Most of us have had a pet at some point in our
lives. We love them, we care for them, and we even suffer when they’re sick or
something bad happens to them. What if through helping them, we could find the
cure to some rare diseases that both, humans and animals, share?
The Royal Veterinary’s College Queen Mother
Hospital for Animals (QMHA), which is perhaps the most advanced facility of its
kind in the world, treats up to 8,000 ‘patients’ per year from a wide variety
of conditions. It’s no secret the procedures that take place in this hospital
are too expensive for the average middle-class family, with some bills raising
up to £3,000 or even twice as much, but apart from that
fact, there’s a big reason why this is being considered by many specialists as
an opportunity to study some diseases that are not that frequent on humans, but
tend to happen more on animals, like some specific kinds of cancer, diabetes,
or other conditions that humans and animals share due to similarities in their
gene profiles.
Even though researchers have invested huge
amounts of money on recreating these diseases on mice, and that has helped in
some ways, it’s not as effective as studying the same disease taking place in a
dog or a cat, as they respond to it in a much more similar way to what a human
would react to it, that´s why this process looks promising, especially in the
regenerative medicine –tissue and cell transplantation.
Some people may consider this as another example
of animal testing, and it is in a way, but with the slight difference that
there’s also a benefit for the “patient” and this only takes place with pets
that are already suffering from a condition.
So, if there’s a chance to come up with a cure or
a therapy for humans while helping sick animals to live for a couple of years,
why shouldn’t we do it?
I’m very interested in reading your replies, so
make sure you leave them on the comment section below.
And also, here's the link to the full article in case you want to read it.
I think that if they can do research while helping the animals, then it is ok to do it. But I tend to doubt the intentions of these researchers, maybe they will let them die just so they can study on them? Maybe...
ReplyDeleteI disagree with you because this is a hospital for animals, perhaps the only of its kind in the world, and they take care of thousands of patients a year, so it's not like their only purpose is to run research on animals, that's just something they're working on because it might be beneficial for humans, but there are no risks for the animals.
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