What kind of harm do animals used in research experience?

a. Pain

• Some experiments may involve surgery on animals or the induction of potentially painful conditions like arthritis or cancer to look for new treatments.
• Research has shown that many species respond to stimuli that would be painful in humans and that painkilling drugs can reduce their responses to such stimuli.
• Even fish and crustaceans experience pain, for instance
• An animal pain has developed, great progress has also been made in diagnosing and treating it, and it is now far more common to treat pain in animals used in research.

b. Other states of poor welfare

• Animals experiencing poor welfare caused by something other than pain.
• In fact, animals are sometimes used to model human mood disorders by deliberately exposing them to experiences that make them depressed. The way animals are housed can cause welfare problems too.

Example

Mice are often kept in groups in cages. Many factors in these cages can compromise their welfare such as the temperature, the amount of space available and the social group with which they are housed (they will sometimes fight, for instance)

• Primates used in research are sometimes housed singly, in relatively small cages, which can cause emotional problems for these highly social animals.