Do you do experiments on animals and do these harm them??

Question: Do you do experiments on animals and do these harm them??
- Keywords:
  animal testing,
  experiments
Asked by emily_jade to Anna, George, Jodi, Rob, Stefan on 17 Nov 2014.
- George Ryall answered on 17 Nov 2014:
  
  I don’t do any myself and I don’t believe we do any at RAL (where I work). However, I do believe that animal research is sometimes necessary, as long as there are no alternatives and there is a definite benefit to be gained. The UK has a strong regulatory framework for animal research. For more details of animal research in the UK, and a discussion of some of the issues involved, see http://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/schoolzone/ .
- Jodi Schneider answered on 17 Nov 2014:
  
  No, I do research in computer science.
  
  I would find it difficult to experiment on animals (I was vegetarian for a long time and want humans to have compassion for other species). But I know that medicines need to be tested for safety — and we need to know more about how the brain works.
  
  One reason we test on animals is we can control the situation a lot more — to remove variables that might make it unclear why something happens. It’s a lot harder to cage up humans (though sometimes people volunteer for long experiments, and live in a hospital for that).
  
  Thanks George, I’m glad to see the page you link to!
- Stefan Lines answered on 17 Nov 2014:
  
  I don’t experiment on animals, although I believe there are departments here at the University that do.

Question: Do you do experiments on animals and do these harm them??

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