Question: would you agree that animal research is govenment funded. i respect the reason why u support the chairty but animal crulty comes first in stead of humans i think

Samuel Ellis answered on 18 Mar 2015:

Well a lot of scientific research is government funded, as it is one of the major sources of money. Which of course means that some of the research does involve the use of animals.

In general the scientific community supports the use of animals not because it is desirable but because it is necessary. Especially in medical research, without using animal models there would be no way of making proper progress on fighting some horrible human diseases. But scientists do not use animals if they can help it, and more and more research these days is done with alternatives such as cultured cells, donated human samples and computer simulation.

I can understand why many people do not agree with animal testing, but in the research industry we have to put the benefits for humans first, it is our job. But people using animals really do care about their welfare, and do everything they can to make sure they are comfortable. In fact a lot of lab mice for example are probably better cared for than many pets!

The topic of animal research is always going to be controversial, and to be honest I am quite glad I don’t do any myself. Hopefully in the future we will continue to find better alternatives, but for now it is crucial to really important science.

If you have other concerns, there are lots of good sites which explain the uses of animal research and why, such as:
http://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/