• Question: Are the animals exspirmented on set free? Do you feel uncomfortable during your work?

    Asked by katherine to Emma, James, Jayne, Kara, Sharon on 23 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Jayne Charnock

      Jayne Charnock answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      Hi Katherine,

      The animals I work on are mice and im afraid they are put down at the end of the experiment- we have to do this by law as it would be cruel to keep them alive unneccessarily. And also very very expensive and the money could be better used in other ways. Plus the planet would be over-run with rodents!! Other animals like dogs that may have only been used to take blood from are often re-homed.

      I do sometimes feel uncomfortable – we are all only human after all and i really dont like killing anything, but i always do my best to make sure it is quick and painless for the animal. I actually really enjoy working with them and spending time with them, its one of my favourite parts of the job, but i have to say killing them is one of my least.

      how do you feel about the use of animals in research?

    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      Hi Katherine,
      I dont work on animals so not really sure the answer to this one, but I don’t think experimental animals are ever set free. The main reason for this is that they would find it very difficult to survive in the wild. They do not posess any of the necessary survival skills like finding their own food so would not last very long. Also, because of the fact that the labs are very clean and sterile, they might be susceptible to infection and disease so it would not be fair to set them free.

      There are some animals that can go to a special animal sanctuary after they have finished being an experimental animal, although I think this is quite rare.
      I think animal experiments are necessary, they show us lots of things about treatment of disease and experiments are always done with the animals best interest at heart, so no pain, and only essential experiments to be carried out and every animal treated with respect!
      What are your views?

    • Photo: James Chan

      James Chan answered on 23 Mar 2011:

      Hi Katherine,
      No the animals are not set free. The animals are bred to survive in the laboratory conditions where they are really well looked after, with clean bedding, plenty of clean food and water, and no diseases. The lighting system has also been set so that the lights go off at the times when the sun would set etc so it’s as natural as possible. But these animals will not be able to survive in the wild because they’d probably not be able to find food and be attacked by their wild brothers and sisters. Most of the animals will be painlessly killed so that their healing response can be analysed under the microscope and X-rays.

      Yes, I did feel uncomfortable when I started, and still do. But I think you have to remember that we are doing this because we want to help the millions of people who have nasty fractures that don’t heal properly be able to walk and work again and avoid having their limbs chopped off. Without this research, we may not be able to help these people. Many elderly people will die in hospitals if their fractures don’t heal quickly also. So we have to balance this against the animal work. It is very tough and I can appreciate where you are coming from.

Comments