Hey there I know these main nuggets can be a little bit rough and people tend to skip
them more than the fun ones. So I'm going to intersperse some cuteness relief throughout
this video, keep an eye out for it. And also I'm wearing a dress. So that's pleasant, right?
In the last nugget I introduced the topic of animal testing, and discussed at the scientific
inefficacy of it. Today I'm going to address why the hell it's still happening. As we saw
in nugget 16, non-animal tests are generally more reliable, less costly, and always more
humane. So you may ask, why the [bleep] are we still testing on animals? Well here are
the three main reasons.
Momentum, meaning familiarity, or it's what we've always done. Money, and for companies
to cover their asses. So, reason one, momentum. According to safermedicines.org, which by
the way, is an organization that has nothing to do with animal rights and everything to
do with human safety. "Many factors perpetuate animal experimentation, the most obvious of
which is momentum. The tradition is so deeply ingrained that the whole system is based on
it. Technological lock-in and status quo bias are powerful factors here." This is the same
argument of eating animals and animal byproducts because it's what we've always done. And now
on to the second reason, the big number two. And I mean that in both ways, money. Researchers
attract grant money based on how many papers they publish in scientific literature. It
is much easier and faster to publish papers using animals, than by doing human-based research.
Remember Dr. Vlasak from nugget number 16? He's the medical doctor who is also an animal
rights activist. Dr. Vlasak states, "I was told that I could make a name for myself if
I published papers and experimented on animals; and I was told that universities were given
lots of money by the government as long as they continue to do experiments on animals.
Being the naive young doctor and wanting to follow the lead of others, I did a year of
vivisection and visited animal labs throughout the country. What I learned and what I saw
with my own eyes was mind-boggling. I learned that the pharmaceutical companies spent millions
of dollars taking doctors out to dinner and paying for lavish vacations for them and their
families. And in turn, these researchers were to manipulate animal experiments to get the
results the drug industries wanted. I learned that the way universities get grant money
isn't by coming up with the best and most scientific research methods, but by continuing
to use animals as a model because of the billions of dollars made in the vivisection industry.
Greed, corruption and absolute power; these are the things that drive the vivisection
industry; not saving lives or preventing disease. The scientists who still use animals in their
research are not only frauds, but are addicted to an outdated form of research. Colin Blakemore
for instance, who has sewn kittens eyes closed for fun and profit, is no more of a true scientist
than the mad scientists in the monster movies we watched in the 50s". In all reality, vivisection
is a business. The organization Last Chance for Animals states that "vivisection uses
images of sick children and notions of medical necessity to play upon our sympathies and
generate revenue. In reality, children all over the world routinely die from starvation
and curable diseases while we waste millions on animal experimentation."
Now just how much money are we talking about? Every year the US vivisection industries spend
over $18 billion on animal experiments. The United States National Institute for Health
is the world's greatest source that funds animal experimentation, with an annual budget
of more than $13 billion. And just where does this money come from? Your wallet. More than
$16 billion of US taxpayer money goes to animal testing, despite its ineffectiveness. And
just what are you paying for? Here's some examples of animal experimentation funded
by taxpayer money. At the University of Pennsylvania, to study the results of head trauma, primates
were strapped into machinery to receive high impact blows to the head. A video camera captured
by an animal rights activist, showed footage of vivisectionists taunting the injured animals
who were left with severe brain damage. In order to examine severe burns on life tissue,
the United States Army restrained pigs who were burned alive with a flame thrower until
their charred flesh could be removed in large pieces. In order to measure injury recovery,
the Uniformed Services University Department of Defense strapped dogs down and cut apart
the skin on their knees, leaving flaps. At the end of the study, all the dogs were killed.
At Emory University to demonstrate that the eyes protein levels are the same in sight
deprived monkeys compared to normal ones, animal experimenters sewed the monkeys eyelids
shut. Our government run space agency NASA, committed $1.75 million dollars in taxpayer
money to fund experiments subjecting 1 foot tall squirrel monkeys to massive amounts of
radiation.
All of these cruel labs are very expensive. Each dog lab at the University of Colorado
for instance costs taxpayers about $40,000. And finally reason number three, companies
covering their asses.
Pharmaceutical companies continue to do animal tests because they provide liability protection
in court when the drug happens to kill or injure a person. Companies test on animals
in order to provide data that they can use to defend themselves when they are sued by
injured customers. Even though the very same courts have ruled that the FDA has failed
to show that the results of animal tests can be extrapolated to humans. Basically the unreliability
of animal test allows companies to put virtually any product on the market. Thanks for tuning
in to the nugget, I hope I provided enough cuteness relief for you. I'll see you guys
next Wednesday.
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