World Day for Laboratory Animals

World Day for Laboratory Animals or World Lab Animal Day are the same and annually occurred on April 24th since 1979.

History of World Day for Laboratory Animals

World Day for Laboratory Animals on April 24th celebrates the suffering of laboratory animals. Founded in 1979 by ADI's UK campaign partner, the National Anti-Violation Society, World Day for Laboratory Animals has been a hub for educating the public and legislator about animal tests and alternatives for 40 years.

The National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) was the first organization established in 1875 in the world to campaign against animal experimentation and established the Lord Dowding Fund for Humane Research (LDF) in 1973 to support and fund advanced medical and scientific methods that do not use animals.

Founded in 1990, Animal Defenders International (ADI) to fund and promote cutting-edge scientific methods to replace the use of animals in research, the LDF has turned to its charity organization in 2017.

ADI, LDF and NAVS work with government officials, licensing agencies, inspectors, scientists, academics and a wide range of stakeholders to make progress

Animal use is an outdated method

Advances in science and technology are advancing rapidly, providing advanced non-animal techniques that are faster, more precise and directly related to humans. There is a range of complex, multidisciplinary techniques that allow the efficacy and safety of substances to be studied in vitro in vitro, as well as in humans. Non-animal methods also include computer analysis, databases, and human-based models - better for science as well as humans and animals.

However, some animal researchers oppose avoiding the use of animals in research and toward non-animal alternatives.

Researchers at Neurology London's Institute had done brain-invasive experiments in monkeys for four decades. An investigation conducted by our campaign partner, the National Anti-Terrorist Association, in 1996 documented monkeys that had electrodes inserted into their brains through their open skulls to study the results of nerve connection between the brain and the hand muscles. These painful experiments continue to this day, while the same researchers perform human studies without causing such pain and suffering.

It is demonstrated through some researchers that it is unnecessary to research monkey and that the same level of information can be obtained from human volunteers using noninvasive techniques such as MEG scans. The fMRI scanning also allows studying neural networks in the brain, in ways that were previously thought possible only with invasive methods. Neuroimaging is contributing to the detailed mapping of the human brain, providing unprecedented understanding of the functioning and development of mental illness and neurodegenerative diseases.

The safety testing regulations for all products are initially based on animal methods. Around the world, the "tick box" regulatory approach continues to this day. The fact that results vary across species and are inconsistent is well known, but in terms of effectiveness is set aside. Many trials continue to simply comply with regulations, rather than any scientific merit.

Product testing regulations require that the test be performed on at least two species of mammals: a rodent and a non-rodent “second species”. They are suffered a lot of dangers such as burning, poisoning, mutilating, starving and substances forced down their throats through tubes, so that the products we use every day can be called is "safe". These can be the things we use in our food (additives), in our homes (detergents, laundry, etc.), in our cars, in our gardens, and in the medicines we take; everything has been tested on animals.

Component testing of household products in the UK includes the use of animals for “creative benefit” or in accordance with chemical testing rules. Animals are used to test the ingredients of items such as cleaners, cleaning products, air fresheners, toilet cleaners, paints, and other decorative materials. Animal testing of garden products such as pesticides is still permitted.

Around 3,000 dogs and 2,000 monkeys are used for experiments in order to test the safety of various chemicals and drugs on humans per year in the United Kingdom. However, there is an analysis about the animal toxicity from more than 3,000 drugs that demonstrate additional data from the second species did not address the problem of extrapolating the results to humans.

The ADI's campaign partner, NAVS covert investigations in the 1980s and '90s into several laboratories that performed safety testing on animals revealed that dogs were forced to eat killer grass. The dose is injected through a rubber tube, pushed down the individual dog's throat, directly into the stomach. The dogs were also studied on the Maximum Tolerable Dose, where the animals were dosed to the point where they showed signs of toxicity, such as weight loss and appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, and seizures. . The drug being tested was force-fed to caged dogs before they were sent back to their cages to vomit.

Years later, the NAVS again noted similar distress in drug-testing experiments on dogs, with side effects such as foaming at the mouth, vomiting, bleeding gums, and diarrhea. Decades of suffering despite the validity of these trials remain questionable.

Likewise in the US, animals are used to test the safety of drugs and substances and to test cosmetics, which are now banned in the UK and Europe. Although there is no official evidence about the animal experiments, it is shown that around 800,000 animal species, including more than 70,000 primates and nearly 60,000 dogs, are tested each year. However, the actual number is in the tens of millions because the report omits the use of birds, rats, mice and fish - species that are less commonly thought to be not even mentioned in the US Animal Welfare Act.

Advanced techniques that do not rely on animals and focus on methods more suitable for humans are the way forward.