Human Relevant Methods of Testing
There have always been really reliable methods of testing to benefit humans available. To name but a few, post mortem studies, clinical observations, cell and tissue cultures, in vitro test tube research on living tissue, organ cultures, epidemiologic studies etc. have all proved more valuable than animal studies. The list has been added to in modern times. We now have blood gas analysis machines, blood chemistry analysis machines, monitoring devices. There are numerous examples both past and present. When attending a Royal College of Nursing conference in 2007 our founder, Cynthia O’Neill, S.R.N., S.C.M., QN., H.V., saw a demonstration of a new life size £25,000 computer human patient model that is used in Medical Schools and is 100% proof that we now have a model that can be fed, have umpteen drugs inserted and the computer will file out all relevant facts. He/she blinks eyes, bleeds, changes temperature and does everything one can imagine. The brain behind such an engineered model shows we have proper scientific methods and, again, stresses that vivisection or animal testing is a fraud, in fact the biggest fraud in the history of the human race!
All medical schools across the U.S, Canada, and India have completely replaced the use of animal laboratories in medical training with simulators as well as virtual reality systems, computer simulators, and supervised clinical experience.
The following are a few of the modern human-based testing methods, the information of which we gratefully obtained from the PETA US website:
- Researchers have created "organs-on-chips" that contain human cells grown in a state-of-the-art system to mimic the structure and function of human organs and organ systems. The chips can be used instead of animals in disease research, drug testing, and toxicity testing and have been shown to replicate human physiology, diseases, and drug responses accurately… Some companies, such as AlveoliX, MIMETAS, and Emulate, Inc., have already turned these chips into products that other researchers can use in place of animals.
- A variety of cell-based tests and tissue models can be used to assess the safety of drugs, chemicals, cosmetics, and consumer products. For example, MatTek Life Sciences' EpiDerm™ Tissue Model is a 3-dimensional, human cell–derived model that can be used to replace rabbits in painful, prolonged experiments that have traditionally been used to evaluate chemicals for their ability to corrode or irritate the skin.
- The PETA International Science Consortium Ltd. helped fund the development of MatTek Life Sciences’ EpiAlveolar, a first-of-its-kind 3-dimensional model of the deepest part of the human lung. The model, composed of human cells, can be used to study the effects of inhaling different kinds of chemicals, pathogens, and (e-)cigarette smoke.
- Devices made by German-based manufacturer VITROCELL are used to expose human lung cells in a dish to chemicals in order to test the health effects of inhaled substances. Every day, humans inhale numerous chemicals—some intentionally (such as cigarette smoke) and some inadvertently (such as pesticides). Using the VITROCELL machines, human cells are exposed to the airborne chemical on one side while receiving nutrients from a blood-like liquid on the other—mimicking what actually occurs when a chemical enters a human lung. These devices, as well as EpiAlveolar, can replace the current method of confining rats to tiny tubes and forcing them to inhale toxic substances for hours before they are eventually killed.
- Researchers developed tests that use human blood cells to detect contaminants in drugs that cause a potentially dangerous fever response when they enter the body. The non-animal methods replace the crude methods of bleeding horseshoe crabs or restraining rabbits, injecting them with drugs or extracts from medical devices, and taking their temperature rectally to monitor if they develop a fever.
- Through research funded by the PETA International Science Consortium Ltd. and carried out at the Institute for Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics at the Technische Universität Braunschweig in Germany, scientists created fully human-derived antibodies capable of blocking the poisonous toxin that causes diphtheria.
Computer (in Silico) Modeling
- Researchers have developed a wide range of sophisticated computer models that simulate human biology and the progression of developing diseases. Studies show that these models can accurately predict the ways that new drugs will react in the human body and replace the use of animals in exploratory research and many standard drug tests.
- Quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) are computer-based techniques that can replace animal tests by making sophisticated estimates of a substance’s likelihood of being hazardous, based on its similarity to existing substances and our knowledge of human biology. Companies and governments are increasingly using QSAR tools to avoid testing chemicals on animals.
Research With Human Volunteers
- A method called "microdosing" can provide vital information on the safety of an experimental drug and how it is metabolized in humans prior to large-scale human trials. Volunteers are given an extremely small one-time drug dose, and sophisticated imaging techniques are used to monitor how the drug behaves in the body. Microdosing can replace certain tests on animals and help screen out drug compounds that won’t work in humans so that they are never tested in animals.
- Advanced brain imaging and recording techniques - such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) - with human volunteers can be used to replace archaic experiments in which rats, cats, and monkeys have their brains damaged. These modern techniques allow the human brain to be safely studied down to the level of a single neuron (as in the case of intracranial electroencephalography), and researchers can even temporarily and reversibly induce brain disorders using transcranial magnetic stimulation.
Human-Patient Simulators
This advanced TraumaMan simulator was donated by PETA to replace the use of animals for Advanced Trauma Life Support training.- Strikingly lifelike computerized human-patient simulators that breathe, bleed, convulse, talk, and even "die" have been shown to teach students physiology and pharmacology better than crude exercises that involve cutting up animals. The most high-tech simulators mimic illnesses and injuries and give the appropriate biological response to medical interventions and medication injections. All medical schools across the U.S., Canada, and India have completely replaced the use of animal laboratories in medical training with simulators as well as virtual reality systems, computer simulators, and supervised clinical experience.
- For more advanced medical training, systems like TraumaMan - which replicates a breathing, bleeding human torso and has realistic layers of skin and tissue, ribs, and internal organs - are widely used to teach emergency surgical procedures and have been shown in numerous studies to impart lifesaving skills better than courses that require students to cut into live pigs, goats, or dogs.
Although scientists have state-of-the-art, effective, non-animal methods available, experimenters continue to torture countless animals anyway. "Without Consent", PETA’s interactive timeline, features almost 200 stories of twisted experiments from the past century, including ones in which dogs were forced to inhale cigarette smoke for months, mice were cut up while still conscious, and cats were deafened, paralyzed, and drowned. Visit "Without Consent" to learn about more harrowing animal experiments throughout history and how you can help create a better future for living, feeling beings.
https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/alternatives-animal-testing
NB: NMRM maintains that animal testing does not work and has proven harmful to humans.