Hundreds of millions of animals — including primates, dogs, rabbits, pigs and rats — are poisoned, traumatised and killed each year in cruel and unnecessary experiments.
A widespread issue.
Animal testing is one of the most pervasive forms of legalised animal cruelty in the world today. It is also one of the most hidden.
Tests can involve poisoning animals with potentially harmful substances, using harsh chemicals to burn their eyes and skin, forcing animals to inhale toxic gases or even terrorising them in academic experiments that have no real-world applications.
Many people would be shocked to learn just how prevalent animal testing is. Look around any home — the kitchen, the garage, even the bathroom medicine cabinet — and you’ll likely find something that was, at some point, tested on animals.
Credit: We Animals Media
The animal suffering.
Inside laboratories, animals endure procedures that would be unthinkable — and illegal — anywhere else. In toxicity tests, they may be force-fed pesticides, drugs or household chemicals, often in increasing amounts until they become sick or die.
Biomedical research uses animals to mimic human diseases, even though those illnesses don’t naturally occur in them. Symptoms are artificially created, often through invasive or stressful procedures. These animal “models” can suffer immensely — and yet the results rarely translate to humans.
Many animals are also used in open-ended “basic research”, trapped in cycles of testing that never lead to real-world applications. And despite non-animal methods offering an equal — and often better — learning experience, some teaching and training still uses animals in dissections and demonstrations.
The flawed science underpinning animal testing.
Animal experiments are pitched as safeguarding human health, but the evidence is overwhelming that they consistently fail to do so.
9 in 10 new drugs that pass animal tests still fail in human trials — usually because the animal data didn’t predict human responses.
One of the most infamous failures was TGN1412, a drug developed for leukaemia and arthritis. It appeared safe in mice, rabbits, and monkeys, but when tested on healthy volunteers, it triggered a catastrophic immune reaction that caused multiple organ failure.
And over 90% of animal-based biomedical researchnever helps human patients. That’s because animal models cannot capture the true complexity of human illness.
Alzheimer’s is one of the clearest examples: after decades of “cures” in mouse models, more than 99% of drugs have failed in people, leading scientists to call it one of modern medicine’s most striking translational failures. The same pattern appears across other major diseases.
Relying on animal models for decades has sent medical science down costly, misleading paths, delaying real breakthroughs that could have come from human-relevant research.
The good news is that a new generation of science is offering hope — as scientists and regulators turn to innovative, human-based technologies that are proving safer, more accurate and far more humane than animal testing.
Ask the experimenters why they experiment on animals and the answer is: 'because animals are like us.' Ask the experimenters why it is morally okay to experiment on animals, and the answer is: 'because the animals are not like us.'
Prof. Charles R. Magel
Primate experimentation.
When a baby gorilla is born in a zoo it often makes news headlines — and upon the death of a captive gorilla, the community grieves. Yet, every day in institutions around the world, thousands of their primate cousins are hidden away to be used in cruel experiments.
Macaque monkeys, marmosets and baboons are common victims of animal experimentation. They are either bred for this purpose in special breeding facilities or taken from the wild where illegal poaching and habitat destruction have left some species critically endangered.
Cambodia, Mauritius and France are among the world’s biggest exporters of primates. The multi-million dollar industry supplies animals to laboratories all around the world.
The human cost.
Behind every laboratory door are people whose wellbeing is also affected by these systems. Technicians and researchers carry the emotional burden of harming animals as part of their daily work. Studies show that this “caring–killing paradox” can lead to moral distress, PTSD-like symptoms, ‘burnout’ and depression. A more humane, human-relevant research future doesn’t just spare animals — it frees people, too, from practices that conflict with their compassionate instincts.
A better way forward: modern, human-relevant science.
Around the world, cutting-edge technologies are replacing outdated animal experiments with methods that are more accurate and directly relevant to humans. These innovations are already being used in regulatory testing, drug discovery and disease modelling, and include:
studying living human cells in the lab,
using tiny “organs-on-chips” that mimic how real human organs work, and
applying advanced computer models and artificial intelligence to predict how drugs and chemicals will affect people.
Adopting human-relevant methods isn’t just about replacing animals — they fundamentally change how research is done. By focusing on human biology from the outset, these methods can deliver insights faster, reduce costly failures, and avoid the suffering built into animal experimentation.
This is modern science that is better for animals and better for people.
Yet despite the availability of these more effective approaches, billions of dollars are still poured into cruel and unreliable animal tests that repeatedly fail to translate to human health. It’s time for laws, funding and research priorities to catch up with the science — and embrace methods that truly serve both people and animals.
This image contains content which some may find confronting
Image credit: We Animals Media
How you can help.
As a consumer:
Click here to sign the pledge to support science without suffering and encourage your friends and family to do the same.
Avoiding personal and household products that have been tested on animals or have animal-based ingredients, is easy — find out which products are cruelty-free here.
Advise your teacher and/or your school/institution that you will not take part in the use of animals in classes, and encourage them to adopt non-animal alternatives in their teaching.
Visit Interniche — a great organisation dedicated to the adoption of humane education techniques, and including some great resources.
As a community member:
Learn about the reality for animals who are used in research and teaching, and write to the relevant brands as well as government decision-makers to let them know of your views.
