Animal testing is yet another area in which humans exploit and abuse animals for profit. The long history of cruelty, torture, prolonged imprisonment, and needless suffering imposed on animals in laboratories is well documented.

Around 50 to 100 million vertebrate animals a year are used worldwide in animal testing. They are either killed during experiments or euthanized. Many millions of animals are bred for experiments but destroyed as surplus.

All kinds of animals that suffer from being caught up in this massive industry are rodents of all kinds, such as mice, rats, gerbils, hamsters, and guinea pigs, and other animals, such as pigs, dogs, monkeys, rabbits, cats, horses, cows, sheep, fish, amphibians, and reptiles, and not forgetting birds and insects--you name it!

Experiments resembling acts of sadism are inflicted on animals: they are subjected to painful and lethal diseases; deprived, isolated, starved, burned, blinded, poisoned, irradiated; they are used to test chemicals like cleaning products.

In many experiments pain or distress are prevented through anesthesia; however, many others are performed where pain or distress are not relieved. Often anesthesia is not used because it is regarded as interfering with results. Thousands of other experiments are designed to deliberately inflict mental stress.

More enlightened countries around the world have finally implemented checks and controls against the excesses of the animal experimentation industry.

A number of countries in the EU already have very strong animal rights laws, and they prohibit experimentation on animals to produce such things as cosmetics. However, many countries are still backward in their ethical considerations and positions on animal test, and among those backward and unenlightened nations is Korea.

One problematic outcome with better laws in the EU and elsewhere is that animal testing and research is being shifted to Asia, where animal protection ranges anywhere from weak to nonexistent. In general, Korean laws for the protection of animals are largely inadequate and ineffectual. Scientific ethics in Korea are virtually non-existent. Animal researchers can basically get away with whatever they like.

The Korean government does not require that an animal ethics committee of any kind be involved to prevent cruelty to laboratory animals. In addition, researchers, involved in animal testing are not required to receive any education regarding the humane care of laboratory animals. And no punishment clauses exist in legislation for cruelty violations in relation to animal testing.

We've already seen how ethics in science took a backseat to nationalism and profits during the scandal involving Dr. Hwang Woo-Suk. That showed the lack of transparency and accountability of research processes in Korea, even at the country's most prestigious university.

When the scandal broke, protests were held daily in support of Hwang, at the front gate of Seoul National University. People refused to believe this man could do any wrong. One person apparently committed suicide in protest. That gives an idea of the kind of feeling and support there was for Dr. Hwang. Any attack on him was an attack on Korea. No one would give a thought to animal rights issues surrounding cloning and animal testing.

Now, the disgraced Dr. Hwang is doing pet-cloning work for a commercial enterprise. The science of cloning was arrived at after countless animals suffered and died. No doubt many more will suffer and die--all the mistakes or "defective" off-spring. Cloning is just another means to turn an animal into a commodity. Just when you would have thought all avenues of exploiting animals for cash had already been explored, another one like pet cloning is invented.

We cannot expect in the current climate to see animal research ethics in Korea keeping up with international ethical standards. An animal ethics committee has been proposed, but whether this changes anything remains to be seen. In practice right now, Korea is a lawless world when it comes to animal experiment. It is even looked upon as an animal experiment paradise precisely because of this reputation.

To KARA, animal testing represents a world of despair for animals, as the image above shows. Animal testing is the abuse of power by humans. It is a world without hope where animals live in unnatural environments and are treated as no more than objects in a cold and clinical process.

KARA will continue to fight against animal testing on both ethical and scientific grounds. It is not ethical to deliberately put another sentient creature through deprivation, suffering and pain, and it is bad science to experiment on animals where alternatives are available and where differences in species mean that results are unreliable in relation to human biology.

KARA asks everyone to boycott products from companies involved in animal testing.