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The following information has been compiled from articles and research by those interested in the welfare of animals or human health, or both. According to Health Action International, a group campaigning for the more rational use of medicines, "Most of the tens of thousands of drugs on the world market are either unsafe, ineffective, unnecessary or a waste of money." In fact there are around 18,000 licensed drugs available in the world today - only 200 of which the World Health Organisation considers essential for health. |
But.....Drugs are big business. Companies are fighting for a slice of the market. Research and Development of drugs is mainly targeted at diseases or conditions that are common in affluent societies, e.g. arthritis, asthma, obesity, anxiety and depression, high blood pressure, etc. So, before you begin your next course of drugs, please consider the situation in the light of the following facts.
Animals
Drug companies are the largest users of animals in research. Most of these animals suffer and die to test products for which there is no medical need.
Firstly, they are kept in stinking animal houses in mesh cages, often alone and with no regard for the behavioural needs and instincts of living creatures.
Secondly, many undergo unanaesthetised castration, tail chopping, injection of chemicals to cause pain and convulsions, taking of blood directly from the heart by hypodermic and other procedures whereby parts of their bodies are damaged by rough handling or careless use of instruments. These are just the preparatory measures taken before the real torture begins - induction of a disease such as cancer or AIDS, or the infliction of broken limbs, head injury, damage to sexual organs or being forced to become addicted to heroin or morphine. If they survive, many will be reused in experiments for the treatment of illness's caused by the very drugs in which they have already been tested.
Iatrogenic Disease
Drug related disease induced by the physician during the process of diagnosis or healing.
In an effort to escape the consequences of the modern lifestyle, we are demanding more and more "life-saving" drugs. What is not generally realised is that between 11% and 25% of people in hospital and up to 40% of the community suffer from the side effects of the drugs they have taken.
All these drugs have been rigorously tested on animals!
Artificially generating symptoms in animals might help to develop drugs to alleviate similar looking symptoms in humans but it reveals little about the real nature and causes of the disease.
Since the true dangers and benefits of medicine only really emerge after wide use by human beings, it seems more sensible to concentrate on careful surveillance of patients during trials and after marketing of drugs, rather than to bring suffering and death to animals in tests of little relevance.
Animal test fail to predict the effects of drugs... |
...with tragic consequences |
- Eraldin........Heart drugs, prescribed for four years before effects identified - blindness, joint pain and growth, and stomach disorders.
- Opren.........Arthritis, 70 deaths and 3500 serious side effects - damage to skin, eyes, circulation, liver and kidneys.
- Flosint.........Anti-inflammatory drug - deaths and serious side effects.
- Osmosin...........Anti-inflammatory drug - death and side effects.
- Chloramphenicol..........Anti-biotic - caused fatal blood disorders.
- Thalidomide......Sedative for morning sickness - birth defects.
- Cliquinol......30,000 cases of blindness and/or paralysis, death - caused a new disease called smon.
- Debendox...........Morning sickness - caused birth defects.