Is animal testing in research ethical?

We all have mixed feelings of whether or not animals should be used as "guinea pigs" in order to find more information about humans. I hadn't really thought about it until recently, when this past summer I did research at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA). I personally didn't get the chance to work animals, but i knew of others in my research lab who did. My lab's research focused on the female reproductive system and used mice as a model in finding more information on ovaries and cancer.  My roommate who also worked with mice had the chance to dissect their eyes to investigate more on retinal pigmentation. In addition, there are many different kinds of animals used in the research facility, like mole rats for example, which I recently found out is currently helping researchers figure out what mechanisms play part in slowing down their aging process so we can relate it and implement on humans. Cool right?

Heres a link where Dr. Stephen N. Austad talks about the different animals and why they are used to investigate how they age: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5t0KNqM0Zs

I thought this was particularly interesting because you see how important animals are to our science advancement.

Although people may ask, well what about the ethical issue? From my experience I never saw one researcher take advantage or purposely mistreat any animal. Before they begin to conduct their research on animals they must first read through the animal guidelines and i think even get some sort of training. 

Their job is to investigate and understand why things happen the way they do.  You never know, their findings might even help a person you care about in the future. Like what we read for this week, sometimes you have to sacrifice a few in order to save alot. In my opinion, I believe animal testing is ethical.