When you picture a dog, is s/he bouncing along after a ball, greeting a guardian at the front door or some other picture of health and happiness? In 2006, about 5,000 dogs were used in laboratory experiments in the UK alone. These dogs are no different than the ones who live in our own homes, yet the vast majority of them will spend all of their short lives confined indoors and used in drug and pesticide tests, and heart research.

As you’ve seen throughout the week, we don’t need to use animals in testing at all. Alternative, humane techniques provide relevant data about what will happen in humans, and these techniques are far more accurate than animal tests. Examples of animal-free methods include computer models that assess how a drug might work by looking at its chemical structure, cultures of human cells and tissues, and sophisticated scanning techniques that show how organs like the brain actually work in living human beings. These animal-free methods provide accurate, relevant information that we couldn’t get from animal tests. Exciting new techniques like toxicogenomics can assess the effects of chemicals on human genes in a matter of hours. Animal experiments are a throwback to Victorian times, and we should be doing a much better job today. Don’t support charities that conduct or fund animal experiments. Put your money to better use and only donate to charities that have a heart for animals as well as humans.

As World Week for Animals in Labs draws to a close, I’m a little ashamed to say I have a bias towards today’s animal – the monkey. When I look at their faces, all I see is a small human being; so full of character and emotion. Monkeys are intelligent, sociable and have complex needs but in 2006 more than 3,000 monkeys were used in experiments in Britain.

More than 10,000 are used across the European Union each year. Imprisoning these animals in labs causes them to suffer even before any experiments are conducted. Experiments conducted on monkeys include deliberately brain-damaging them, infecting them with diseases and testing vaccines on them, which can cause severe pain and paralysis.

Monkeys are genetically close to humans, but the Northwick Park “elephant man” drug trial showed how important the differences between us can be. The “elephant man” drug was tested on rats and monkeys, but only in humans did it prove to be deadly. Many other animal tests produce results that just don’t apply to humans. In just a few examples, saccharin causes tumours in rats but not humans, aspirin causes birth defects in dogs but not humans, and monkeys infected with HIV don’t develop AIDS.

The European Union is due to introduce a new law within the next few months to regulate animal experiments. PETA will be pressing British and European politicians for the strongest animal protection measures possible – including a ban on all tests on monkeys. to the growing list of people who have written to support a ban on primate tests and the introduction of the toughest possible rules under the new law.

It’s day three of PETA’s World Week for Lab Animals and we are dedicating today to the rat. Rats are intelligent, resourceful and sociable animals. Research has shown that they even ‘laugh’ while playing, yet they are abused in laboratory experiments all over the world – hundreds of thousands of rats are used in experiments every year in Britain. In psychology tests, rats are addicted to drugs like cocaine or alcohol, or are subjected to electric shocks. In pain research, pain is deliberately inflicted without any anaesthetics or painkillers.

Rats are also used in deadly poisoning tests, like the notorious LD50, in which they’re forced to inhale increasing doses of toxic substances until half of them are dead. What angers me, is that some of these tests are for the ingredients of everyday products like shampoo or washing powder – products that are already plentiful and perfectly safe. Although cosmetics tests are now banned in the UK (and many in Europe), companies can still test their products on animals in other countries and sell them here. Which, by the way, happens a lot.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. There are loads of companies that are animal-friendly, so you can still clean your house and beautify yourself without contributing to the cruelty.

Rat image: Current / CC

Welcome to day two of WWAL, today being dedicated to the mouse. The humble mouse is the most commonly used animal in vivisection; given diseases like cancer, poisoned to death, genetically manipulated and given brain damage. Studies show that even “routine” procedures like weighing or cleaning cages cause stress to mice in laboratories – meaning they suffer mentally as well as physically. Which is, of course, twice as bad.

Despite this immense toll of suffering – and the fact that all drugs are tested extensively on animals before being tested on humans – roughly 90 per cent of drugs which pass animal trials either don’t work or are unsafe for humans and never make it onto the market. This wastes billions of pounds and years of research effort. According to a leading AIDS researcher, we are no closer to a vaccine for AIDS today than we were 25 years ago – despite the fact that around 30 AIDS vaccines had promising results in animals.

Today kicks off World Week for Animals in Labs and the start of daily Fish & Chimps entries on how to make this week a success for animals languishing in labs around the world. Today’s animal is….. the rabbit!

Thirteen thousand rabbits were used in experiments in the UK in 2006. Among other things, they’re used for the notorious Draize eye-irritation test, in which chemicals are applied directly into their eyes. They’re also used routinely in skin-irritation tests – even though one recent study found they were worse than non-animal alternatives at predicting what would happen to humans – and in basic research for diseases like arthritis.

It’s a hypocrisy that we’d never even think about conducting such tests on humans these days – clamping them in stocks, blinding them and killing them afterwards – the exception of course being willing volunteers and certainly not for these kinds of experiments. So what’s one to do? Well, you can pledge to never buy products which have been tested on animals. Yep, if you have just two minutes to spare today, it’s that simple. Oh and check out what companies are ok to buy from and what ones to avoid.

Image: Another Today / CC

Next week is World Week for Animals in Labs. This is a very important time of the year – a time to get active for the tens of thousands of animals across the world that are suffering in laboratories right now. These animals may be experimented upon for medical research, cosmetics, household products, food and beverages and more.

From Monday through Friday, I will be blogging daily on what you can do to help these animals. Each day will be devoted to a particular animal, and you can learn a bit more about what happens to them, and what action you can take. Check back every day and take part in PETA’s WWAL, go on, you know you want to…