EnviroLink Forum

Hey guys, what are your opinions on animal pesticide testing?

There are some new alternatives emerging that look pretty promising.

There is a sequence of legal requirements and laboratory tests that has to be followed before a pesticide/drug/anything that may be consumed or in contact with humans (or animals!) will be given approval to be used (and even then, there will often be a sequence of "field" trials before approval for general release is given, including trials on humans). It is in these intial tests that do not use whole animals that many substances are already weeded out (pardon the pun) because they turn out be toxic. But after that, more demanding tests are needed. Included in that sequence will be testing on animals, initially, using cell culture or "lower" animals like fruitflies, worms or zebrafish, but , eventually, testing on "higher" vertebrates including mammals. Those are the rules. That said, alternatives to some of that live animal use are continuously sought (I say "to some" because eventually, testing in all the complexity of a real living organism is still needed); you may have heard of the "three Rs", reduction, refinement, replacement, which apply to animal research and testing equally. However, before alternatives can be used, first of all, they must be proven to really work, that is, be a true alternative. Second, such an alternative must then be approved by law for use in testing - otherwise the final product will not be given legal permission for release. I am not sure what you intended with your question, since it is a bit troll-like. Who wants (or even, in law, be allowed) to use animals in research or testing (and you know, of course, that animals are still protected in that use!) if there are alternatives? Quite apart from the moral and ethical concerns, animals are simply very expensive and need looking after, including nights and weekends - who would not prefer a tissue culture? OTOH, it will probably always be a legal requirement that a final testing phase involves intact animals - including (as many anti-animal users do not seem to know) that animal we want to also protect, Homo sapiens.

There is another question, that may be implicit in your: do we need another pesticide? The answer is probably yes, because the pests that eat our crops and other plants needed for a still increasing human population (and their animals) adapt to resist pesticides. And don't start the "let's all go organic" argument. Organic farmers use pesticides too, they just claim these are not "chemicals".

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"With every decision, think seven generations ahead of the consequences of your actions" Ute rule of life.
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i think that its the important thing because in some countries this is big problem because the animals eats the plants and the plants are the pesticides because the spray of the pesticide liquid do on the plants so when the mammals eat this plants which the pesticide are entered in the so the humans when eat these animals or the milk of the animals which are very dangerous for the humans.so we have to care about this things.

Animal pesticide testing. How else are you going to determine how well the pesticide works?

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TANG SOO!

I fear that most pesticides are NOT tested on animals. A pesticide came out and caused so much death of rodents in the fields that most birds of prey had a sharp decline in numbers when the pesticide was used. Took a couple years for researchers to figure out why the birds were starving. Now, most countries have banned that particular pesticide (meant to kill grasshoppers) but several rodent species have not been seen since that release year and are feared extinct and many endangered bird species have only now stopped declining in numbers (and may be too low to recover). They only were worried about cattle eating the sprayed crops and the cows did not seem to be affected... they did not care for the wildlife. So, a few hundred rodents suffer lab testing or a few billion rodents die in the fields and their predators go extinct... I prefer the lab testing please.

What I was getting at, I thought clearly, was that pests are animals.

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TANG SOO!

Do I hear a slogan in there?

"Pests are animals too."

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“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
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"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
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TANG SOO!

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

_________________
With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

_________________
TANG SOO!