Scienc or savagery? What do you feel is more important - the life of your child or the life of a few rats? These comments are often brought up in animal rights debates.

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What do you feel is more important - the life of your child or the life of a few rats? These comments are often brought up in animal rights debates.  On the one side the animal rights campaigners, on the other side researchers intent on finding new medicines to improve the quality of human life.  

Animal activists claim that animal testing, or ‘vivisection’ is a scientific disaster and that thousands have been injured or killed as a result of it and time and time again researchers have been lead into a blind alley.

Vivisection literally means, "cutting while still alive," but these days it refers to any experiments conducted on animals.  According to the 1999 U.K. Vivisection statistics published by the government, 2.66 million animals were subjected to experiments 'likely to cause pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm' in the U.K. alone.

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Many different kinds of animals suffer this fate, including monkeys, baboons (including wild-caught baboons), dogs, cats, pigs, rabbits, mice, rats, gerbils, guinea pigs, sheep, horses, goats, budgerigars and many others.  These experiments include the animals being poisoned, genetically mutated, infected with lethal pathogens, stressed, deprived of parental care, irradiated, burnt, blinded, traumatised, forced to inhale noxious substances and subjected to "interference with the brain."  The most common tests involve dripping materials into rabbit's eyes or applying substances to the shaved backs of rabbits or guinea pigs and studying the irritation or damage.  Animals are also force fed or dosed with ...

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