Millions of animals die cruel and unnecessary deaths in research laboratories all over the world each year. Vivisection, "the practice of cutting into or using invasive techniques on live animals or dissecting the bodies of animals", is unethical, causes untold pain and suffering, and is completely unnecessary. This type of experimentation does not benefit humans, and in fact, has very often proved to be harmful. Various tests and testing methods will be examined, particularly in regard to their effects on experimental animals. To further support the premise that vivisection is unnecessary, alternatives that are rapidly gaining support in the scientific community will also be explored. .
For decades it has been believed that experimentation through vivisection has provided enormous benefits for human beings. It was widely believed that animals and human beings shared parallel anatomies. Based upon this popular belief, new treatment methods and drugs were developed, while at the same time, many others were left undeveloped because of contradictory results from animal testing. New, in-depth research has proven that this philosophy is erroneous and has resulted in misleading information. "Animals are totally different from man and from each other, genetically, histologically, anatomically it is clear that human medicine cannot be based on veterinary medicine - as animal medicine is not based on human medicine." For instance, due to misinformation collected during dog experiments, advances in open-heart surgery were arrested for over ten years. There are also many examples of chemicals, vaccines, and drugs that when administered to animals, cause significantly different reactions than they do in humans. This fact is not subject to debate as experiments have shown conclusively that " morphine calms humans but excites cats penicillin kills guinea pigs and hamsters and cortisone causes birth defects in mice but not in humans.