Animal research is a necessity today, and has afforded us the opportunity to create lifesaving drugs and vaccines, new surgical procedures and improved diagnosis of disease. Despite the bad press animal activists have given, institutions are given guidelines that guarantee the safe and ethical treatment of research animals. Most scientists agree that continued animal testing is essential to develop new vaccines and medicines, and that computer and mathematical models are not adequate substitutes in all cases. Even so, they follow ethical and legal guidelines that minimize the use of animals and treat them as humanely as possible under the circumstances. Few of them follow the extremist position that animals are mere objects or things that exist only for the benefit of humanity and can be treated in any way humans see fit. In general, public opinion also supports this position, as well as the idea that unnecessary cruelty to animals...
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