Editor’s Note: For an alternative viewpoint, please see: Point: A Human Is a Chimpanzee Is a Monkey Is a Mouse
Let me tell you about Slinky.
Slinky was sweet and full of personality, an adorable and playful piglet who grew to be a gentle and smiley giant. Everyone who met him was smitten instantly. He was purchased when he was 2 months old to help us develop surgical solutions to congenital heart defects in children.
All of us who worked in the biomedical research facility where Slinky lived adored him. In the afternoons, he would lie in his favorite spot in the hay, cueing his favorite caregiver to feed him oranges by hand, just like a little Julius Caesar.
His original study fell through, so we continued to spoil him until he was called upon to contribute to a study designed to prevent brain damage common in children following heart surgery. The study required that all of his blood be drawn while he was deeply anesthetized and then euthanized.
That afternoon, Slinky rested in his favorite spot surrounded by the caregivers he loved, who stroked him as he drifted peacefully to his eternal rest. Slinky lost his life for our children that day. We were crushed. And we were grateful. It was hard.
We continue to honor Slinky with stories of our time together. We laugh. We cry. Slinky will always live in our hearts.
Slinky’s story is one of many that challenge those who say that laboratory animals live in inhumane conditions or that we in biomedical research don’t care about them. Whether it’s the mice and rats that make up more than 95 percent of all research animals, or the dogs, cats and primates that together comprise just 1 percent of the total, or the pigs and horses, frogs and zebrafish that are helping researchers advance medical knowledge: we care for all of our animals, and lose our hearts to them repeatedly. We continue on because we understand and honor the vital role they have in biomedical progress. And that is also a very loving mission.
Opposition to animal research is at odds with anyone who takes medicine to guard against seizures, strokes or low blood sugar, anyone who has been vaccinated, and anyone whose life — or that of a parent, spouse, child, friend or pet — has been saved by early detection technologies or surgery. Animal research was critical for each of these advances.
Animal research will remain a significant requirement for biomedical progress for decades to come.
In the 1950s, children were infected or died with the polio virus. Tens of thousands of monkeys and innumerable rats and mice were involved in the quest to develop a vaccine. Because of this, polio is now nearly eradicated.
Today we are seeking vaccines for other deadly viruses, including Zika, Ebola and HIV. Laboratory animals are essential for determining prevention and treatment strategies.
Many erroneously refer to “animal testing” when they discuss all work with animals in biomedical research. This is misleading, as the term applies only to the screening of potential medicines in animals for safety and efficacy before they are tested in human clinical trials.
Medicines are designed following years of basic research involving animals. Living systems are extremely complex and we have only scratched the surface in understanding how they actually work and adapt to an ever-changing environment. We cannot recognize what is wrong in a living being until we know how biological systems function when they are working correctly. Most biological functions are similar across animals and people, and animals allow researchers opportunities to study biological functions at levels not possible with people.
Alternatives to animal studies offer some great insights, but their development relies on what we have learned and continue to learn from studies of intact, living systems.
We absolutely do incorporate computers (bioinformatics) into helping us solve problems whenever they are useful. The same is true for many other non-animal means for getting some of the answers we need, like cell cultures and stem cell-based technologies.
Researchers are required by federal law and other regulations to use all available non-animal means to study disease and treatment options. Animals can only be involved when researchers demonstrate that there is no other way to study the disease or concern at hand, effectively.
I look forward to the day when animals are truly no longer required for biomedical progress, but we aren’t there yet. Until then, my colleagues and I will continue to love and care for research animals, as we did our Slinky. To us, they are heroes, and we are grateful for their contributions to humankind and animalkind.
