Home / Weak arguments / Weak or false science
"Animal testing is useless: 90% of drugs fail."
They make claims about the body or nutrition that the evidence does not support. When they fall, they take the speaker's credibility with them.
Why it is weak
It's an exaggeration. About 90% of drug candidates fail in human trials, and species differences are one of the causes. But failures have many other causes, and the figure doesn't prove that tests have never helped.
Saying they are "useless" is refuted with one historical example, and the moral objection, which is the strongest, is pushed aside.
How to say it better
Animal tests have serious limits and are no longer required for every drug in the US. But the main question is a different one: a benefit doesn't justify using those who cannot consent, and we don't accept that with humans.