For decades, at universities and cities throughout the U.S., students, physicians and community members have worked to expose cruelty to animals in their school’s labs and sought to end some of the most egregious animal experiments happening in their communities.

Although the public’s approval of animal experimentation steadily is declining, the majority of Americans still consider animal research a ‘necessary evil.’ This is not surprising considering people’s justified fear of diseases and illness and the suffering of family, friends or other loved ones to illness such as cancer, heart disease and other health problems.

The question then becomes, with our limited resources for combatting illness, how can we best address these grave health concerns? Historically, animal experiments have made gains for human health, but that simply is because over the last century, that is where the U.S. and many other European nations decided to place nearly all of their time, energy and resources.

We need to ask ourselves what our society might look like if we divided those resources toward preventative health care initiatives as well as clinical, epidemiological or pathological noninvasive human studies, rather than invasive and cruel animal experiments.

We very well might be much further along in our treatment of health problems if we diverted the massive amount of money and scientific resources away from dead-end animal experiments and instead invested those funds and talents in preventive health care infrastructure and more technologically advanced and scientifically sound alternatives to animal experiments.

Sadly, change from cruel animal experiments with dubious human benefits has been slow because over the last several decades, animal experimentation has expanded into a massive industry with animal breeders, manufacturers of chemicals, poisons, cages, animal feed and restraint apparatuses making big bucks and positioning themselves as oppositional figures toward non-animal research.

In Michigan alone, more than 44,000 animals were used in experiments in 2010 including thousands of dogs, rabbits and non-human primates. According to USDA records, approximately one-fourth of animals in Michigan labs are knowingly in pain but will not be given relief for their pain because the experimenters feel it could interfere with their research.

According to the most up-to-date files on record with the USDA, MSU has roughly 3,500 animals in their laboratories excluding rats and voles who make up the vast amount of animals experimented on at MSU and most other institutions and who are afforded no federal protections against abuse.

According to the most up-to-date files on record with the USDA, the University of Michigan has more than 4,300 animals in its laboratories including hundreds of dogs, voles, rabbits, and non-human primates. Attached with U-M’s laboratory intake report are several pages of explanations as to why the university is not meeting the minimal animal welfare requirements for its animals in several of their experiments.

The university explains that in one experiment, eleven baboons undergo vascular surgery where tubes are inserted into their bodies. The animals are not given analgesics for their pain after the surgery because the researchers fear the pain medication might interfere with their study. In another instance, another 35 monkeys have tubes placed into their bodies without pain relief for similar reasons.

In other experiments, animals are put in restraint apparatuses where they are completely or largely immobilized for weeks. In another experiment, animals are forced into small cages with noises so loud they could — and often do — lose hearing.

In the U.S., animal experimentation takes resources away from more ethical and promising avenues for addressing, treating and curing health problems. Because of a lack of serious oversight and pressure for companies, universities and researchers to maintain the high levels of funding and profits associated with animal experimentations, we all suffer. The animals in laboratories suffer cruelty within laboratories and Americans suffer without the resources necessary for non-animal health research and programs that could have tangible benefits for our health.

Mitch Goldsmith is a State News guest columnist and social relations and policy, women’s and gender studies senior. Reach him at goldsm40@msu.edu.