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Animal Testing and the Principle of Tzaar Ba-alei Hayyim
We are told not to cause animals any unnecessary pain (called tzaar ba-alei hayyim in Hebrew). This principle is found in numerous places throughout the Torah. For example, in Deuteronomy 22:6, we are told, "Do not take the mother bird together with her young. Our rabbis of old explained that doing so would cause the mother bird emotional pain. And tzaar
ba-alei hayyim is the same principle dictating the procedure by which animals are slaughter. If the knife of a schochet (ritual slaughterer) has even a single nick in the blade, it cannot be used until the nick is filed away. The reasoning here is that the nick will cause the blade of the knife to pass through the animal's neck in a way that causes the animal more pain than is absolutely necessary.
The question is what happens when two of Judaism's sacred values come into conflict.
For example, we know that the highest value in Judaism is the value of human life. Of the 613 mitzvot, we are told that we must violate all but 3 of them in order to save life or limb. How do we resolve the conflicts that arise when the value of human life comes into conflict with the value of not causing animals any unnecessary pain? In reality, there is no conflict because human life takes precedence.
Consequently, Jewish tradition strongly supports the practice of using animals to test drugs that could potentially save lives and cure
illnesses. However, there is more to the answer than may be apparent at first glance. For example, there are different types of animal testing programs.
Some involve direct research on effective treatment for things like AIDS or cancer. Other animal testing involve causing pain and death to tens of thousands of animals as a means of ensuring the safety of non-essential products such as cosmetics, hair color and cleaning agents.
To date, there has been little discussion among authorities of Jewish law about this question. The Jewish Nature Center suggests that Jewish
law would not support the practice of causing animals pain and death in order to test the safety of a product that is not necessary to improve the quality of life.
Furthermore, we also propose that the principle of tzaar ba-alei hayyim is not negated even in situations where animals are used for medical research. In such testing, the principle still applies in the sense that no more animals than necessary should be used for testing; no more tests than are absolutely necessary should be conducted; and test animals must be kept as comfortable as possible during the course of their ordeal. If we apply Rambam's understanding that we are not allowed to cause emotional pain to animals, then it might mean that test animals should even be given special attention, such as human companionship and touch.
Last but not least, there is the question of whether Jewish tradition would support the practice of killing millions of creatures each year so that middle and
high school students might have animals to dissect in their biology classes. Again, this question has not received attention from our religious and academic leaders. And again, the Jewish Nature Center
would speculate that this practice would not be supported by Jewish law. A fraction of a percent of students who dissect animals in biology class ever puts this
experience to use. In effect, these millions of creatures are killed to fill space in a curriculum. Today there are biology programs that allow students to do dissections on a computer screen.
We would like to hear your thinking about the issue of animal testing.
Do you think Jewish tradition would support the purchase of products from companies who practice animal testing? Email me at karen@njycamps.org and let me know what you think. Reference the subject matter as Animal Testing.
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