Alyssa Vaccaro

Interview with Bridget Dillon from PETA over Email

What is your opinion on animals being used for experimental purposes?

PETA is against any use of animals in experiments. It's unethical to imprison and experiment on
other beings no matter what your goals may be. Furthermore, animals and humans are so
physiologically different that the results of animal studies are always unreliable. Product tests on
animals are particularly meaningless because there is no way to know if a product or drug that
appears to be safe for animals is also safe for humans.

What are some alternatives to animal experimentation?

There are many research methods that are faster, more reliable, less expensive, and more humane
than animal tests. These include human clinical studies, cadaver studies, high-power computer
simulations, and studies that track the origin of diseases and how they spread. Creative scientists
have used human brain cells to develop a model "microbrain" that can be used to study tumors
and have also synthesized artificial skin and bone marrow. Silicon Valley computer scientists
have teamed up with medical researchers to produce virtual models of organs such as the heart
and pancreas and diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Other researchers have
developed silicon chips that contain human cells from the various organs in separate
compartments. A test substance is injected into this chip to determine safety for the different
organs. Instead of killing animals, we can now test irritancy on egg membranes, produce
vaccines from cell cultures, and perform pregnancy tests using blood samples.

Do you believe that anything positive comes out of animal experimentation?

When it comes to good research, animal experiments do more harm than good. More lives could
be saved and more suffering stopped by educating people on the importance of avoiding fat and
cholesterol, quitting smoking, reducing the consumption of alcohol and other drugs, exercising
regularly, and cleaning up the environment than from all the animal tests in the world.

Have you experienced a situation in which animals have been mistreated in laboratories? If
so can you share the experience?
PETA has footage from many animal testing labs where you can see for yourself. For example,
check out our campaign against NIH that we won: http://www.peta2.com/blog/nih-investigation-
photos/

What are some laws that can help protect animals and limit the use of them in
laboratories?
No U.S. law prohibits any animal experiment regardless of how redundant, pointless, or cruel it
is. The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) is very weak and poorly enforced and does not protect rats
and mice, who are the most frequent victims of animal experiments. The law also excludes
reptiles, amphibians, and birds, as well as animals who are traditionally used for food. Under the
AWA, animals can be starved, shocked, driven insane, or burned with blowtorchesas long as
it's done in a clean laboratory. The AWA does extend certain minimal protections to animals,
such as requiring that experimenters provide veterinary care for sick animals, but it contains such
large loopholes that experimenters can get away with just about anything.
The situation is even worse in Canada, where there are no federal laws that govern the care or
use of animals who are used for experiments. Instead, the country has issued optional guidelines
that have no meaningful enforcement mechanism.

Do you believe that the use of animals in testing products helps to predict the reaction the
products might have on humans?
We can never be sure that a product that is found to be safe for animals will also be safe for
humans. Even the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has admitted that of all prescription drugs
that are determined in tests to be safe and effective for animals, 92 percent are found to be either
unsafe or ineffective in humans. That's a 92 percent failure rate!

What are some symptoms seen in animals that prove animal experimentation has a
traumatic effect on them?
Nearly every experiment on animals is harmful. The lethal poisoning test is still the single most
commonly used animal test. In this test, animals are force-fed increasingly large doses of a
chemical until they die. This test is used to determine the amount of a substance that will kill a
particular percentage of a test groupeven up to 100 percent.

Is animal experimentation a controversial topic world wide or just in the United States?
World wide.

What are ways I can help put an end to animal experimentation?

You can take a stand against animal testing! Purchase only cruelty-free products, donate only to
health charities that never fund animal experiments, and urge companies that still test on animals
to adopt cruelty-free policies. If you are expected to perform or observe a dissection at school,
talk to your teacher as early as possible about alternative projects. There are plenty of
sophisticated alternatives, such as computer models that simulate animals' bodies without
harming anyone.

Contact Info for Bridget Dillon:

Email: BridgetD@peta2.com