have a large portion of their beaks cut off when they have just hatched. The male chicks are unable to lay eggs so they are killed at just a day old – around 40 million a year and usually by gassing.
All egg-laying hens are sent to slaughter at around 72 weeks of age. They are still babies and chirp.
Slaughter Farmed animals are housed in cramped, barren conditions and it is rare for any of them to experience fresh air or grass prior to being loaded onto slaughterhouse trucks. They are still babies when sent to slaughter. Because animals are selectively bred to grow quickly so that the least amount of money has to be spent on rearing them before slaughter, there are high instances of limb deformities and problems with their organs such as heart failure. Infections are common because of living conditions and lack of veterinary care. Prior to being sent to slaughter, animals are subjected to painful procedures such as dehorning, branding, ear tagging, tail-docking, castration and teeth-pulling. All without anaesthetic. Slaughter is invariably terrifying and painful. Many animals at the slaughterhouse either do not lose consciousness or they regain consciousness before having their throats cut. Sheep and birds are generally subjected to electrocution via the head. Large-scale abattoirs stun birds using either electrical waterbath or controlled atmosphere systems. In waterbath systems – live shackling is used where birds are grabbed from transport containers and forced into leg shackles upside down on rails. Their legs may already be broken due to rough handling during farm shed ‘depopulation’. Terrified birds struggle and flap frantically. Involuntary inversion causes birds stress and it has long been recognised that the practice of hanging birds upside down in shackles before stunning causes immense pain and suffering. Yet it is still done to billions of birds each year.
Once shackled, birds move along the rail at fast speeds and go on to be dipped into electrified water fully conscious. If birds move their necks (“swan neck”), then they will carry on the line to have their necks cut fully conscious. Fast line speeds mean it is impossible for workers to check who is conscious, and who isn’t.
and miles each day but those farmed are unable to do so which leads to them thrashing about and swimming in their own waste. Fish farms are plagued by diseases because of the confined conditions. These diseases often spread to wild fish living nearby. Wild fish may even be caught and fed to farmed fish.
Pigs are mainly gassed in CO2 chambers in the UK. Footage of Australian pig gas chambers shows the extent of the fear and panic as the chambers are lowered down into the CO2 gas - a gas that burns their eyes, noses and throats. This horrific method of slaughter is deemed “humane”.
Dead zones are formed around fish farms due to the leaching of tonnes of waste from the fish – both faeces and what they are fed. As the fish are trapped in netted areas, the concentration of urea is high and cannot naturally diffuse, creating toxic areas around the farms. Life surrounding them perishes.
Cows receive a bolt gun to the head which is designed to kill them instantly, however many are not killed and, indeed, regain consciousness before their throats are cut whilst hung upside down by their legs.
Lobsters and crustaceans
Each animal feels pain and fear. Some will fight for their lives while others become resigned to their terrible fate.
Crustaceans are highly developed. Lobsters carry their young for nine months and, when left in peace, can live for more than 100 years. They recognise each other, remember past acquaintances, and have elaborate courtship rituals. They take long seasonal journeys, often traveling for hundreds of miles. Elder lobsters help guide young lobsters across the ocean floor by holding their claws in a line that can stretch for many yards.
Fish Fish are the most exploited animals on the planet. They are killed in such massive numbers that they are not counted individually. Instead, official figures are recorded by weight, however we do know the number of individuals killed each year in the UK alone runs into the billions. It is well documented that fish suffer. They feel pain and, when they are dragged out of the water, their eyes pop out because of the change in pressure and they suffocate, which can take over three hours. if they are not gutted first. Massive nets that can be as large as football pitches are dragged through the ocean and catch any animal that get in the way. Species that get caught include whales, sharks, turtles, dolphins, squid, octopus, lobsters and crabs. Marine animals that are not the targets of the fishing trawlers are often killed or injured by the nets. They are thrown back in the water to die slowly.
Scientists have determined that lobsters, like all animals, can feel pain. Lobsters feel even more pain than we would in similar situations because lobsters do not have an autonomic nervous system that puts them into a state of shock when they are harmed. A lobster feels itself being cut.
Some fish are farmed like land animals. This involves thousands upon thousands of fish being selectively bred and spending their entire short lives living in confinement. Marine animals naturally swim for miles
Anyone who has ever boiled a lobster alive knows that when dropped into scalding water, a lobster whips its body wildly and scrape the sides of the pot in a desperate attempt to escape.