The Harms to Humans from Animal Experimentation

"The Harms to Humans from Animal Experimentation

Animal experimentation has misled researchers for centuries, confounding our
understanding of the human body and the diseases that plague it.

Not only does it divert limited resources away from valid science, but by
delaying innovation, therapies and cures, it prolongs suffering and
increases mortality. Fallacious data regarding medications, garnered through
animal experimentation, leads to injury and death.

50 DEADLY CONSEQUENCES OF LAB ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS

Smoking was thought non-carcinogenic because smoking-related cancer is
difficult to reproduce in lab animals. Many continued to smoke and to die
from cancer.[2]

Benzene was not withdrawn from use as an industrial chemical despite
clinical and epidemological evidence that exposure caused leukemia in
humans, because manufacturer-supported tests failed to reproduce leukemia in
mice.[1]

Animal experiments on rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, monkeys, and
baboons revealed no link between glass fibers and cancer. Not until 1991,
due to human studies, did OSHA label it carcinogenic.[3][4][5]

Though arsenic was a known human carcinogen for decades, scientists still
found little evidence in animals to support the conclusion as late as
1977.[6] This was the accepted view until it was produced in lab
animals.[7][8][9]

Many continued to be exposed to asbestos and die because scientists could
not reproduce the cancer in lab animals.

Pacemakers and heart valves were delayed in development because of
physiological differences between animals they were designed on and humans.

Animal models of heart disease failed to show that a high cholesterol/high
fat diet increases the risk of coronary artery disease. Instead of changing
their eating habits to prevent the disease, people continued their
lifestyles with a false sense of security.

Patients received medications that were harmful and/or ineffective due to
animal models of stroke.

Animal studies predicted that beta-blockers would not lower blood pressure.
This withheld their development.[10][11][12] Even animal experimenters
admitted the failure of animal models of hypertension in this regard, but in
the meantime, there were thousands more stroke victims.

Surgeons thought they had perfected radial keratotomy, surgery performed to
enable better vision without glasses, on rabbits, but the procedure blinded
the first human patients. The rabbit cornea is able to regenerate on the
underside, whereas the human cornea can only regenerate on the surface.
Surgery is now performed only on the surface.

Combined heart lung transplants were also "perfected" on animals, but the
first 3 patients all died within 23 days.[13] Of 28 patients operated on
between 1981 and 1985, 8 died peri-operatively, and 10 developed
obliterative bronchiolitis, a lung complication that the experimental dogs
did not get. Of those 10, 4 died and 3 never breathed again without the aid
of a respirator. Obliterative bronchiolitis turned out to be the most
important risk of the operation.[14]

Cyclosporin A inhibits organ rejection, and its development was watershed in
the success of transplant operations. Had human evidence not overwhelmed
unpromising evidence from animals, it would never have been released.[15]

Animal experiments failed to predict the kidney toxicity of the general
anesthetic methoxyflurane. Many people lost all kidney function.

Animal experiments delayed the use of muscle relaxants during general
anesthesia.

Research on animals failed to reveal bacteria as a cause of ulcers and
delayed treating ulcers with antibiotics.

More than half of the 198 new medications released between 1976 and 1985
were either withdrawn or relabeled secondary to severe unpredicted side
effects.[16] These side effects included complications like lethal
dysrhythmias, heart attacks, kidney failure, seizures, respiratory arrest,
liver failure, and stroke, among others.

Flosint, an arthritis medication, was tested on rats, monkeys and dogs; all
tolerated the medication well. In humans, however it caused deaths.

Zelmid, an antidepressant, was tested on rats and dogs without incident. It
caused severe neurological problems in humans.

Nomifensine, another antidepressant, was linked to kidney and liver failure,
anemia, and death in humans. Animal testing had given it a clean, side
effect-free bill of health.

Amrinone, a medication used for heart failure, was tested on numerous
animals and was released without trepidation. Humans developed
thrombocytopenia, a lack of the type of blood cells that are needed for
clotting.

Fialuridine, an antiviral medication, caused liver damage in 7 out of 15
people. 5 eventually died and 2 more needed liver transplants.[17] It worked
well in woodchucks.[18][19]

Clioquinol, an antidiarrheal, passed tests in rats, cats, dogs and rabbits.
It was pulled off the shelves all over the world in 1982 after it was found
to cause blindness and paralysis in humans.

Eraldin, a medication for heart disease, caused 23 deaths despite the fact
that no untoward effects could be shown in animals. When introduced,
scientists said it noted for the thoroughness of the toxicity studies on
animals. It caused blindness and deaths in humans. Afterwards, scientists
were unable to reproduce these results in animals.[20]

Opren, an arthritis medication, killed 61 people. Over 3500 cases of severe
reactions have been documented. Opren had been tested on monkeys and other
animals without problems.

Zomax, another arthritis drug, killed 14 people and caused many more to
suffer."

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