Exploring the Psychological Impact of Animal Testing on People
Every year, more than 100 million animals - including mice, rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds - are killed in U.S. laboratories. However, in making his latest short film Test Subjects, BAFTA-winning director Alex Lockwood says he was “shocked to find that animal testing when it comes to human health is 95 percent ineffective”.
You can watch Test Subjects for free until Monday 9th December here, with the film hopefully returning online in January.
Its this statistic that turned aspiring scientists Frances, Emily and Amy, the subjects of the film, into the animal rights campaigners they are today, increasing awareness in the scientific community of the easy ethical steps they can make to start phasing out animal testing. All three made the difficult decision, after almost a decade of studies, to take a moral stand against what they feel is simply wrong. In the process of completing their PHDs alone they caused hundreds of deaths, and in their opinion for no real reason.
What’s unusual about Lockwood’s film is that instead of dwelling solely on the pain suffered by the animals, it sensitively spotlights the psychological trauma it wreaks on the scientists delivering experiments. Frances in particular finds it difficult to talk about the subject without tearing up and has even kept an excel tally of the animal deaths she has caused, alongside those she has saved. Thankfully she’s now saved more than she has killed, which is helping her come to terms with her previous life despite saying that she still hasn’t forgiven herself for it.
More troubling than the figures and even the pain that has visibly been inflicted on these young scientists, is that they came up against a lot fo resistance when trying to raise the topic with their superiors. Despite the fact that animal testing almost never leads to human breakthroughs, the academic community is quick come to its defence. Emily’s professor chose not join her in receiving her PHD after she dedicated her work to the animals that died in the process. Similarly, Frances was told to remove her dedication after finding out that it would impede her chances of passing.
This isn’t the first time that Lockwood has focused on animal cruelty. His BAFTA-winning short 73 Cows about the now vegan farmer Jay Wilde, also focussed on an individual’s struggle to come to terms with animal cruelty that they’re told is inevitable. With Test Subjects, he hopes to spread the word on animal testing’s shortcomings, both for animals and humans.
