I recently disocvered www.jove.com – that is the Journal for Visualised Experiments. On this website you can see how animal (and non-animal) experiments are carried out with the utmost care and scientific precision. Everything from mice running mazes to invasive neurosurgery are carefully filmed and explained to show correct procedure. From various videos we can see the care is made to ensure animals to do not suffer unnecessarily, and that steps are made to reduce any pain that might be caused – usually down to zero.
Although some experiments may look unpleasent, it would be no different that seeing yourself under the knife during a hospital operation – an event which is painless for most people (due to anaesthetics – a type of drug developed using animal research).
Cheers
Tom
anaesthetics can’t be given to the animal as it may affect the experiment. I think thats a big difference don’t you Tom?
Of course anesthetics can be given to an animal… They are in most situations that require them.
The only situations where you have pain and anaesthetics/analgesics aren’t given, is:
A) when you are testing the effects of a novel anesthetic
B) Any anesthetic would cause adverse reactions due to it not being suitable to “mix” with a test substance
Just about all surgery would be done with anesthetics though