Proof that animal experiments are illogical, unscientific, pointless and dangerous
The UK government has unveiled a strategy to phase out animal experiments in scientific research.
Announced on 11 November 2025 by Science Minister Lord Patrick Vallance, the plan, titled ‘Replacing animals in science: a strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods’, sets deadlines and allocates £75 million to accelerate the adoption of advanced alternatives such as such as artificial intelligence (“AI”), organ-on-a-chip systems and 3D bioprinted tissues.
The problem, Dr. Vernon Coleman says, is that the wording used to describe the plan is wishy-washy. Vallance, for example, promises to halt the use of animals in experiments “wherever possible.”
By Dr. Vernon Coleman
Back in the 1990s, I was working as a columnist for the Sunday People. The paper sold around three million copies a week and had a good deal of clout with politicians. Just before an election, I managed to persuade the Labour Party to promise to hold a Royal Commission to look into the value of animal experimentation. They won the election. But they didn’t keep the promise. There was no Royal Commission. Now, Comrade Starmer’s Government in the UK is promising to halt the use of animals in scientific experiments “where possible.” This is a wishy-washy promise which will result in nothing changing. The drug companies (which perform most experiments on animals) will claim that all such experiments are essential. They’re lying, of course. Lying is what drug company employees do best. The truth is that I proved years ago that ALL animal experiments are unscientific, illogical and pointless. Indeed, they are dangerous and are responsible for the marketing of many dangerous drugs and the deaths of thousands of patients. Animal experiments offer drug companies an enormous advantage: if an experiment shows that a drug does not harm a particular animal, then that experiment can be used to help the drug onto the market. The company will suggest that the absence of any serious problems when the drug was given to an animal shows that the drug will probably be safe when given to human patients. But, on the other hand, if an experiment shows that a drug causes serious problems when given to an animal the results will be dismissed on the grounds that animal experiments cannot be regarded as relevant to human beings because of the enormous anatomical and physiological differences between, on the one hand, human beings and on the other hand cats, dogs, monkeys, rabbits, rats, mice and other creatures. Many outside observers who do not fully comprehend the depths of dishonesty to which the drug industry will stoop find it difficult to believe that anyone could get away with such blatant double-edged trickery. In a book called `Betrayal of Trust’ I proved that this is exactly how drug companies operate. I had to publish the book myself because commercial publishers in London all thought that the book was too dangerous and would result in massive lawsuits. I first published the book in 1994. Lawyers who have studied the evidence for and against the use of animal experiments have been convinced by the argument that animal experiments are so unreliable as to be useless. Consider this quote from the Idaho Law Review:
“Animal studies have no place in the courtroom. They suffer from inherent and incurable defects that make them entirely unreliable as proof of human response to toxic substances. They fail to account for astonishing differences between animal species and humans; indeed, they fail to account for large differences in test results that occur within individual animal species. They rest on unproven assumptions that humans and animals will respond similarly to the same substances and that large doses administered under experimental conditions can be reliably translated into lower doses more commonly encountered in the real world.”
Most convincing of all, however, is the evidence from the drug companies themselves. A vast number of drugs are sold for doctors to prescribe for human patients but are known to cause cancer or other serious problems when given to animals. In my view, if anyone believed that animal experiments were of value, then none of these drugs would be on the market. In `Betrayal of Trust’ I published details of many well-known drugs which are known to cause serious or potentially serious problems in animals but which are sold for human use. It is difficult to avoid the sad but inevitable conclusion that animal experiments are used only because they are financially expedient. Animals are not just relatively cheap to use, but there are also clear commercial advantages for the world’s most successful and ruthless industry. The bizarre but inescapable conclusion is that drug companies depend on the fact that animal experiments are unreliable in order to get their new products onto the market without testing them properly. The very unreliability and unpredictably of animal experiments make them valuable.
Drug companies test on animals so that they can say that they have tested their drugs before marketing them. If the tests show that the drugs do not cause serious disorders when given to animals, the companies say: “There you are! We have tested our drug - and have proved it to be safe!” If, on the other hand, tests show that a drug does cause serious problems when given to animals, the companies say: “The animal experiments are, of course, unreliable and cannot be used to predict what will happen when the drug is given to humans. We have, however, tested our drug.” This double-edged absurdity only works because of the enormous influence which the pharmaceutical industry holds over governments and regulatory authorities. My book `Betrayal of Trust’ has been republished as a paperback. It contains details of dozens of drugs which injure or kill animals but which are sold for human use. How many thousands of patients have been killed or seriously injured by drugs which were falsely passed “safe” on the basis of animal experiments? For details of my book `The Betrayal of Trust’ please CLICK HERE.
About the Author
Vernon Coleman, MB ChB DSc, practised medicine for ten years. He has been a full-time professional author for over 30 years. He is a novelist and campaigning writer and has written many non-fiction books. He has written over 100 books, which have been translated into 22 languages. On his website, HERE, there are hundreds of articles which are free to read. Since mid-December 2024, Dr Coleman has also been publishing articles on Substack; you can subscribe to and follow him on Substack HERE.
There are no ads, no fees and no requests for donations on Dr Coleman’s website or videos. He pays for everything through book sales. If you would like to help finance his work, please consider purchasing a book – there are over 100 books by Vernon Coleman available in print on Amazon.
