History Main / AnimalTesting

* ''Film/{{IQ}}'': Catherine Boyd's [[DisposableFiance arrogant fiance]], James Moreland, is a psychology professor who conducts behavioural experiments on lab animals.

* ''Film/IQ'': Catherine Boyd's [[DisposableFiance arrogant fiance]], James Moreland, is a psychology professor who conducts behavioural experiments on lab animals.

* ''Film/{{I.Q.}}'': Catherine Boyd's [[DisposableFiance arrogant fiance]], James Moreland, is a psychology professor who conducts behavioural experiments on lab animals.

* ''Film/I.Q.'': Catherine Boyd's [[DisposableFiance arrogant fiance]], James Moreland, is a psychology professor who conducts behavioural experiments on lab animals.

* ''Film/I.Q.1994'': Catherine Boyd's [[DisposableFiance arrogant fiance]], James Moreland, is a psychology professor who conducts behavioural experiments on lab animals.

* ''Film/{{IQ}}'': Catherine Boyd's [[DisposableFiance arrogant fiance]], James Moreland, is a psychology professor who conducts behavioural experiments on lab animals.

* ''{{Film/I.Q.}}'': Catherine Boyd's [[DisposableFiance arrogant fiance]], James Moreland, is a psychology professor who conducts behavioural experiments on lab animals.

* ''Film/I.Q.'': Catherine Boyd's [[DisposableFiance arrogant fiance]], James Moreland, is a psychology professor who conducts behavioural experiments on lab animals.

* ''Film/{{I.Q.}}'': Catherine Boyd's [[DisposableFiance arrogant fiance]], James Moreland, is a psychology professor who conducts behavioural experiments on lab animals.

* William Kotzwinkle's novel ''Literature/DoctorRat'' comes off as decidedly anti-experimentation, describing in gruesome detail a variety of procedures, many of them done ForTheEvulz. The eponymous character, a lab rat, is wholly in favor of animal testing -- but he's described as having been driven insane by the experiments to which he's been subjected and is viewed as a traitor by the other denizens of the lab.

* '''You will probably NOT see:''' the gorier of the procedures; dead animals; cosmetic testing; very much of the animal subjects themselves (unless the scene is set up to show the scientist caring for them), far less their viewpoint; cats, dogs and [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute other cute animals]] that are kept as pets or that people [[EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys tend to have an affinity for]]; an animal rights activist with any semblance of sanity.

* ''ComicBook/{{Bulleteer}}'': Lance tested his Smartskin on a mouse before he tried it for himself. The mouse survived and went on to become Alix's pet Mickey while Lance suffocated to death.

Children's shows, or those with a [[{{Anvilicious}} heavy handed]] or [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped justified]] animal rights/welfare message to get across, use a different tactic.

Animal testing is [[BanOnPolitics one of those sticky subjects that should never be brought up at dinner parties]] - unless [[{{Troll}} you really like watching your guests squirm]] or [[FlameBait devolve into rage-induced table flipping monsters]]. Some wholeheartedly support all animal testing as life saving progress, others wholeheartedly denounce it as cruel and barbaric. Still more are wildly uncomfortable with the practice itself but are forced to acknowledge that if it wasn't for (some) animal testing, many of the people we love would not be alive today making for one heck of a moral quandary.

The media, however, favor the BlackAndWhiteMorality, so don't expect to see too many shades of grey (it's worth mentioning that they do exist however - see the third group of examples).

The actual term can cover a number of things, which raise different dilemmas... and different levels of controversy. Behavioral experiments, like that of rats in mazes or [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlov%27s_dogs Pavlov's dog]] don't tend to raise too many hackles unless physical or psychological trauma is involved (i.e. raising a baby animal in total isolation to see how its development is affected). Cutting animals open while still alive (vivisection) usually turns up in FreeTheFrogs plots and sci-fi/horror films, usually involving a degree of moral dilemma. Medical testing (using animals to test new drugs and procedures in order to benefit human patients) is probably the most contested minefield, with both staunch supporters and equally determined detractors. Cosmetic testing (using animals to test lipstick, shampoo, mascara etc.) rarely turns up in the media, unless the scientist is a villain in an animal-centric show. If it does show up, it is almost always exaggerated and even sometimes PlayedForLaughs, especially since using animals for cosmetics testing is falling out of favor--cultured human cell lines are turning out to be much more useful and better for PR.

The portrayal of animal testing in fiction strongly depends on a number of factors: HumansAreTheRealMonsters vs. HumansAreSpecial, Science Is Good vs. ScienceIsBad, and the show's place in the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism.

Some children's shows use scientists as insane or even as the BigBad to show how evil animal testing is. The scientists will be either totally unconcerned about the animals' welfare or [[CruellaToAnimals actively revel]] in tormenting their test subjects. However, those aimed at a more "grown-up" audience realise that this isn't exactly credible. Instead, they will show the world of vivisection through the animals' eyes - they don't know what's going on, they don't think "oh well, at least the humans will get some good out of this" - all they know is that they're in pain.

* '''You will probably NOT see''': the people whose lives have been saved via medical research; their families; the actual point of the procedures themselves; the ordinary lives of the scientists; the animals being looked after in any way; proposals for a viable alternative ([[ThoseWackyNazis some]] tried [[TestedOnHumans less acceptable ones]].)

It's pretty obvious that even in fiction, there are no easy answers. For a start, whichever side of the debate that the show/book/comic falls in, it will probably caricature the other side - either scientists are evil animal killers who will do anything ForScience, or anyone who has anything to do with animal rights is a misinformed and fanatical vigilante or a ANaziByAnyOtherName. It would be extremely unusual for a scientist and an animal rights person to sit down and have a civil conversation about their differing points of view (for a start, it makes for [[RuleOfDrama pretty bad drama]].)

* Many police procedurals/whodunnits will feature a respectable lab at the mercy of a crazy AnimalWrongsGroup. Strangely enough, they never seem to be the ones who actually commit the murder, although they're usually portrayed as fanatical enough to kill a scientist. There are some aversions, however - the ''Literature/DalzielAndPascoe'' episode "Project Aphrodite" apparently concluded that [[GoldenMeanFallacy EVERYONE involved in the debate was nuts.]]
* Documentaries... well sort of. No matter how much they try to present a balanced argument, most end up on the "Animal Rights people are nuts/ Science is Good" side of the argument through the use of interview and commentary.

* ''Videogame/TraumaCenter: New Blood''. Marcus inadvertently unleashed Stigma via vivisection, but vivisection itself seem to be largely considered something that medical researchers just have to do - the ends justify the means (he talks about "disposing of the subject", not "killing the rat.") Some room for disagreement here, of course.

* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', Chapter 29, "A Bad Start": Kat Donlan, who had lost all trust in the Court over some of its dirty secrets, actually regains some of that trust by visiting an animal testing lab where her friend Paz works. Initially, Kat is horrified to realize that the mice there are not pets, but test animals. Paz explains that many of the tests performed are non-invasive, and that there are strict regulations on all animal experiments--and Paz (an animal lover herself) makes damn sure that the lab complies with these regulations. She does admit that the situation isn't perfect, but she's working to make the animal's lives as comfortable as possible, while hoping for the day when animal testing will no longer be necessary.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Centurions}}'', part of the BackStory of [[TeamPet Lucy the orangutan]] is that she was a test subject for the Exo-Frames.

* ''ComicBook/{{We3}}'' is pretty unambiguously anti animal testing, and the covers implicitly support the "family pets stolen and sold to testing labs" allegations alluded to below.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNimh'': The animation in the laboratory, and the effects of the concoction given to the rats and mice, are pretty nightmarish. Notably, the injections to which the animals are subjected are of a ''much'' larger volume than could ever be given to such rodents without killing them in RealLife, suggesting that the lab-flashbacks are subjective memory, not objective fact. Weirdly enough, everything good about the rats is owed to these experiments.
* ''WesternAnimation/FernGullyTheLastRainforest'' doesn't just pack in enviromental issues - it shoves in the anti-animal-testing ones too, with the brutally-treated Batty Koda entering the "Batty Rap" which actually had some of the gorier imagery cut from it. Examples used in the song were mostly cosmetic, but the plot-affecting device was the radio antennae implanted in his head which sent him insane.

* On that note... quite a few animal care books will warn you against thieves who kidnap pets in order to sell them to laboratories. Given that even people who support animal testing in principle would baulk at the idea of that happening to Tiddles or Fido... ParanoiaFuel, anyone? It is difficult to get a fix on the reality of this situation - pet care manuals and sites, and certainly the Animal Rights supporters, will definitely warn you against it; scientific sources will maintain it's an urban myth. What ''is'' true is that ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laboratory_animal_sources animal shelters]]'' in certain US states are ''obliged'' to hand over animals to any "Class B" dealer (selling to laboratories) who asks for them. Happens sometimes in the present, and happened often in the past, but not entirely realistic--the vast majority of lab animals are bred in the labs, so that their genetics and upbringing are fully known. Using animals with unknown histories is a great way to mess up your research.

* William Kotzwinkle's novel ''Literature/DoctorRat'' comes off as decidedly anti-experimentation, describing in gruesome detail a variety of procedures, many of them done ForTheEvulz. The eponymous character, a lab rat, is wholly in favor of animal testing - but he's described as having been driven insane by the experiments to which he's been subjected and is viewed as a traitor by the other denizens of the lab.

* ''VideoGame/{{Oddworld}}''. In Munch's oddysee, test creatures (called "fuzzles") are experimented on by evil scientists ("Vykkers"), who are one of your antagonists.

* ''VideoGame/LostInVivo'' has an entire level based around the horrors of animal testing. The experiments done in Nezumi Labs have no reasonable motive, producing horrific, impossible, morbidly fascinating but ultimately useless scientific “breakthroughs”. It gets so bad that [[spoiler: the combined pain eventually gives birth to the EldritchAbomination Sotiris]]

* Played with in this [[http://icanhascheezburger.com/2011/04/05/funny-pictures-stop-animal-testing/ Lolcats]] page.

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** When Chris expresses dismay that a monkey has to die in order to give a dictator a new heart, T-chan and D merely remind him of the law of the jungle -- something has to die so that something else can live. When the donor monkey is kidnapped, D takes no steps to save it. At the end of the story [[spoiler:the monkey is used as a heart donor, but instead of going to the dictator, it goes to a cute little girl -- the daughter of the man who stole the monkey.]]. While a generally upbeat ending, the writer includes DramaticIrony that makes it quite painful when the little girl waves bye-bye to "Mister Monkey", telling him to come play with her again.

* ''{{ComicBook/Bulleteer}}'': Lance tested his Smartskin on a mouse before he tried it for himself. The mouse survived and went on to become Alix's pet Mickey while Lance suffocated to death.

** In ''Film/RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes'', the scientist uses the results of his research to help his dementia-addled father, but the drug company he works for is really only in it [[MoneyDearBoy for the money]] to start off with, and Caesar's heightened intelligence does little more than alienate him from both apes and humans [[spoiler:until he infects the other apes with the virus]].

* ''Literature/MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH'' - the book that ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH'' above is based on - is more neutral. It's still the rats' point of view, but the experiment is depicted more like a real one would be, even citing--of all things for a kids' book featuring cute critters--a ''control group''.

* ''[[Literature/CHERUBSeries Man vs Beast]]'' is ambiguous in this. On the one hand, the scientists are using animals for testing, in various ways and for several reasons. On the other hand, the animal rights group that oppose do things like attacking a mother, and her teenage son who tries to defend her, napalming a courier company, and kidnapping a celebrity with the intention of torturing him live on the internet.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Part of Mr. Boynton's job as a Biology Teacher is to experiment on animals. ForScience, of course. Miss Brooks seems slightly squeamish about the whole thing. It's PlayedForLaughs, if anything. One episode, "New Girl In Town", has Miss Brooks assist Mr. Boynton bury mice killed for the cause in the school athletic field. Harriet Conklin, jealous of and attempting to scare off said new girl, implies to the girl's mother that Mr. Boynton and Miss Brooks are burying ''human'' victims.

* In an episode of the sketch comedy show ''TV Funhouse,'' the puppets endure scientific experiments for cash. Later, they're attacked by fundamentalist suicide-bombing puppets against the idea of animal research.
* In an episode of ''Series/QuantumLeap'' Sam leaps into a chimpanzee test subject. He's in the space program, trying to flip switches while being jerked around by simulations of gravity. Which, it seems, is just fine - his experimentor likes and takes care of him. But then he's transferred to crash helmet testing, where they're going to strap a crash helmet on him and bash his head with what is essentially a high-tech industrial strength baseball bat. AndThatsTerrible.
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' mostly plays animals testing for laughs or as just simply something the resident neurobiologist does as part of her job. She was once a little too happy about picking out "the Beady eyed little mother" whom she was going to feed some mad cow samples to and got a monkey addicted to nicotine. However it's worth noting she treats that monkey like a pet, going so far as to take him home from the lab and let him watch tv in her apartment and her work is in studying addiction and diseases for the greater good.
* In ''Series/{{Helix}}'', which centers around a CDC rapid response team dispatched to ResearchInc to contain an outbreak of TheVirus, animal testing is treated as expected and practical, to the point where veterinary pathologist Doreen becomes suspicious that Arctic Biosystems staff claim ''not'' to use monkeys, which would be necessary given their research. The CDC researchers themselves must use lab rats to test pathogens. Yet, after the missing monkeys are discovered, an Arctic Biosystems researcher refers to their infection with SyntheticPlague as "an abomination," while Doreen herself points out expressions of fear on their frozen corpses, to show that, compared to her and her fellow CDC {{Science Hero}}es, the {{Morally Ambiguous Doctorate}}s have gone too far.
* ''{{Series/Probe}}'''s "[[Recap/ProbeMetamorphicAnthropoidicPrototypeOverYou Metamorphic Anthropoidic Prototype Over You]]": Dr Deanna Hardwick has been testing a new method of increasing intelligence on an orangutan. The result is a [[SuperIntelligence highly intelligent]] ape that sends Austin into a fury as he realizes just how badly Josephine had been abused to advance Dr Hardwick's position in the scientific community.
* Touched on in an episode of ''Series/{{Castle}},'' wherein a cosmetic company executive is found dead with "Murderer" (well, "Murderc") written on his mirror. His assistant points the team to an animal right's group who's been protesting the company after the discovery that one of their affiliates used animal testing, though she does point out that the company itself has never used animal testing and cut its ties with the "guilty" organization upon discovery. The animal right's group is quickly eliminated as suspects and never appears onscreen, and no judgement is passed either way on the animal testing; it's simply identified as controversial.
** That said, it ''is'' a factor in the murder: [[spoiler:The negative publicity that came with the animal testing revelation led to a hit in the company's stock. When another product was found to be controversial, some of the company's employees decided to murder the exec rather than let him go public with a new scandal, which they feared would tank the company.]]

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': In "New Girl In Town", Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton mention with sympathy several mice that have died in biology lab experiments. Mr. Boynton and Miss Brooks bury them at the side of the football field. Harriet Conklin uses this information to help scare off the titular new girl and her mother, by misrepresenting the mice as old girlfriends of Mr. Boynton.

* In Noah Smith's stage version of ''Theatre/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde'', Jekyll tested the early versions of his formula on rabbits before he achieved a formulation promising enough to try himself. It's only mentioned as a passing detail, and there isn't any judging of animal testing per se; there's a description of "dead and deformed rabbits", but less as an argument against testing the formula on animals than as a suggestion that Jekyll is unwise to be trying to create the formula at all.

* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' shows that the Fireflies were performing tests at one point on the ''cordyceps'' with monkeys. Since the ''cordyceps'' only affects humans, not animals, though, the monkeys themselves are no worse for the wear afterward. The protagonists find them wandering around the abandoned labs, but don't comment on the testing one way or the other.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' and ''VideoGame/Portal2'' animal testing is mentioned a little bit and is implied to happen at the end of the multiplayer campaign in the sequel. The only stance on animal testing that game takes, however, is that it is less fun and scientifically productive than human testing.

* ''VideoGame/NoOneHasToDie'': Fenix Corp bought over 7 million cockatiels, with almost all of them ending up going missing in an experiment [[spoiler:to test if people can survive time travel.]] Christina mentions that it's an animal rights issue.

* ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' are themselves a product of testing and research, and act with levels of freedom ranging from 'escaping every night' to 'practically running the labs'. Despite being the reason for their enhanced intelligence, any time actual experiments are shown on-screen or the focus of the plot, they're consistently portrayed as hellish for the mice. The two also end up encountering an AnimalWrongsGroup and vainly try to tell them that they're genuine lab mice--as in not able to survive in the wilderness.

* Professor Farnsworth of ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' is not above the using occasional animal test subject. In one episode, he creates a hat that turns a monkey into a super-genius, which of course causes the monkey to be miserable [[spoiler:until the hat is damaged, leaving him with just average human intelligence]].

* ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' are themselves a product of testing and research, and act with levels of freedom ranging from 'escaping every night' to 'practically running the labs'. AnimalTesting here is more of the back story; it can become a rare plot device, an artifact of the backstory, or what they're doing in the story itself. They also end up encountering an AnimalWrongsGroup and vainly try to tell them that they're genuine lab mice--as in not able to survive in the wilderness.
** Notably, at least one of the animals to have had their intelligence increased (a cat) expresses bitterness at having her old life taken away. Pinky, the Brain and Snowball, however, seem fine with it.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' and ''VideoGame/Portal2'' animal testing is mentioned a little bit and is implied to happen at the end of the multiplier campaign in the sequel. The only stance on animal testing that game takes, however, is that it is less fun and scientifically productive than human testing.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'' animal testing is mentioned a little bit and is implied to happen at the end of the multiplier campaign in the sequel. The only stance on animal testing that game takes, however, is that it is less fun and scientifically productive than human testing.

* ''Literature/TheFold'' plays this trope both ways and comes out in the middle. The first experiment in {{teleportation}} is on the team's dog mascot: it goes gruesomely wrong and everyone on the team admits it was a terrible mistake. After the technology progresses they try again with hundreds of mice, a few cats, and a chimpanzee: while many of the mice are dissected to check for physical effects, the remainder of the test subjects are released to animal sanctuaries to live out their natural lives. The technology in question is of such world-shifting importance that the sacrifice of the dissected mice is justified.

* ''Literature/ThePlagueDogs'' seems to oppose animal testing in crushingly depressing, gory, [[Creator/IngmarBergman Bergman]]-esque watercolor animation. Just in case any kiddies are watching this film because of ''WesternAnimation/WatershipDown'', you have a ShoutOut: in the first 5 minutes the dogs walk through a room full of immobilized rabbit heads in the dark. Apparently [[WordOfGod the author stated]] that he wasn't looking to make the message against vivisection, but a story about the brutality of modern society and humanity in general. Whether or not it supports anything, one of the dogs does comment about the testing, that "It must do ''some'' good..." The book is much different and that example is under the "ambiguous" sections.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/ThePlagueDogs https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/animal_testing.png]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Best not to ask [[WesternAnimation/BugsBunny "What's up, doc?"]]...you may not like the answer.]]

->'''Gerry''': These cats in there are being smothered with lipstick just so that cosmetic firms can make money out of silly woman.\\

'''Gerry''': I don't want anyone's mouth to become like that: not my wife's, nor the cat's. There is no need to ''have'' lipstick, if it can only be got with suffering like this. Now if we were testing the animals for medical research, to help us cure terrible diseases, or something of that kind, I would understand it. But we aren't. That row of cages is lipstick. Over there, it is meant to be psychology, but we know perfectly well, we are just playing games with these animals. Look at those rats, smoking in there.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/ThePlagueDogs https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_51de6bbb_cf16_4d8b_89b6_3d26eece486c.png]]]]
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[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lab_rat.jpg]]

->'''Gerry''': These cats in there are being smothered with lipstick just so that cosmetic firms can make money out of silly woman.
->'''"Nasty"''': I suppose you'd rather we tested the lipsticks on people. Would you like your wife's lips to be like that poor moggy's mouth in there?
->'''Gerry''': I don't want anyone's mouth to become like that: not my wife's, nor the cat's. There is no need to ''have'' lipstick, if it can only be got with suffering like this. Now if we were testing the animals for medical research, to help us cure terrible diseases, or something of that kind, I would understand it. But we aren't. That row of cages is lipstick. Over there, it is meant to be psychology, but we know perfectly well, we are just playing games with these animals. Look at those rats, smoking in there.

[[quoteright:281:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/animal-testing-001_8539.png]]

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** In ''Film/RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes'', the scientist uses the results of his research to help his dementia-addled father, but the drug company he works for is really only in it [[MoneyDearBoy for the money]] to start off with, and Cesear's heightened intelligence does little more than alienate him from both apes and humans [[spoiler:until he infects the other apes with the virus]].

** ''I Am Legend'' with Will Smith featured large scale animal testing on rats. The experiments are for the sake of humanity, so it's good. The fact that they were ''infected vampiric'' rats probably helps justify his work, too.

* Temple Grandin's books, which promote humane practices in livestock handling, point out that tests of animal behavior are often the only way to make life better ''for animals'', by determining what causes them distress so it can be avoided. ''Does'' take the animals' point of view, as Grandin warns that we can't just assume that an animal will be content with the same conditions we'd find comfortable.

* ''Literature/TheFold'' plays this trope both ways and comes out in the middle. The first experiment in teleportation is on the team's dog mascot: it goes gruesomely wrong and everyone on the team admits it was a terrible mistake. After the technology progresses they try again with hundreds of mice, a few cats, and a chimpanzee: while many of the mice are dissected to check for physical effects, the remainder of the test subjects are released to animal sanctuaries to live out their natural lives. The technology in question is of such world-shifting importance that the sacrifice of the dissected mice is justified.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': Part of Mr. Boynton's job as a Biology Teacher is to experiment on animals. ForScience, of course. Miss Brooks seems slightly squeamish about the whole thing. It's played for laughs, if anything. One episode, "New Girl In Town", has Miss Brooks assist Mr. Boynton bury mice killed for the cause in the school athletic field. Harriet Conklin, jealous of and attempting to scare off said new girl, implies to the girl's mother that Mr. Boynton and Miss Brooks are burying ''human'' victims.