Animal Testing Controversy

First and foremost, animals are not given an option in the testing. As Alice Walker said, “The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans anymore than black people were made for white, or women created for men.” In all the instances that Walker mentioned, people can argue that they did not have a choice in what happened to them. Black Africans were sold into slavery and punished for disobeying while women were ridiculed by society for not obeying men. Those instances has long passed and now women and blacks are treated with respect from most people. However, animal testing has not passed and they are still being disrespected. They feel, think, behave, and experience pain-just like humans. So why treat them like they are any less? Unlike some humans who willingly sacrifice themselves for the advancement of technology and human welfare, animals cannot voice their decision. Ergo, testing must be discontinued because it violates the rights of animals.

Animal experimentation is used widely across the world. Millions of animals are put through horrifying experiments all for research purposes. This is because it is thought by many people that animal experimentation for research purposes is the best technique to gain knowledge on diseases and find cures, which is not true. Whatever goes on beyond laboratory walls has no limit. Famed primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall stated, “In no lab I have visited have I seen so many chimpanzees exhibit such intense fear. The screaming I heard when chimpanzees were being forced to move toward the dreaded needle in their squeeze cages was, for me, absolutely horrifying.” This quote is an example of on of the horrific things that can be seen behind laboratory walls. The animals there are kept in barred or concrete cages. They sit in their cage, suffering from pain, loneliness, and stress, waiting for the next painful experiment to take place. After, being put through pain, loneliness and terror the animals are usually killed when they are done being used. Experimenting on animals is wrong in many ways. It goes against animal rights, the results are not reliable to humans; making it a waste of time and money, and it causes a great deal of unnecessary pain for animals. With that being said, animals should not be used to experiment on for research purposes.

“Lots of people talk to animals…Not very many listen, though…That’s the problem”(Ben Hoffman). The controversy of animal testing is phenomenal; it always has been. I remember dissecting animals throughout my years of school in the "name of science". It was only until recently that I started questioning the government 's methods to teach us. We dissected a dog shark in my oceanography class last year. There had to been at least 80 dead sharks in about four different buckets; that was when it crossed the line. I understood a lamb eye or something, but breeding sharks in captivity just so they can be killed? Animal testing is wrong in every way to me.

The controversy behind animals as research subjects is mainly one of morals and the ethical treatment of said animals. Many people believe we should use them in this way, so we aren 't actually harming people in the pursuit for better things for humans. Though animal testing was a viable resource for many years, it has proven to be extremely controversial and unethical, therefor the use of animals as research subjects should be outlawed.

Animals endure inhumane suffering from researchers performing animal experimentation on them. Animals are put through excruciating amounts of pain because of testing done for products. According to the website "PETA", " Animals are infected with diseases that they would never normally contract, tiny mice grow tumors as large as their own bodies, kittens are purposely blinded, rats are made to suffer seizures, and primates' skulls are cut open and electrodes are implanted in them". These animals are going through unnecessary painful experiences when they should not be. Typical items that are used in a person's everyday life are first tested on animals. For example, when household items are tested on animals they are very painful to the animals being used in the experiment (Goldberg and Hartung, 86). People do not realize that their use of daily products has been causing helpless animals suffer. Animal testing is the same concept as animal abuse. Animal abuse means animals can be abused mentally and physically. When animals are being used in experiments they are being mentally abused, an example is restriction on food and water and being kept isolated. If animal testing were put to an end, then these innocent animals would not be suffering from this animal inhumanity.

When I first started to contemplate my position on this topic I hadn’t really realized the magnitude or the amount of controversy that surrounds animal research and testing. When I started to search for content to include in my paper I read many articles on the subject and I was amazed to find that being involved in this field can be a dangerous job. In an article titled Defending Animal Research I was shocked to read that some extremist groups are willing to harm property and human beings in order to get their point across. It was noted that since 1990-2012 that there have been 220 attacks on individual’s who participate in animal research studies. This number has increased from 9% to 46% over this time period. I understand and respect the

Where would we be without antibiotics or vaccines? The medical advances made to overcome medical obstacles were a massive impact in improving public health and medical research. Though there are medical general practitioners that have concerns about reliability of the animal data,” it is good scientific practice to maintain a healthy degree of scepticism and avoid over-reliance on any one set of data or research method”(Festing, Wilkinson, 2007). Some of the most impactful events that occurred with animal researching lead to the development of vaccines, antibiotics, diabetes research and organ transplants which includes the heart valve and the kidney.

It is estimated that each year over 100 million animals in the United States are used for animal testing (ProCon.org, 2017). This is unlikely an underestimate as it is impossible to receive a correct count worldwide. Thousands of animals are to be euthanized from the complications they endure from testing. Animals are used to test scientific developments and commercial products. New medical and non-medical experiments are tested on animals to verify the harmfulness of new medications or the safety of a product that will be used on humans. Although the importance of animal testing brings more medical advancement over the years using fewer humans in experiments, it is still an expensive way of researching inaccurate results and at the same time, it is a practice of animal cruelty.

A lot of human success is due to vivisection, otherwise known as animal experimentation. Some experiments involve infecting animals with a deadly disease, poisoning them for testing toxicity levels, and subjecting them to other painful, and even life threatening experiments. There are new alternatives ways of testing without involving the lives of helpless animals, it is no longer necessary to test with these creatures. They do not provide scientists with completely accurate information. Although it is now deemed as cruel, in the past, animal testing was responsible for many cures.

Human experimentation has been a practice for hundreds of years. Human experimentation is, “subjecting live human beings to science experiments that are sometimes cruel, sometimes painful, sometimes deadly and always a risk” (Human Medical). Humans have been test subjects for vaccines, medication, and procedure for doctors across the world. They have been used with or without their consent through various ways of testing and studies and have been taken advantage of during the entire process. Obviously, by testing humans, it is easier to see what will happen to other human patients than if scientist tested in a lab on an animal. Testing on the same species as the intended recipient is important because every animal has a different body composition

Some may say that animal testing is beneficial and not a huge issue. I believe it is morally wrong and a cruel thing to do. Just because they can't speak up or aren't classified as a human does not negate the fact that they still feel pain. There are other ways to test manmade products that would be of more advantage. Many species become victims of these curious abusers each year.

Animal testing is often cruel and inhumane. The Draize eye test, used by cosmetics companies to evaluate irritation caused by shampoos and other products, involves rabbits being incapacitated in stocks with their eyelids held open by clips, sometimes for multiple days, so they cannot blink away the products being tested. We do this to test if a mascara is harmful or not is dreadful. The fact that this has ever been allowed is nauseating. Another example of cruel treatment is when scientists use MPTP to replicate Parkinson's disease in a Marmoset. If we don’t want to go thru the experiment ourselves, then why should we have a living being that shares 99% of it’s DNA go thru it. We need to enforce the rules we have on animal testing or not this will continue

Recently, an animal was used to test perfume on, it was allergic to the perfume and died while being tested on. Millions of animals are dying from testings like this every year. Researchers are killing innocent animals for no reason. They never did anything to deserve to be killed and injured. Animals do not have to be locked up in cages most of their life and tested on because it does not even help discover accurate advances in medical technology. Animals should not be used for product or medical research.

The way I look at animal testing is a form hateful cruelty. None of these people care about if it hurts or kills the animals. The cruelty has been going on long enough and I think it is time to stop. What people do not know is that animal’s react a different way to drugs as humans do, so scientist cannot apply the results to humans. Many animals go through screaming, unbearable, horrific; you cannot even imagine pain when they go through test for products that you use every day such as: Cosmetics, Household Products, Medical Products, even Iams dog products. Some well-known animals that are use for testing are: cats, dogs, mice, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, sheep, llamas, cattle, owls, deer,

As we all know recently animals testing has been a controversial topic in the daily newspapers or social website, especially the argument from antivivisectionist or animal’s protector with some scientists who are doing the animals test or zoologist.