Against Animal Testing

For many years, the field of science has used animals in medical experiments worldwide, because of this innocent animals are being killed everyday. They are being tested with new drugs, new treatments, and by many makeup companies. Connecticut recently celebrated the passage of the “Beagle Freedom Law”, a law that requires laboratories to work with charities and rescue groups to find homes for research cats and dogs. Animals are being tested so humans do not have to be but animal tests do not reliably predict results in human beings, although animals are the closest thing to humans. Most experiments involving animals are flawed, wasting the lives of innocent animal subjects. Over 100 million animals suffer a year from testing. Testing animals is a lot more expensive than alternative methods and it is wasting government research dollars. Animal testing is not only a bad idea, but it is also inhuman and it should not be tolerated. The FDA should stop allowing animal testing. An animal does not give out the same results on a test than a human would.

Although, there has been successful experiments with animal testing, the percentage is low. Many drugs tested on animals that were released to humans had serious side effects and killed or harmed people effectively. Some examples of pharmaceutical drugs that were deemed safe for human use were later found to have serious side effects, like isuprel is a medication used to treat ashma - in Great Britain alone, 3,500 asthamatics died using this. This shows animal testing is in fact very dangerous to humans.

Imagine walking into a cosmetic or medical research laboratory and seeing thousands of animals locked up in cages, deformed, injured, even dead. In 2010 a total of 26 million animals in the US were tested on (thehastingscenter.org). Animals have the closest genetics to humans than anything else yet animal testing is a cruel and inhumane job and not all animals have similar organ functions to humans. Animals should not be used for scientific or commercial testing.

95% of drugs fail in human trials despite promising results in animal tests. This is because of the different genes between a human and an animal. The failure of the drugs can also be caused due to the fact that out of 93 dangerous drug side effects, only 19% could have been predicated by animal tests. Another piece of evidence that has been brought to the attention of many is that the testing of animals is a waste. Only 6% of 4,300 international companies involved in drug development have registered a new drug with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since 1950. Even those drugs that are approved are not universally effective due to individual reactions, the top ten highest-grossing drugs in the U.S. only help between 1 in 4 and 1 in 25 people who take them. The last reason why animal testing should be reconsidered is common sense but overlooked. Animals are much more different from humans than imagined. Animals are incapable of being diagnosed of the same diseases that humans are. Their bodies do not allow them to have illnesses such as Parkinson’s disease, major types of heart disease, many types of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, HIV or schizophrenia. A simple drug like aspirin is toxic to many animals, including cats, mice and rats and would not be on our pharmacy shelves if it had been tested according to current animal testing

Animals are not a reliable benchmark for testing because animals and humans have a completely different biological make up. In fact, PETA said that 72% of drugs shown to be effective in humans, have a different response in humans or are harmful to the body (Animal Testing Is Bad Science Point/Counterpoint). Disregarding the fact that some animal testing trials make it to human trials about 100,000 humans lose lives each year from taking prescriptions originally tested on animals(Animal Aid). Concluding that even if tests were to be done on animals, the drugs are not always safe, proving that animal testing can take more lives than needed and is horrifically

The use of research on animals originated from the Greeks in the 3rd century. Animal testing has evolved over time, for this reason, the modern era of animal testing began about 150 years ago. Experimentations on animals have been a common ethical dilemma in society for the past centuries. I believe that animal testing can benefit mankind, because many animals have the same body organs and functions as humans; therefore they are useful for conducting research for developing drugs, medical procedures, and treatments.

To begin with, animal experimentation provides unreliable test results because of the differences between animals and humans. In the article, Animal Testing is Not Essential for Medical Research, Ray C. Greek and Jean Swingle Greek said,”More than half of the medications released between 1976 and 1985 were taken off the market or relabeled because dangerous side effects were discovered that had not been found in animal experiments.” Many drugs have been found to have unpredicted side effects so testing on animals just shows researchers what the drug would do to animals, not humans. Since the point of animal testing is to test the effectiveness and results of a drug, it

Along with being morally wrong, animal testing is unreliable because many of the diseases humans acquire animals naturally do not develop. This includes diseases such as heart disease, many types of cancers and diabetes (Wise). "If animals differ so much from humans in their reactions, how can one test drugs on them that are intended for

Another element on why experimentation on animals is wrong is because, in multiple ways, it is pointless. According to an online article titled "Animal Testing”, the main stated reason that major companies even test their products on animals is because they are supposedly watching out for the safety of human beings. Most toxic products are tested on many types of different animals. Some toxic products that are used are: soaps, detergents, oven cleaners, and toilet cleaners. What is the problem with this picture? No amount of rigorous animal testing could possibly change the fact that many of these products are harmful if ingested or used in a way not intended by the manufacturer. In other words, there is no reason to force animals to swallow any toxic products, when no matter what, they would harm any person if they choose to digest it. Another point, many different types of drugs are actually very useful to

Animal testing, also known as “animal experimentation”, has been used throughout history. The early Greek physicians, including Erasistratus and Aristotle, used animals in experiments as early as 384 BC. Animal testing is the experimentation on species other than humans for research purposes. Animal testing is used in a variety of ways including the making of cosmetics and personal products to the development of procedures and medications for use in the medical profession. I believe that animal testing in general is wrong and there can be alternatives.

To begin, one of the most important reasons why animal testing should be unacceptable, is because the human species is very different compared to any other animal; therefore, they make unreliable test subjects. For example, according to PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), they found that nearly 150 clinical trials [human tests] of treatments, to reduce inflammation in critically ill patients, have been undertaken, and all of them failed, despite all the animal tests being successful (Should Animals Be Used for

In the United States, over 100 million animals are used for experimentation and testing every year. Most of these animals will either live a lifetime of misery and neglect or face death. A copious amount of controversy surrounds animal experimentation because of the way it is performed. Animal testing is done to test products for harsh chemicals, for medical research, and educational purposes.

The harmaful uses of animals in testing is not only cruel but often ineffective. Animals do not have the many types of cancers humans enconter, or HIV, Parkinson's diease even Schizophrenia. Many animals receive testing for different substances that is never actually seen approved for public use or consumption. It seems that the animals tested dies in vain because there is no direct benefit for humans. In animal testing, countless animal are experimented on and then they are killed after their use. Others are injured and will steal live their remainder of life in captivity. 95 percent of drugs fail in human trials

There are numerous studies that document the failure of animal testing. Scientific studies have documented failures of animal testing, which is not surprising given the many differences that exist between human and animal species in terms of their anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and metabolism. Although animal testing has helped us, it has also led us down countless scientific dead ends, while detracting attention and funds from more applicable scientific techniques. In reality, animal research never guarantees that medications and other products will be safe and effective for us humans. Most drugs that were previously tested on other animals have been pulled off the market because they caused severe illness or death in human patients (France

However, most of the commonly tested animals are not protected. “Labs that use mice, rats, birds, reptiles and amphibians are exempted from the minimal protections under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA)” (“11 Facts”). In addition, many individuals retort that they would prefer using animals because if not, we would have to test on humans. As argued on peta.org, “The fact is that we already do test new drugs on people. No matter how many tests on animals are undertaken, someone will always be the first human to be tested on” (“Animal”). Animals are just being tested on in addition to humans. Its commonly argued that every major medical advance is attributable to experiments on animals. On peta.org it explains why that's not true, “Most experiments on animals are not relevant to human health, they do not contribute meaningfully to medical advances, and many are undertaken simply out of curiosity and do not even pretend to hold promise for curing illnesses” (“Animal”).