Between 1990 and 1997, USDA registered research laboratories reported killing at least 12,892,885 dogs, cats, primates, guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, farm animals, bears, armadillos, squirrels, wild rodents, and other “covered” species.  This figure does not include hundreds of millions of rats, mice, frogs, or birds, nor does it include any animals killed at non-USDA registered experimentation labs.  In the name of scientific curiosity, billions of non-human animals have been burnt, crushed, sliced, electrocuted, tortured with drugs, poisoned with toxic chemicals, tormented in psychological testing, and subjected to other atrocities that so-called scientists have been able to develop.  Today, this is called animal research, renamed from its initial and primitive title of VIVISECTION.  Those who profit from it have renamed the barbaric practice to hide the primitive truth-- that throughout its history, vivisection has been inherently cruel, inevitably wasteful, and perpetually invalid as reliable science.

The following scientific advances were made without using vivisection to advance medical science: 

  • Isolation and transmission of the HIV virus, and the mechanism of HIV transmission
  • Discovery of the relationship between cholesterol and heart disease, the #1 cause of death in Americans
  • Discovery of the relationship between nutrition and cancer, the #2 cause of death in Americans
  • Discovery of penicillin
  • Development of x-rays
  • Production of Humulin, a synthetic copy of human insulin, which is superior for human health than animal-derived sources.

Nobel prize winner for antibacterial effects of penicillin, Ernst Boris, stated, "No animal experiment with a medicine, even if it is carried out on several animal species including primates, under all conceivable conditions, can give any guarantee that the medicine tested in this way will behave the same in humans; because in many respects, the human is not the same as the animal."  These are a few human-based research models:

  • Epidemiological studies -- comparative studies of large human populations
  • In vitro research -- cell and tissue studies
  • Clinical research -- studies of human patients
  • Computer modeling - computer programs to predict the effects of external influences on the human biochemical model 
All animal species are unique, including humans, and unnatural animal experimentation cannot reveal the secrets of human diseases nor the necessary requirements for a healthy human life.  When data from animal experiments have been applied to humans, the results have often been disastrous.

With its roots literally in caves, humans’ primitive curiosity with causing suffering, pain, and/or death to animals has always been unspeakably cruel.  As science has become more advanced, the cruelty has become more creative, and scientists can keep suffering animals alive longer.  Here are just a few examples of the thousands of experiments funded by tax-payers every year:

  • To study the result of head trauma, primates were strapped in machinery to receive high-impact blows to the head that left them with severe brain damage and cruel taunts from vivisectors, as documented by video tape. (University of Pennsylvania)
  • To examine severe burns on live tissue, pigs were restrained to prevent their escape and then burned alive with a flamethrower until the charred flesh could be removed from the live animals in large pieces (U.S. Army)
  • To measure recovery from injuries, dogs were strapped down, and vivisectors mutilated the dogs’ knees by cutting apart skin to leave flaps.  At the end of the study, all dogs were killed. (Uniformed Services University -- Department of Defense)
  • To demonstrate the eye’s protein levels are not different in sight deprived monkeys compared to normal ones, animal experimenters sewed the monkeys’ eyelids shut. (Emory University, NIH project P51 RR00165-38)
  • To test the hypothesis, among others, that it “will result in reductions in body weight, body fat and lean body mass” vivisectors withhold normal amounts and types of food from monkeys. (University of Wisconsin- Madison, NIH project P01 AG11915-05S1).
  • To demonstrate that deaf cats ‘meow’ louder than cats with hearing, kittens’ aural canals were destroyed, and then researchers measured the loudness of their cries.  (UCLA, Brain Research Institute)
    To create an illness not previously seen in cats, vivisectors successfully created a feline disease that results in jaundice seizures, delayed mental and motor development, and premature death.  The diseased animals are bred for other animal experimentation labs.  (Colorado State University, NIH project R01 RR06886-07)

page 2