Do safety tests on animals protect us?
Shocking though it may sound, they often do the exact opposite. Animals as ‘models’ to predict human reactions to drugs or chemicals are worse than useless, with a prediction rate (for harmful side-effects) of only 5-25% – and this is according to a former Director of Huntingdon Life Sciences, the notorious animal testing company! We would actually be better off tossing a coin than relying on animals in risk assessments. Because of this, millions of people suffer adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to their prescription medicines – even though they have all been ‘safety’ tested on animals. In America, ADRs kill over 100,000 people every year – more than all illegal drugs put together. Animal test results are used by manufacturers to claim their products are safe, when proper, scientific testing methods might show otherwise. For example, smoking was said to be safe for decades because lung cancer is difficult to induce in animals – millions of people have died as a result. French scientific o
