Stop funding/conducting animal experiments

Argument 1#

"Animal testing is vital to medical advancement".
This is completely untrue. Vaccinations have been produced for one of the most well-known and tragic type of illness; cancer. A vaccination against one type of cancer was tested on a small group of volunteers. As far as I am aware, none of the volunteers were harmed in testing process.

There are now so many charities that do not fund or conduct animal experiments, such as The Age-Related Diseases and Health Trust, that do not test on animals so it would be possible for the Alzheimer's Society to stop funding/conducting animal experiments. These organizations carry out their research on alternatives such as fake organs and computer models. Not only do these methods save thousands of animals, but some scientists also say that they are more reliable. If all scientists used these methods, more people would be saved.

Argument 2#

"Animal testing has saved thousands of lives, including those of diabetics".
Although animal-tested medicines have saved people before, these were mostly invented in the days when there were not as many alternatives to the use of animals. Even these could have been tested on volunteers and donated body parts.
Research into treatments for Diabetes was in fact held up by animal testing. If animal testing had of been banned 200 years ago, Diabetics would have benefited enormously. A doctor found out that Diabetes was linked to high and low amounts of sugar in peoples' diets by looking at the urine of Diabetics, not by performing animal experiments.

Argument 3#

"Lab animals are well-cared for and the scientists try to minimise their suffering".
Although there are laws to protect animals used in experiments, these laws are so poorly-enforced that they might as well not exist. Many of them exist only to protect scientists from animal cruelty charges. Scientists that work in these labs can, in most cases, legally: cut animals open, gas them, shoot them, burn them, drop chemicals into their eyes, irritate their skins, give them electric shocks, deprieve them of food, water and/or sleep, take them away from their mothers when they are too young and force-feed them chemicals. Animals may be forced to live in barren cages until they are either killed or die due to the experiments in which they are tortured.
Believe it or not, some people illegally kidnap animals to sell them for vivisection.

So if you have ever lost an animal companion, there is a risk that he or she might have been captured and sold for vivisection. Although most of the animals tortured are bred specifically for use in experiments, some of them are illegally taken from the people who love and care for them.