© 2005 All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute or repurpose this work without written permission from the copyright holder(s).
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This article is marked as 'retired'. The information here may be out of date, incomplete, and/or incorrect.
The U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) currently offers over 6,000 genetic strains of laboratory mice, and research labs all over the United States poke, prod, and generally harass the poor creatures, in hopes of discovering ways to improve the lives of humans. In doing so, they have found ways to cure a plethora of ills in mice, including cancer, Sickle Cell Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Type I Diabetes, early-stage Alzheimer’s Disease, baldness, and more. Some lab mice can even regenerate lost limbs and organs.
Due to the problems in translating these treatments into safe, reliable medicine for people, there is a gap of many years between finding a cure for mice and duplicating that cure in humans. Sometimes, given differences in physiology, the treatment is simply not compatible with humans.
The answer? I suggest we use gene therapy to transform all humans into half-man-half-mouse, disease-thwarting, regenerating mutants. It seems the most direct route to success. Plus, cheese is damn tasty.
Article on SEED magazine website (includes links)
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I am glad you posted this. I know there is a lot of animal testing done that is completely unnecessary; especially for personal and household products. http://www.navs.org is a good source of information.
Additionally, as the article points out, curing these deseases in mice is so close to moot when applied to humans that it is a waste of time, money and of course, torturing animals. Oh, the Time and Money thing, well these people would not be able to do much more without Time (wasted) or Money and so they keep the animals around so they can get Government Grants to run their facilities and keep their jobs.
To be clear, I am NOT saying that laboratory testing on mice is useless. I AM saying that there is a prolonged delay between finding a cure in the laboratory and applying to humans, and that it is fascinating that some of these diseases have been cured in mice already, giving hope to finding a cure for humans in the coming years.
Laboratory testing has helped to cure many ills that plague humanity, and we would not be enjoying the advanced state of medical science were it not for such experiments. No doubt some of the testing is unnecessary, but certainly not all of it.
Ok. So it is NOT a human Lobotomy. Try telling that to the animals.
About 8-10 years ago experiments were to be done on a couple dozen Basset Pups. Fortunately, someone “leaked” the information; they were going to break the legs of the pups, (no anesthesia, that would be a waste of money) some getting the experimental drug and others not, and then would be destroyed after the experiment was done. A HUGE write in stopped the tests and the dogs were placed in Foster Homes, trained and placed. What is really sick is, they knew they had approval and the drug was ready, they just wanted to go the extra mile.
Notice that there was a leak. It is BRUTAL what animals go through, VERY OFTEN UNNECESSARY!! You would be horrified to know what is done to animals AND the only way brutal animal testing is stopped is by leaks, investigations, and shaming companies publicly for their testing. NAVS goes through all the legal processes and change laws; they are not a renegade group dropping horse manure or splashing red paint on people wearing fur or hanging banners from bridges.
Animals are cheap; but get the big bucks for grants to run their facilities and keep their jobs. Neither NAVS nor I personally believe the experiments done on animals to get human drugs got them there any faster than if they had chosen different avenues. Many, many people make a LIVING from letting themselves become available for drug and experimental testing. At least they make a choice. And you would be surprised at who these people are. They are not living on the streets nor in great financial trouble. They choose to make a living this way or to just get some extra spending money. I know because there is a testing facility 5 minutes from me as well as a Research Sleep Center; they ALWAYS have enough people to do their tests.
I know this article is quite old, as is the last post, but I have one thing to say…I certainly wouldn’t want to be the very first living creature that certain things were tested on. I much prefer they test on lab rats before trying some of these things on humans. These things have to be tested somewhere, don’t they? I’m not referring to using puppies & kittens & bunny rabbits to test lipstick & perfume on, but for serious diseases such as the ones mentioned in the article, testing on labrats first is fine by me.
Cheese is damn tasty. So is pie. And cheese with pie.
Perhaps cheese pie? We could try that.
(Once again, old article/posts) I agree with CountriKitten. They have to start somewhere. And what a lot of people don’t understand is that, even though on facevalue these tests seem useless, it’s the development of the mindset that is more important. For instance, doing programming, you have to study maths to a great extend, and you would think it’s useless, because you’re never going to use that maths programming, but it develops your mind to think in a certain direction when programming which greatly improves your skill.
If you want to live in a world that doesn’t improve on life (and technology for that matter), go live in central Africa.
being a vegetarian I don’t like animal testing, I think it’s sick & twisted. That said, it does provide for a better life for many many people (and animals for that matter I’m sure vets test animal drugs as well). I doubt seriously if many people who are so against animal tests would actually turn down treatment w/ the drugs or proceedures that come from them. So, while it’s certainly not the best senario, it’s the best we can do right now. It sounds corny, but you could always say a prayer or something for the animals that were sacraficed for your life.
Wow, I remember 2005.
“Those Olympic games we just had last year sure were swell, weren’t they Jonny?”
“They sure were Mr. Everyman2005. They sure were.”
If those treatments were not tested on animals first, a lot of those people would die / have other complications, and before you know it, not many people would be volunteering
Enter your reply text here. OK
And you believed this story. Come on… save money and not give anesthesia. That’s a biased source twisting the truth.
Shut up. you value puppies & kittens & bunny rabbits over RATS. Hippocrite.
Rats are clean, smart animals.