The future

In the future, animal use is set on a path toward reduction and efficiency to better align with people’s ethics.

All labs use the 3Rs principle with animal research. They are principles of replacement, refinement, and reduction for animal research. 

According to the National Centre for the Replacement Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research, replacement involves accelerating the development and use of models and tools with new technologies to address scientific questions without using animals, refinement involves using new technologies and understanding factors in scientific outcomes, and reduction involves emphasizing important animal experiments that lead to valuable information.

Some hope that animal use continues on this path toward reduction, with PETA aiming for complete removal, while others wish to continue using animals for their benefits.

However, it may require more than merely following these principles for ideal improvement.

“If you reduce the suffering by 1/3, but you end up doing twice as much research, there may be more animals involved,” Greely said.

According to Greely, animal research also aims to improve non-animal models, including computer simulations, in vitro work of taking cells, tissues, or organs, and growing organs to test on and match human systems. PETA proposes alternatives such as synthetic frogs and augmented reality tools.

“We have a whole team of scientists at PETA who are dedicated to bringing those other forms of experiments to life,” Dillon said.

In schools, animal use in classrooms has been changing. Instead of doing bigger dissections, like using animal organs, Shayesteh leads her AP Biology and Biology classes through smaller experiments, like those using pill bugs to study animal behavior and brine shrimp to study salinity levels.

“I think there’s been a shift in the perceived value of doing those types of dissections and trying to figure out other creative ways where you could still get the same benefit but not have to kill an animal to get that benefit,” Shayesteh said. 

Curriculums in classes will continue on the track of reducing animal use in the future, just like animal testing. 

Animal use provides a complex line between human benefits and human ethics.

“Most research doesn’t lead to life-saving drugs, but some of it does,” Greely said. “If we got rid of animal research entirely, human medicine would suffer. If we got rid of some bad animal research, human medicine wouldn’t suffer.”