RATIONALE FOR THE CONTINUED USE OF ANIMALS FOR RESEARCH

Animals including (primates, dogs, cats, rabbits, mice) are still being used to conduct scientific/biomedical research because of some of the following reasons:

• There is still no complete alternative to the use of animals in testing drugs and other chemicals meant for human and animal consumption.

• Scientific experimentation using animals draw grant, and is thus a lucrative business for researchers.

• It helps researchers to evade all potential legal battery that might accrue from the usage of animals for research especially when there is death or disability of the animal.

• Scientific/biomedical experimentations involving the use of animals are more easily published than non-animal experimentation.

• Experimentation involving the use of laboratory animals appears to be more scientific and result-oriented than non-animal experimentation since animal and humans share some similarities in physiology and biochemistry.

• Researcher’s professional status in terms of finance and research grants is usually tied to animal experimentation in some quarters.

• Results from animal research can easily be extrapolated to humans than in vitro research carried out in non-animal hosts.       

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