Animal testing, and medical research?

Now, I'm for animal testing, for medical research. I've been told and have read that about 90% or so of modern medical research relies on information found through testing on animals, and hundreds of vaccines, treatments, and other medicines have come about because of animal testing.

But, since I don't have that great of a grasp on biology (all I have under my belt is a highschool class, and that was several years ago) I do not exactly know WHY testing on animals works. I'm under the impression that it has something to do with sharing chromosomes with humans (I'm told that monkies share 99% of the same chromosomes as humans, for instance), and other similarities, like having BLOOD and ORGANS, I guess. But because I don't know enough about biology myself, I just have to put faith in /sci/entists and assume they're correct in using animal testing.

I'm told by people against animal testing that it is inaccurate and misleading because it is testing on different species. I'm told that it causes unneeded harm to animals and provides no real benefit to medical science, and other 'bad' things.


So, /sci/, my question today is: Am I wrong in my assumption that animal testing is right? Is it really essential to medical science? Are there better alternatives?


And why the fuck is peta so goddamn annoying, and why do people think they're a reliable source of information, I mean srsly. fucking hypocrites, omfg.

Better alternatives? Yeah, use convicts.
Better LEGAL alternatives, no.

It's not done because dogs/bunnies/rats/pigs are genetically similar to humans. It's done because there are no alternatives and it would not be ethical to test brand new drugs on humans when we have no idea the type of reaction we will get.

Medical research goes in stages with different trials. A new drug doesn't reach you, the patient, until many years of research have been done on both animals and eventually humans. And even then they're still not always safe. Often times we've come to find out that a miracle drug is causing birth defects or cancer years after its too late and the harm is done.

As far as testing tissues in petri dishes vs. live organisms, it's not easy to do and it's not the same. A drug may behave one way in a controlled laboratory environment, yet completely different inside the human body. Plus it takes a very long time to grow the tissues out so you can even begin. We're progressing to skin and tissue banks (similar to blood banks), but we're not quite there yet, and those are mainly for burn and surgical patients, not just storage for research needs.

If you want an end to animal testing, you need to get idiot Bush out of office and allow cell therapy programs to progress and remove the ban on cloning.