The images
in the following program
are very sensitive
and may be
as disturbing to viewers
as they were to us.
However,
we have to show the truth
about cruelty to animals.
Compassionate viewers,
today’s
Stop Animal Cruelty
program features the first
of a two-part series
on the sickening practice
of using animals in
laboratory experiments.
Sadly testing on animals
occurs in the cosmetics,
defense, pharmaceutical,
and a number of
other industries.
It is estimated
that globally 100 million
animals die needlessly
each year in experiments.
The National
Anti-Vivisection Society,
the world’s first
organization to campaign
against the practice,
was founded in 1875
by the great British
humanitarian
Frances Power Cobbe,
who published leaflets
and articles opposing
experimentation
and gained the support of
many prominent figures
of her day.
The current Chief Executive
of the organization,
Ms. Jan Creamer,
recently spoke with
Supreme Master
Television
about the ghastly nature
of animal testing and
why animal-free research
is superior in all respects.
They’re used in
a range of experiments,
whether it’s academics
using them for
fundamental research
where they’re just trying
to find something out.
They’re used
for product safety testing,
and they’re used
for safety testing of things
like batch testing or
things like vaccines, and
that’s where the majority
of animals are used,
over three million
in the UK and
100 million worldwide.
The point
that we have made
about animal research
is that there are
fundamental
species differences
between humans
and other animals.
And so any animal
experiment isn’t going
to tell you reliably
what kind of outcome
you might see
in human beings, and
that’s when you sometimes
get news of a drug that
has gone on to injure or
even kill human beings,
because it was judged
as safe in an animal test,
and so that’s why
we need to shift away from
100-year-old technology,
animal testing,
a very crude and cruel way
of trying to test a product,
to something
more sophisticated,
which are
the advanced scientific
and technological methods
that we advocate.
These animals that are
used in these experiments,
where do they
normally come from?
Mostly from suppliers
in the UK and in Europe.
We do have regulations
for animal suppliers
in the UK;
over the last 20 years
or so, our legislation
has regulated
and licensed supply.
So we have
purpose-bred animals
from regulated supplies.
In the past, prior to that,
random animals
were taken,
stray animals,
animals such as that, but
not so much in Europe.
You’ve got a couple of
key problems with using
non-purpose-bred animals.
One of
the key fundamentals
when they’re using
the animals in research,
what they claim is
that they need to know
the animal’s background.
They need to know
its genetic background,
they need to know
what substances
has it been exposed to.
So they can’t really justify
using stray animals
or animals from the wild
when they’re trying to claim
at the same time
that animal research
is scientific.
They know the background
of those animals.
So, scientifically,
people should not want
to use animals
from unknown sources.
But then the second problem
that you have is that
the more you refine animals
and provide them
for research,
for example, a lot of
the genetic manipulation
of animals (Yes)
and the purpose breeding
of animals, what you get
is a certain animal,
series of animals
where you try
to standardize the way
those animals might
respond, that people
aren’t standardized.
We’re varied,
and we have a whole
genetic mix there.
So fundamentally, it’s
like a loop of problems that
animal research creates,
a loop of problems.
Not only is
animal experimentation
inhumane and immoral,
the enormous differences
between humans
and animals
make research results
totally invalid.
For example, aspirin
causes birth defects
in dogs and cats,
but not in people.
Elraldin, a heart drug,
was judged safe for humans
based on animal testing,
but it can cause
blindness, growths,
stomach troubles,
and joint pains in those
who take the drug.
Scientists know
that there are
fundamental differences
between the species,
and they know that any
animal test that they do,
they need to go on
and test it on humans
to ensure that it’s safe.
But they’re taking the view
that that is all they have,
but those scientists are
now in the minority.
(Right.) The fact is
that non-animal methods
are now in the majority
in terms of the whole
overall research effort.
I think it’s one of
the cancer societies
that said many years ago,
that only two percent of
their total research effort
used animals and
half of that two percent
was spent on just feeding
and caring for the animals,
not on the actual research.
So the bulk of scientific
and medical research
is without animals. (Right.)
The problem is
that animal research
over the past 100 years
has gradually been
incorporated
into legislation,
and so animal tests
are the things
that the legislators use
as their yardstick.
The civil servants,
when they’re looking for
a tick box, are looking for
an animal test,
that’s what has to change.
And does your
organization itself also
provide scientific evidence
to the scientists
and the government?
We do.
One of the key things
that the National
Anti-Vivisection Society
has done
over the last 20 years or so
is to invest
in non-animal scientific
and medical research.
And also in producing
scientific briefings
for governments
and legislators
on ways to replace
the use of animals, and
also to show and explain,
we have our own scientists
who can explain
how non-animal methods,
the tissues
and cell cultures,
the computer technology,
using computer modeling,
and analytical techniques,
things like
new technologies
like toxicogenomics,
accelerator
mass spectrometry where
you give volunteers tiny,
tiny doses of a product,
(Right) so minute
they can’t hurt them,
and then you analyze
the effects that had on them.
And then you get
actually proper results,
because you get results
in human beings,
rather than in animals.
So all of these
new scientific techniques
that we’ve been
promoting and funding
are what we’re putting
forward to governments
now as a way
to replace animal tests.
Fact is animal research
is unreliable.
There are fundamental
differences between
animals and humans,
it’s something that we do,
because we’ve been
doing it for 100 years;
it’s time to change.
When we return
we’ll hear more
from Ms. Creamer
about the ruthless,
heinous practice of
animal experimentation.
Please stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television.
You’re watching
Stop Animal Cruelty
on Supreme Master
Television
featuring an interview
with Jan Creamer,
Chief Executive
of the UK-based National
Anti-Vivisection Society,
about animal testing.
We asked Ms. Creamer
what happens
to an animal at the end
of an experiment.
Do they then
gain their freedom?
All animals
used in research
must either be killed at
the end of the experiment
or if they’re used
as controls
they can be used again
in a different type
of experiment, and
certainly this was one of
the key issues for debate.
When the new legislation
that we’re going to have
was being debated in
the European Parliament,
it was “How do we
prevent animals from
being used and re-used,
and re-used?”
One of the things
that we had
in UK legislation is a bar
on re-use of animals.
So this is something
that in the next two years
is going to be hotly debated
in the UK Parliament,
and as we start to bring in
this new legislation
from Europe, is
“What limits do we have
on re-use of animals?”
While many governments
have rules and
regulations concerning
animal testing,
these so-called animal
welfare protections are
essentially meaningless
and in no way
justify the continuance
of the practice.
Although we have
regulations about the way
the animals
should be kept
and the way
they should be treated,
and their feeding and
watering, and so forth,
and the environments
that they are in,
the fact is they are just
a means to an end,
and so in terms of
the way they live,
they live in extremely
deprived conditions.
You’ve got rats, mice,
guinea pigs, and
small animals like that
that are living in small,
bare, plastic boxes.
The other animals
like primates, you’ve got
living in bare cages.
For all of the government’s
regulations saying that
the animals are entitled
to environmental
enrichment and things to
give them interests while
they are in their cages,
there is also the caveat
that they can have this
environmental enrichment
unless there’s
a potential for it
to affect the outcome
of the experiment.
So there is always
potential for that,
so they don’t get the
environmental enrichment.
So again
something is given but
then taken away, I think.
Are governments now
waking up to the fact
that animal testing
is inaccurate
and unwarranted?
Ms. Creamer provides
her perspective.
They are seeing
that non-animal
research methods
are the way forward,
the cutting edge,
the leading edge
of development
in science and technology
is by using
the new techniques,
the computer-modeling
techniques, (Yes)
sophisticated techniques.
And animal experiments
are a thing of the past.
And governments
do know this,
and they see this, but
they are still being advised
by a minority of scientists
(Right) who still
cling to using animals.
They’ve built their careers
on animal research
and they don’t want
to let that go.
Where do you think
these techniques
are predominantly used
at the moment,
and in which country,
would you say?
Certainly in the UK,
we’re using them
more and more.
In some countries
in Europe, the non-animal
research techniques
are being quite well used.
The biggest problem is
that many countries
in Europe, their science
and technology and
their animal research base
is way behind countries
such as the United Kingdom.
And so if you have
this imbalance in Europe,
where you have
a few countries who
are very sophisticated
in their approach to
replacement of animal use,
you have some countries
who barely know what
replacement techniques are,
so we’re trying
to bring those countries
up to speed.
But certainly
in terms of advancing
their science base
and their technology,
the answers, the solutions
for them is to use
advanced techniques
rather than animals because
that just takes them into
a backward technology.
Jan Creamer,
we applaud your work
that champions
the rights of animals and
has saved many of them
from being used in testing.
Through the work
of the National
Anti-Vivisection Society
and other
like-minded groups
throughout the world
may the crude,
callous practice of
animal experimentation
soon completely end.
Each of us
can help protect the lives
of our animal friends
every day by purchasing
only those products
which have not been
tested on animals
and by embracing
the organic vegan diet.
For more details
on the National
Anti-Vivisection Society
please visit
www.navs.org.uk
Thank you
for your company today
on Stop Animal Cruelty.
Please join us again
next week for part two
of our program with more
from our interview
with Jan Creamer on
animal experimentation.
Enlightening Entertainment
is coming up next,
after Noteworthy News.
May all of
Earth’s inhabitants live
in peace and harmony.
The images
in the following program
are very sensitive
and may be
as disturbing to viewers
as they were to us.
However,
we have to show the truth
about cruelty to animals.
Today’s
Stop Animal Cruelty
program features
the conclusion
of a two-part series
on the sickening practice
of using animals in
laboratory experiments.
Sadly, testing on animals
occurs in the cosmetics,
defense, pharmaceutical,
and a number of
other industries.
It is estimated
that globally 100 million
animals die needlessly
each year in experiments.
The National
Anti-Vivisection Society,
the world’s first
organization to campaign
against the practice,
was founded in 1875
by the great British
humanitarian
Frances Power Cobbe,
who published leaflets
and articles opposing
experimentation
and gained the support of
many prominent figures
of her day.
The current Chief Executive
of the organization,
Ms. Jan Creamer,
recently spoke with
Supreme Master
Television
about the ghastly nature
of animal testing and
why animal-free research
is superior in all respects.
On last week’s program
we learned that
countries around the world
are increasingly moving
toward non-animal based
testing methods
in medical research.
Ms. Creamer now addresses
related developments
in academia.
Animals can be used
in dissections
and demonstrations
for students and
a whole range of things;
really, completely
unjustified.
There is much that can be
learned from books,
(Yes) computers,
studying knowledge
that we already have.
Certainly
there’s never any excuse
to use animals in education.
Luckily, in the UK,
in schools we’ve had a ban
on the use of animals
for A-level dissection
for many, many years,
so this was
an early achievement
where we were able to
explain to the school
examination boards
that for GCSE
(General Certificate
of Secondary Education)
and O-level and A-level
as they were,
that it wasn’t necessary
for students
to be cutting up animals
in order to
study life sciences.
At the university level
we still have some use of
animals in demonstrations,
but also the introduction
of computer programs
and new technologies
have replaced that
in many, many areas.
And that’s something
where you do now have
teachers and lecturers
in universities
who are familiar with
the new ways of teaching,
the new technologies and
so they are more willing
to introduce them.
The so-called
product safety testing
done on animals
is appalling
and the experiments are
indescribably inhumane.
What are
the physical problems
that animals develop
when they go through
these experiments?
It can be a whole range
of distressing effects
depending on
the experiments,
for example,
some of the primates
were being forced to
drink a product every day,
and this is a system
called gavage dosing
where you force a tube
down an animal’s throat
and you pump the product
into their stomach
every day.
And in that range of tests
that we exposed
the animals to
they were suffering
a whole range of
severe side effects.
They were so distressed
that some of them
were chewing off fingers
(Oh, dear)
and things like that.
They were scratching
at their skin
and they were being sick.
They were salivating
and some of the animals,
when they were strapped
into their chairs,
were actually suffering
rectal prolapse.
As a result of the stress
that’s commonly known
in monkeys in laboratories,
if they’re stressed
enough there
then they prolapse.
Some of the monkeys in
some of those experiments
died and the post mortem
revealed that
they had blocked
and blackened lungs
so they must
have suffered terribly
before they died.
There is no doubt
that the whole point of
animal experimentation
is that the animals
will suffer.
I mean, that is
acknowledged. Yes)
There is no way of
conducting an experiment
if you’re going to force
feed an animal a product
until they are poisoned
by that product
or until you see some
kind of adverse effect.
Luckily the poisoning
to death experiments
have been phased out
over the years
and in principle now,
the idea is that
the animals shouldn’t
be poisoned to death,
just until you see
a poisoning effect.
So slow death, effectively?
Whichever way
you look at it
that animal is going to
suffer and suffer terribly.
A more recent form
of unconscionable
animal abuse
is genetic manipulation.
Ms. Creamer shares
her views about
this disturbing procedure.
Genetic modifications
of animals, whether
it’s cloning, experiments,
whether it is other types
of genetic modifications,
all of those experiments
cause extreme suffering,
and that’s the area of
animal research which is
growing very, very fast.
I mean in the last 10 years,
those animals have lept
in numbers
I think the last
government statistics,
it was over a million
genetically modified
animals were used.
And genetic modification
of animals is a whole range
of different types of work.
Some of
the genetic modification
is where a gene is either
added or knocked out and
the animals can be used
for what they call
bio-farming, Right)
which is where they try
to produce a drug either
from the animals’ milk
or from their blood.
So they change
the animal’s gene
so they’re
producing products that
we want to use in a drug.
And so in some ways
they want to get that out
and it could be
it comes out in their milk
or it comes out
in their blood, and
we then use it for people.
Other forms
of genetic modification
are where they’re trying
to use animals to produce
spare parts for people,
spare organs.
When we return,
we’ll learn more about
the genetic modification
of animals
from Jan Creamer.
Please stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television.
You’re watching
Stop Animal Cruelty
featuring Jan Creamer,
Chief Executive
of the National
Anti-Vivisection Society,
who will now
explain more about
the heartlessness
inherent in the practice
of genetically modifying
animals.
Genetically modified
animals, 90% of them
have to be killed.
If you are implanting,
if you’re making
a change to an egg
and implanting it
into another animal,
not all of those eggs
will have the genes
that you want.
And only 10%
of the animals
that are born as a result
of genetic manipulation
have the required gene.
So you’re killing 90%
of the animals
that you’re producing.
And those statistics
haven’t really improved
in the last few years.
The other problems
that genetically modified
animals have
is that they’re subjected
to repeated surgery
for collection of the eggs
from the donor animals,
and then
you manipulate the eggs
and then
you re-implant them;
that’s another surgery
into the recipient animal.
So, it’s repeated surgeries.
They’re also finding
the animals have
all kinds of other problems;
they can be mutated,
they can have
other health problems
when they’re born,
they have
higher birth weights,
making it,
difficult for the females
to give birth.
A whole range of
medical problems
are associated with that.
In addition to that,
the animals that are used
in production of
genetically modified
animals, they have to
live in isolation,
in little plastic boxes.
And so they’re kept
in an environmentally
barren state,
where there is nothing
to stimulate them,
nothing to interest them,
(That’s very sad.)
very, very poor conditions.
Humans and animals are
fundamentally different
in terms of physiology
and none of us can imagine
visiting a veterinarian
if we are ill and
need medical treatment.
It is similarly
unfathomable to expect
animal experimentation
can give us
scientifically valid results
when testing for safety
of a drug
or any other product.
Unfortunately, with
animal experimentation,
because it’s been around
for 100 years or so,
and people didn’t look at
the actual results
we are getting
from animal research,
the issue was,
“Well, okay, we need
to test something;
what should we test it on?
Well we won’t test it
on people; we’ll test it
on a different species.”
And it’s taken really
all of these years
for us to see the
fundamental differences
between ourselves
and other animals,
and the fact that
if you test something
on an animal
in a laboratory,
you are not going to know
how that might affect
people in the real world.
There was an example,
a few years ago,
of an experimental drug,
TGN1412, and
this was in a laboratory
in North London (UK),
and it was given
to human volunteers,
who suffered horrific,
life-threatening side effects.
And this was the story
where some
of the newspapers said
that the swelling
in their heads
was so great
that one of the patients
was referred to
as the “elephant man”
and they suffered
permanent damage
to their bodies.
And this was from
an experimental drug,
which had been given
to laboratory primates
in doses 500 times
stronger than the doses
(Terrible.) given to
the human volunteers,
to no effect.
So 500 times stronger
it was given
to laboratory primates,
no effect, and they gave
a much smaller dose
to the human volunteers
and it had
devastating side effects.
And the worst
of that particular story
was that we already have
a safer, non-animal method
that could have been used
and saved those people
those horrific side effects,
which they’re going
to suffer from
for the rest of their lives.
We have a system
called micro-dosing,
where you give
tiny, tiny amounts
of a substance
to a human volunteer,
and then you analyze it
with accelerator
mass spectrometry,
which is a system
that is so precise in the way
that it can analyze things,
that it can analyze a drop
in the ocean of something.
So it is very, very refined,
very, very precise.
And that could
have been used
instead of these primates
and those people
would not have suffered
those side effects.
Absolutely tragic,
(Very tragic!) it’s tragic.
What is your message
or advice to the public
about vivisection?
The key message about
animal experimentation
is that millions of animals
suffer and die in the most
horrendous circumstances
in laboratories,
not only in the UK
but all over the world
and there is something
we can do to stop it.
We can stop it
by only buying
from companies that
don’t test their products
on animals.
And we can stop it by
writing to governments
and our members
of parliament and
telling them that we want
animal experiments
stopped and
that we want advanced,
non-animal methods
used instead.
So we can have both things;
we can have safe products
on the market (Yes)
that don’t damage people
and the environment,
but we don’t have to
make animals suffer
for that, we can use
advanced technology
to replace the use
of animals in research.
We are deeply grateful
to you Ms. Jan Creamer,
and all the staff
and volunteers
of the National
Anti-Vivisection Society
for informing us about
the horrendous world
of animal testing and
how we can help end it.
Besides writing
to government officials
and avoiding
animal-tested products,
please choose
the loving and kind
organic vegan diet
as it is free
of animal-products
and thus involves
no animal suffering.
For more details
on the National
Anti-Vivisection Society,
please visit
www.navs.org.uk
Thank you for joining us
on this edition of
Stop Animal Cruelty.
Next is
Enlightening Entertainment,
coming up after
Noteworthy News.
May all God’s beings
flourish together
in love and joy.