Common platforms for scientific testing, in order of complexity:
E. Coli (bacteria) -- cheap to culture, very fast replication, easy
S. Cerevisiae (yeast) -- cheap to culture, FREAKING INDESTRUCTIBLE, slightly slower replication. Simplest eukaryote commonly used.
D. Melanogaster (fruit fly) -- a little bit more expensive to culture, bit more of a pain to deal with, but multicellular eukaryote. Reproduction is fairly fast (but nothing compared to the single-celled organisms). No one cares about invertebrates.
D. Rerio (zebrafish) -- A little bit more expensive yet. More complex organism. Simplest vertebrate commonly used. Reproduction is, again, slower. Animal rights people start to shift around uncomfortably.
M. Musculus (mouse) -- Expensive. Simple mammal. Slightly closer to human physiology, but still pretty far off. Much more paperwork, much slower reproduction. PETA might firebomb your office, but most people understand the need for a mammal model.
C. Lupus (dog) -- Expensive. Slow reproduction. Slow maturation. Good respiratory and circulatory similarity to humans. OP might mail you anthrax.
Basically, the pressure on scientists not to test on dogs and other "higher" organisms is financial, not moral. Believe me, if we could test every single drug on E. Coli and get good results, we would. No one likes having to pay for dogs. No one really LIKES having to test on dogs. Plus the ethics boards are all over you to make sure that they don't suffer (which is good, but involves a lot of paperwork!).
But ultimately, people > dogs, and I can 100% guarantee that you have directly benefitted from animal research. Ever died of smallpox? No? How about polio, ever gotten that? What do you expect us to test new drugs on, third world children?
Originally posted by: rudeguy
I love how all these people are all in favor of animal rights but they have family sized jars of peanut butter on their headboards....
Won't somebody please think of the peanuts
😕