What is animal testing?
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An introduction to animal experiments
What are animal experiments?
An animal test is any scientific experiment or test in which a live animal is forced to undergo something that is likely to cause them pain, suffering, distress, or lasting harm.
Animal experiments are not the same as taking your companion animal to the vet. Animals used in laboratories are deliberately harmed, not for their own good, and are usually killed at the end of the experiment.
Animal experiments include:
- Injecting or force feeding animals with potentially harmful substances
- Surgically removing animals’ organs or tissues to deliberately cause damage
- Forcing animals to inhale toxic gases
- Subjecting animals to frightening situations to create anxiety and depression.
Some experiments require the animal to die as part of the test. For example, regulatory tests for Botox, vaccines and some tests for chemical safety are essentially variations of the cruel Lethal Dose 50 test in which 50% of the animals die or a...
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