{"id":171091,"date":"2025-10-01T17:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T23:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tecscience.tec.mx\/en\/?p=171091"},"modified":"2025-10-06T19:03:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T01:03:14","slug":"animal-testing-in-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tecscience.tec.mx\/en\/education-and-humanism\/animal-testing-in-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Animal Testing: Can Science Replace Them?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To graduate from my Bachelor’s Degree in Biology at the Faculty of Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), I wrote my thesis in a laboratory that studies memory and learning. Our models were lab rats and mice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, I was so excited about learning and contributing to the development of science that I didn’t pay much attention to how it made me feel to experiment with sentient beings<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, the more I experimented with them, the more I realized how deeply intelligent, tender, and unique they are. The more my empathy grew towards them, the harder it became to see them solely as study subjects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many other scientists who have experimented on animals, I began to question if they are truly necessary for the advancement of research and whether there was a way to prevent so many from dying in the name of science<\/strong> and for the benefit of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, I decided to focus on my career as a journalist, but my concern about the ethics behind the use of animal models never faded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I followed my mentor into pharmacology and toxicology,\u201d says Thomas Hartung<\/a>, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and director of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing<\/a> (CAAT). “I did my share of animal experiments in this education, but I always needed a big glass of whiskey in the evening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hartung, like me, began to experience feelings of guilt and sadness when experimenting on animals and decided to do something about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout his career\u2014spanning more than thirty years\u2014he has demonstrated that many pharmacological and research processes don’t actually require these organisms<\/strong>, that there are ways to replace them and become less dependent on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We Have Alternatives, but the Transition To Replace Them is Slow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although Hollywood movies portray otherwise, most people who conduct research do not like experimenting with animals and respect and value them greatly. In the lab where I worked, every Day of the Dead, a colleague would set up an altar to the mice and rats she had experimented on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This doesn’t mean there aren’t cases where people use experimentation as an excuse to abuse and mistreat animals, but, in general, their use is increasingly regulated, which provides them with some protection<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these regulations\u2014and that most scientists recognize that they are the unsung heroes of science, pharmacology, and medicine\u2014research into reducing their use has not advanced as rapidly as some of us would like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think we’re taking too long,” says Hartung, who in 1996 designed an in vitro version of a test for pyrogens<\/strong>\u2014fever-producing agents that can contaminate injectable drugs\u2014that didn’t require rabbits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This test was approved as an alternative<\/a> to the use of this animal model<\/strong>, but to date, the pharmaceutical industry often continues to use these animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, thanks to animal rights<\/a> movements and scientific efforts, there are increasingly more laws to protect them. A clear example is that 45 countries, including Mexico, now have laws prohibiting animal testing for the development of cosmetic products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“While this approach \u2013using animal models\u2013 is completely anthropocentric, that doesn’t mean that animal welfare isn’t considered,” says Elena Gonz\u00e1lez<\/a>, a research professor at the Institute for Obesity Research<\/a> (IOR) of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and president of the Institutional Committee for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals<\/a> (CICUAL).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to her, in all research or educational activities that require animal models at the institution, ensuring that they live in dignified, healthy, and hygienic conditions is prioritized<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The six Rs: Reduce, Refine, Replace, Relevance, Performance, and Reproducibility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although it may sound new, seeking to improve the way we use animals in science has been advancing for years. In 1950, for example, Laboratory Animal Science emerged, based on the ethical principles of the three Rs: reduce, refine, and replace<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n