• Number of additional years humans now live thanks to animal research: 23
• Number of illnesses animals and humans share in common: 200+
• Over 97% of the animals used by humans are used in the food chain. Fewer than 0.3% of the animals used by humans are used for biomedical research, teaching and testing.
• Currently, over 94% of the animals used in research are fish, rodents and birds. These animals breed rapidly and are inexpensive to feed and house. Scientists also know a lot about these animals... in some cases more than they know about humans! Only 1 to 1.5% of animals used in medical research are dogs or cats, and fewer than 0.5% are primates.
• There are very few animals used for cosmetic testing. Animals are only used in cosmetic testing when a new ingredient is developed. Many companies advertise that their product has never been tested on animals. This is misleading - all the ingredients in their products have been tested on animals at some time, and found to be safe. These companies did not necessarily do the testing themselves.
• Many diseases have been eliminated or controlled because of animal research. Animals are a very important part of vaccine development and testing. Without animal research, diseases like smallpox could not have been wiped out, and polio, whooping cough, tetanus, and measles would be much more common. Before the development of vaccines for these diseases, many babies died before even reaching their first birthday.
• Vaccine development is one of the great successes of animal research. Because of animal research, only 1 in 10,000,000 vaccinations fail. In Canada and most other countries, the law requires that every batch of vaccines be tested for safety and efficacy.
• Animals such as dogs, cats and primates are used only for special or compelling reasons. Research with these animals is much more costly than research using fish or rodents.
• Stringent regulations govern lab animal care. In addition to humane considerations. scientists must care for their animals properly, or they may compromise their research findings.
• Over 135 million people in the world suffer from diabetes. Half of these people would die an agonizing death if it were not for insulin. With insulin these people lead relatively normal lives. Insulin also benefits many dogs which suffer from diabetes.
• Computerized testing is an "adjunct" to animal testing. Computerized testing is not as effective or reliable as animal-based research because we do not know enough to predict how a new drug or chemical will work in our bodies. Good data must be available to feed into a computer.

Health Problems Shared by Humans and Animals:

The Battle Against Disease:

(Canadian Statistics)

• More than 5 million Canadians are affected by disorders of the brain and nervous system, including:
  • mild to severe dementia (11% of people over 65)
  • Alzheimer's Disease (300,000)
  • AIDS-related dementia
  • Lou Gehrig Disease
  • Stroke Complications
  • Speech and hearing problems
  • Schizophrenia (150,000)
  • Epilepsy
  • Migraines
  • Spinal Cord Injuries
• Cardiovascular disease is the nation's leading cause of death. Nearly 3 million Canadians have some form of heart and/or blood vessel disease, and 2 million have high blood pressure.
• Cancer is the second leading cause of death.
• 1.8 million have some form of diabetes. This disease is potentially deadly.
• 50,000  have Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
• 1 in 7 suffer from arthritis, and 1.75 million have osteoarthritis.
• Asthma affects almost 2 million Canadians. In some cases the disease can kill.
• Osteoporosis affects one quarter of women over 50 - close to 2 million people.
• Cystic Fibrosis -- the most common genetic disease -- occurs 1 time per 2000 births. It is the second biggest killer of the young, after cancer.
• Clinical, or "Major" depression affects (or will affect) more than 3 million Canadians at some point in their life.
• Influenza and its complications result in over 3000 deaths (and costs Canada $500 MILLION in lost revenue) each year.
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is the leading cause of death for infants between the age of 28 days and 12 months.