Animal Research: Right Or Wrong

As of 2015, 200 to 225 million animals are said to used in laboratory research for the biomedical industry annually worldwide. Typically defended by arguments of reliability and human health benefits, recently the question of ethics and values placed on animal testing have caused it to become a relevant and pressing topic that has been more widely discussed and debated. First off, the laboratory conditions that are instigated upon millions of animal models for the sake of medical research has been said to be unethical and cruel. Additionally, it has been debated that the results of animal experimentation are unreliable across a wide range of areas. Lastly, animal testing not only leads away from the direction of resources from more effective testing methods but also prolongs the duration of time humans may need to wait for an effective cure. Therefore, the potential benefits of animal experimentation are greatly outweighed by the risks and collective harm of humans and animals which is why resources should be directed towards more human-based testing procedures.

Approximately 26 million animals are used every year in the United States alone for research and commercial testing (“Background of the Issue” 1). For years, legislators have debated the pros and cons of animal testing, and laws were passed to attempt to fix the inhumane treatment of the cute, innocent testing subjects, the animals. Although the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) was revised numerous times, “the species most commonly used in experiments (mice, rats, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians) comprise 99% of all animals in laboratories” and are the animals that are specifically exempted from protection under the act (“Experiments on Animals” 2). A simple fix to animal cruelty during testing is to use alternative methods since human and animal bodies already vary greatly. For years, animal testing was the best option because there was no alternative to testing on a living, whole-body system; however, in the age of technology, there is no reason for millions of animals to be killed due to the severity of the testing. Therefore, animal testing should be banned because alternative methods provide more accurate results since human bodies are very different than animal bodies; furthermore, animal advocacy organizations should promote cruelty-free products more so customers know what to purchase and use.

Throughout history, animal testing has played an important role in leading to new discoveries and human benefit. However, what many people forget are the great numbers of animals that have suffered serious harm during the process of animal testing. Animal testing is the use of animals in biological, medical, and psychological studies. The development and enhancement of medical research has been based on the testing of animals. There are many questions being asked if animal research is good or not or if the benefit for us is way greater the abuse of animals. Doing tests on animals can help find ways to cure diseases, but testing on them is wrong. Although we want to find cures for diseases to help many people, testing on animals not only

Everyone has benefited from the use of animal research in one way or another. My sister was diagnosed with asthma when born and without the help of animal research asthma would still be incurable. Experiencing this history with my sister I went into this research with a large bias for animal research. I found that research on animals is not a new discussion, “[h]umans have been using other vertebrate animal species…as models of their anatomy and physiology since the dawn of medicine.” (Franco 239) The ancient Greeks used animals for experiments with no question of morality ever being raised because of their “ranking in the scala naturae (the chain of being).” (Franco) Every major era came with a new dispute over how to handle animal

For decades, people have been using animals as the go-to method for testing scientific breakthroughs, but not only is this concept outdated, it is a cruel punishment inflicted on harmless creatures. Animal cruelty is a well-known problem around the United States that is a growing issue for debate. A study has shown that less than 2% of human illnesses are found in animals and over 98% are ineffective on animals (Peta2). “The Food and Drug Administration reports that 92 out of every 100 drugs that pass animal tests fail in humans” (PETA). Not only does animal testing hurt the animals, it is a waste of time. These are just some of the reasons why animal testing is pointless and should be banned. It is time that the United States recognizes animal testing as unacceptable because of its negative effects on both humans and animals: it is inhumane for many reasons, it proves to be very expensive and costly, and it’s pointless on many accounts.

due to cruel chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics tests as well as in medical training exercises and curiosity-driven medical experiments at universities. Even though modern non-animal tests have been repeatedly shown to have more educational value, save teachers time, and save schools money, animals still suffer and die in classroom biology experiments and dissection. Examples of these horrid tests include forcing mice and rats to inhale toxic fumes, force-feeding dogs pesticides, and dripping corrosive chemicals into rabbits’ sensitive eyes. Even if a product harms animals, it can still be marketed to consumers. Contrarily, just because a product was shown to be safe in animals does not guarantee that it will be safe to use in humans. An exact number isn’t available because mice, rats, birds, and cold-blooded animals, who make up more than 99 percent of animals used in experiments, are not covered by even the minimal protections of the Animal Welfare Act and therefore go uncounted.

Animal testing has become a controversial issue among many people in the world today. Some of these people involved in this controversial debate believe that animal testing is unethical and should be replaced by other methods. The other group of people in this debate believe that animal testing is necessary in order to research new products that cannot be tested on humans. Traditional animal testing forces animals to undergo numerous experiments for different forms of research. Medical, cosmetic, and many other types of research experiments use animals to provide the results on how the new product may affect humans. There are many people that support the use of alternative methods to animal research and then

The tension between animal rights and medical/cosmetic research is an extreme issue in today’s society. Every day millions of mice, rats, rabbits, primates, cats, dogs, and other animals are locked inside cold, barren cages in laboratories across the country. They languish in pain, ache with loneliness, and long to roam free and use their minds, but all they can do is sit and wait in fear of the next terrifying, painful procedure that will be performed on them next. Animal Research is a very well known act and has been around for some time. Most of the advancements in the 20th century are because of animals. Many of the products we use each day from medicines to household products are tested generally on animals. Many people around the world think animal research is the right thing to do because of the benefits humans may receive from it. Humans often benefit from successful animal research, although, the pain, the suffering, and the deaths of animals are not worth the possible human benefits. Animals and people are alike in many ways; they feel, think, behave, and experience pain. Animal testing is by far the most heartless act anyone could preform; it is inhumane; there are other alternatives and results are not necessarily reliable.

The aim of this presentation is to highlight why animals research exists in the field of psychobiology and psychology. Firstly, an explanation of the benefits of conducting animal research, with research examples targeted at the central nervous system (CNS). Then, the focus is to highlight the ethical issues surrounding animal research, such as cruelty to animals and their rights. Thirdly we will be looking at the extent to which animal research has increased our understanding of human psychology. This is then followed by a brief summary of the main points covered in the presentation.

Imagine yourself in a world with no animals – no birds chirping in the morning, no squirrels eating your flowers, no dogs or cats running around the house. Where did all of the animals go? They are all locked inside of cages in poor conditions in laboratories across the country. They wait in loneliness and terror to be called upon for testing. The conditions they wait in are enough to make them go insane. More than one hundred million animals die every year from animal testing. The Animal Welfare Act does not provide protection for ninety-nine percent of the animals used. The use of animals for the testing of products is a popular debate that has gained a lot of attention over the years. Scientists argue that testing products on animals is

Curious minds since the beginning of time have used animals to explore deeper into the realms of science, whether behavioral or biomedical. Despite many medical advances since, people have developed a division between what they feel is beneficial or not to the modernizing world as to whether animal cruelty is acceptable and humane or not. Animal testing is research science, typically regarding chemical exposures, drug overdoses, genetic manipulation, and surgical procedures that result in prolonged suffering and eventual death. According to Bernard E. Rollin’s journal entry from the Hastings Center Report, The Moral Status of Invasive Animal Research, “Science is ‘value free’ in general and ‘ethics free’ in particular” which indicates scientists are not concerned with the ethical matters but more so the results.

Animals used in laboratories dates as far back as the 17th century (Unknown, 2015)6. When I first read this statistic, it was surprising because the amount of time testing has been around really makes one think about the advancements made because of that. Due to the amount of time animal testing has been around, two general groups have formed in response to this. The people advocating for it are commonly part of the science community or anyone that supports what science hopes to accomplish and then there is the community of people who would not want animals to have to endure the pain from being tested throughout their entire lives. In this paper I will be presenting two perspectives on the topic regarding the use of animals in laboratories. The first perspective will show how animal testing is extremely beneficial to the world of scientific research as well as to the world in general. While the second perspective will show how the animal rights activists believe that the animals being tested on should not be forced to go through painful testing procedures.

About 1,027,450 animals were used for testing in 2007 (Evans). Animal experimentation is when animals are used to test the safety of products. These products range from cosmetics to medication and anatomy. Many animals are used for testing such as dogs, monkeys, rats, birds, and mice. Some people believe that these testings should go on because it gives essential information about humans (“Animal Experimentation”). Those who are familiar with animal experimentation will have a better idea about all the ways that animals testing is unneeded. They will know how this process is abusive and cruel to animals. People will also know about how there are now new technologies that could act as alternatives. Animal Experimentation should stop because animal testing is unnecessary, it's cruel to animals, and there are alternatives.

To begin with, animal experimentation subjects innocent creatures to immense physical and psychological agony through the employment of abusive, inhumane procedures. Currently, an approximate 26 million animals in the United States alone undergo trials and experiments devised to ascertain the efficiency and overall safety of products developed for human use (“Animal Testing”). In a futile attempt to prevent the immoral treatment of animals in scientific laboratories, the government enacted the Animal Welfare Act several years previously, granting marginal protection to a handful of sentient species. However, the Animal Welfare Act excludes nearly 99 percent of animal species commonly used in scientific studies, thereby enabling scientists to experiment on creatures such as birds, mice, fish, and other cold-blooded species without interference from the law (“Animal Testing 101”). Consequently, in order to test commercial

Using animals in research and to test the safety of products has been a topic of heated debate for decades. According to data collected by F. Barbara Orlans for her book, In the Name of Science: Issues in Responsible Animal Experimentation, sixty percent of all animals used in testing are used in biomedical research and product-safety testing (62). People have different feelings for animals; many look upon animals as companions while others view animals as a means for advancing medical techniques or furthering experimental research. However individuals perceive animals, the fact remains that animals are being exploited by research facilities and cosmetics