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My name is Diana Pullen & I am a registered Nurse working currently in the field of H.I.V. The drugs used to stop the replication of this virus, as with many other drugs, are extremely toxic and there are many sometimes severe and lasting side-effects.

These drugs have all been tested on animals and are then allegedly ‘proved’ safe enough to use on humans.

Vivisection or experimenting on live animals has been used ‘historically’ for centuries yet serious illnesses are still on the increase. I still believe firmly, after 35 years in nursing, that animal experiments are inaccurate, misleading, dangerous and quite unscientific.

Even some vivisectors have admitted that only theory is learned from using animal models and that accurate and reliable data cannot be extrapolated from other animals to humans. Most serious diseases suffered by humans would not be seen in other species, and so are artificially induced in the laboratory setting.

Therefore, how can an artificially-induced disease in these different species replicate the nature of the real disease in humans? There are now many more reliable and scientifically accurate methods of research such as Clinical Observation and Research/Human Studies, Epidemiology, In Vitro Research with Human Tissue and Cell Cultures, Computer Graphics and Molecular Modelling, Genetics, Pathology, Imaging Techniques, and by no means least Prevention, all of which can prove to be cheaper, safer, faster and more consistent and relevant to man. These other methods, together with addressing much more fundamental issues such as reducing environmental pollution, changes in diet and lifestyle, would make a dramatic improvement for us all and our future generations.

I believe that animal experiments are not used for the genuine long-term benefit of mankind but more for competition with one’s contemporaries in science, and also to hasten the processing of academic papers and to exempt pharmaceutical companies from liability when their drugs harm or sometimes even kill people.
I would like to see public debate between vivisectors, scientists and researchers from all establishments from all establishments, open policies on Scientific/Medical Research/Procedures where we can all readily access information and finally I would like to be provided with a list of major medical achievements/breakthroughs for humankind that can be directly attributed to animal experimentation. Sadly it seems that illness has found a permanent place in our societies and has become ‘big business’. We have so much knowledge and yet so little wisdom.

The following quote from Aids campaigner and activist and co-founder of Gay Rights group ‘Outrage’ Peter Tatchell seems totally appropriate. “We all want a cure and a vaccine for HIV as soon as possible. But it cannot be right to seek a remedy for HIV through the deliberate infliction of suffering on other sentient species in the laboratory, especially when there are other cruelty-free methods and when research findings with other species cannot be generalised to human beings because of vastly different physiology …all sentient animals – human and non-human – have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, irrespective of their species, race, sex, class, disability or sexual orientation.”

Diana Pullen, Registered Nurse for 35 years