"Rat Trap": Why Animal Models of Human Disease Must Be Replaced
Dr. Pandora Pound's new book "blows the lid off decades of dogma."
Many people, including researchers, recognize that animal models of human
disease don't work as well as their colleagues and others claim that they
do.
I recently learned of an outstanding book by Pandora Pound called Rat Trap:
The Capture of Medicine By Animal Research - and How To Break Free that,
it's claimed, "blows the lid off decades of dogma." As it aptly states on
the back cover, "With logic and clarity, Dr. Pandora Pound comprehensively
dismantles the case for animal research, ending the 150-year-old debate
about its value once and for all. Without discussing any distressing details
she reveals the shockingly poor science upon which most animal studies are
based and hence their ultimate futility." I agree, and here's what Pandora
had to say about her landmark book.
Marc Bekoff: Why did you write Rat Trap?
Pandora Pound: A lot of evidence has accumulated in the scientific
literature over the last decade or so and I wanted to bring that evidence
out of the pages of journals and make it available to the public. This
evidence points to the human suffering that results from animal research.
Humans suffer because animal research is unable to reliably ensure the
safety of new medicines and because it’s unable to generate safe and
effective treatments for even our most common diseases. Despite decades of
animal research, we still have no effective drugs for stroke, Alzheimer’s,
or the majority of cancers; these are not rare diseases—they touch most
families in some way and they kill and disable millions of people globally.
And although new drugs are tested on animals prior to human trials, these
drugs can behave in unexpected ways when they are first taken by humans;
even licensed drugs regularly have to be withdrawn because they prove to be
unsafe and sometimes fatal once they are used in the general population.
But I also wanted to be the bearer of good news, so Rat Trap showcases the
awe-inspiring new technologies now available such as ‘organs-on-chips’.
These technologies are directly relevant to humans because they are based on
human biology. It’s not surprising then, that evidence is beginning to
suggest that they outperform animal tests in their ability to detect drug
toxicities.
MB: How does your book relate to your background and general areas of
interest?
PP: My background is in the social sciences and I spent many years working
as a researcher within medical schools, usually in departments of public
health. Back in the early aughts, I became interested in claims that were
being made about the value of animal research, namely that it was
responsible for virtually every medical breakthrough, that it was
indispensable to medical progress, and so on. Claims like these were being
made routinely, but without any robust supporting evidence, so I began to
explore the evidence base for animal research.
My first paper on the topic, written alongside four professors of
epidemiology, argued that we need to apply systematic review methodology—a
robust and transparent way of producing high-quality evidence—to the field
of animal research. In 2004, we found that although thousands of these
reviews were being conducted in clinical research, only 25 such reviews had
been conducted of animal studies. These revealed that the animal studies
were of such poor quality that the findings were useless, meaning that the
animals and all the research resources were completely wasted.1
Unfortunately, animal research continues to needlessly squander scarce
resources and in Rat Trap I bring readers up to date with the latest
evidence about its limitations and its inability to translate to humans.
MB: Who is your intended audience?
PP: The general public. The futility and limitations of animal research are
an open secret within much of the scientific literature, but there are still
many people in the general population who believe animal research to be a
‘necessary evil’ and who don’t yet know about the potential of approaches
based on human biology. I tried to write Rat Trap in a clear, jargon-free
way so that it would be accessible to non-scientific readers.
MB: What are some of the topics you weave into your book and what are some
of your major messages?
PP: I draw on new scientific evidence that has become available over the
last decade or so, showing that animal research doesn’t translate to humans
in a reliable way. This lack of reliability is due to species differences:
even very small differences between animals and humans can lead to
significant changes in outcomes, which is obviously an issue in drug
development. It means that we can go down lots of blind alleys when we try
to apply findings from animals to humans.
Animal research is sometimes associated with medical advances, but it’s hit
and miss and we can do better than hit and miss. For this reason, the book
argues that we need to transition away from animal research and instead use
approaches that are firmly based in human biology. To develop treatments for
humans we need to study humans. Human-relevant approaches have developed in
leaps and bounds over the last couple of decades and they make medical
research much more reliable because they cut out the ‘middle mouse’. It
makes no sense to investigate diseases in animals and then try to apply the
findings to humans. It is much more sensible to study humans directly. And
we now have so many ways of studying humans non-invasively—ways that are
more reliable, more precise and more ethical.
MB: How does your book differ from others that are concerned with some of
the same general topics?
PP: Many books about animal research are about the suffering of animals.
This is certainly a legitimate area of concern, but I wanted to show that
humans also suffer as a result of animal research. Rat Trap is firmly based
on scientific evidence, but it also draws on contributions from experts in
the field and my own experiences. It is written for the lay reader and
incorporates the latest evidence on the limitations of animal research, as
well as outlining the potential of new technologies and describing the
barriers to change.
MB: Are you hopeful that as people learn more about the failures of animal
models of disease they will call for more effective and humane non-animal
alternatives?
PP: That is my fervent hope. I hope Rat Trap can play a part in changing
people’s minds about animal research. Things are changing and there are many
optimistic and positive developments, but at the same time, there are
organisations and individuals trying to resist change. So we all need to put
pressure on governments to take a lead in supporting a transition away from
animal research and towards scientifically valid, relevant, human
biology-based research.
xx
Return to Book Recommendations
Read more at Book Directory