Animal Testing

Today we had a lab on local anaesthetics. It was awful. It helped me realise something about myself that I never knew about before but I can't say that I'm surprised about the discovery.

Experiments that will undoubtedly hurt an animal should not be carried out! Especially not by a bunch of second year medical students who don't know how to hold a rodent and inject it!

Today, our experiment on local anaesthetics was carried out on baby hamsters. These tiny little things were only just over a month old. Why didn't we use the adult hamsters? I didn't like the idea of having to purposely cause pain to the animal by pricking it with a needle multiple times. Over and over again. For about an hour. The anaesthetics did eventually work, after they were injected, but until they worked, they were being pricked, poked and prodded with a needle.

What annoyed me the most, though, was the attitude some people had towards the hamsters. They're not "just hamsters. So prick them." No, no. They're baby hamsters that were born over a month ago, barely grew then had their backs shaved, to be moved out of the cage where they are comfortable into the hands of a bunch of students to be pricked with a needle multiple times and injected with some drug. For a little creature that's only 3 inches long, that's a lot to digest in one day. Truly. And that much pain? Torture.

I did not take part in this lab. In fact, I got sick of listening to people talk down on the hamsters just because they don't have as high a level of thinking that humans do. They have personalities of their own and feel pain just as we do. They're not "just hamsters". They were terrified. The little creamy white one was timid and after being pricked, it balled up in a corner of the tray in a defensive position. Eventually, I left the lab for long periods of time and returned near the end of it all. Got my results and left.

So, basically, these are experiments that I personally cannot condone.

I know the lab with the toads had its entertainment, but it didn't involve a lot of pain. Just a single injection into each toad and they got to sit in water. I felt a little bad about having to use them in our experiment just like that but at least we didn't do anything to purposely cause them any sort of pain. And they were set free back into the wild afterwards.

I know my view won't be shared by many others. I have a high respect for animals...some get way more respect from me than some human beings I know.