Testing

• Animal testing is completed for a number of different purposes, including the testing of pharmaceutical products, medical testing, military weapons and product safety. The great majority of animals used in testing laboratories are rats and mice, because of their low cost, high availability and ease of breeding. Other animals are also used for testing purposes, including guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs, pigs, sheep, dolphin, cattle and fish. The testing of animals is contentious because the reactions of animals to human disease and products often differs from the human reaction to similar products. In some cases products can be poisonous to animals, such as aspirin being poisonous to cats while providing pain relief in humans; and chocolate being toxic to dogs but practically a staple for humans.
  
  

Medical

• The testing of pharmaceutical products on animals is often completed to test the safety or toxicity of a specific drug that is to be used to treat human beings. Pharmaceutical products that are potentially dangerous are administered to animals to gauge their effects at different dosage levels. Medical researchers are increasingly turning to the genetic modification of animals in order to replicate certain conditions and diseases found in humans for study and research in animals. Many conditions are specifically induced in animals during the breeding process or in a laboratory include cystic fibrosis, diabetes and asthma.
  
  

Product Safety

• Product safety, or toxicity tests are completed to test the safety of agricultural and industrial products when an animal is exposed to the product. Exposure can be replicated by injection, rubbing into the skin, dropping into an animals eyes or by the release of a gas into a sealed chamber. Products that are often tested on animals include chemicals, food additives and household cleaning products. Military and weapons research can consist of exposure to conventional weapons including animals being shot or blown up with explosives. Biological weapons can also be used during animal testing with exposure to gases, toxins and bacteria used as chemical weapons.
  
  

Alternatives

• There are a number of alternatives available to animal testing, which include in vitro testing of human cells in a laboratory setting. In vitro testing can be used to test drugs and study viruses found in human beings. Computer models can also be used to predict the effects of a product by studying the ingredients of a product. Other options for testing including epidemiology and clinical studies.