Persuasive Essay : Animal Testing

For many years, animal testing has been very widely accepted in the world for the

Animal testing is always a behind closed doors situation. Most people are aware that it is happening yet never give it a second thought. An estimate of more then 115 million animals all around the world, including the most common mice, rats, rabbits, and monkeys, are used in experiments every single year (“11 Facts About Animal Testing”, n.d.). And according to change.org the “USA spends $16 billion dollars annually for animal testing at tax payers' expense.” (“Sign the Petition”, n.d.)

Every year, a total of one million children die from pneumonia. If you multiply that number by one hundred, you will have the number of animals that suffer painful deaths due to medical experimentation in U.S. laboratories each year. This number includes animals of all types, from mice and rats to fish and birds. These animals are typically used because of tradition rather than actual scientific reasoning, making their deaths all the more cruel. Animal experimentation is not only unethical, but ineffective and expensive. It should be phased out and replaced with technological alternatives.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated” (Mahatma Gandhi). Scientists have been using animals for biomedical research for centuries. They provide a source to get information scientists can not get without harming humans. A lot of debate is spread about whether it is good or bad. Animal experimentation is a controversial topic because it is helpful to humans, but it is also cruel and inhumane.

For centuries humans have dedicated their time and research to animal experimentation. A large number of these animals are being utilized and taken from their homes involuntarily. They are abused, mishandled and harmed for our own benefit to create products such as cosmetic supplies, vaccines, and medication.

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.

92% of all drugs have failed because they don't work or they're either too dangerous (animal testing). Animal Experimentation is the use of animals to test human products such as drugs/medication, cosmetics items, shower/bath soaps and lotion, etc. We need to enforce the NO animal testing law because it’s inhumane, we have other technology, and anyway 9 out of 10 tests fail.

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.

Millions of animals die each year in the U.S. Many of these animals have been through an awful lot. The reason behind these animal deaths is because of the people experimenting on them in order to find cures to things or find things that have not been found. Each one of these experiments contributes to the deaths of these innocent animals, that is why animals should not be tested on.

At dictionary.com, animal testing is defined as the use of non-human animals in research and development projects for purposes of determining the safety of substances such as foods or drugs. Some scientists used/use animal testing to save lives, although animal researchers are known to abuse other’s good works by utilizing animals for “analysis”. The general public and animal right activists have been trying to get researchers to properly justify these actions for decades. Over one hundred million dogs, cats, and rodents are scorched, crippled, poisoned, and battered in United States labs every year. Therefore, animals should not be used in the study or testing the safety of the unnecessary cosmetic and household items.

It is estimated that 25 million animals are used to conduct product testing for human use. These product testing’s can range from the shampoo we use to our medicine. There are many alternatives to inhumane and cruel tests done on defenseless animals. Banning the testing of products on animals in the U.S. would end the suffering and wrongfulness towards animals.

There exists a society that routinely tortured animals by immobilizing them, pouring chemicals into their eyes and on their skin, and causing them unbearable suffering followed by a prolonged and painful death for the purpose of making its cheeks a little rosier or lips slightly plumper each day. This is the reality of the United States and hundreds of other countries that employ the method of testing on animals in order to prove safety of cosmetics. According to Karyn Siegel-Maier, “The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C) defines a cosmetic as any product that is applied to the human body to moisturize, cleanse or in some way enhance or alter appearance,” meaning humans constantly

There are many animals around the world that suffer every year from testing of cosmetic products. Animals ranging from rats, guinea pigs, rabbits and even dogs are violently mistreated in the process. Several tests are used on them to examine chemicals necessary to create products utilized everyday by people from all around. The public needs to be informed of the kind of abuse these innocent animals undergo and what should get done in order to end this cruelty. Together as a society, we can save the lives of thousands of innocent animals.

Animal testing, and experimentation on monkeys has been going on for several decades, since the first primate lab was set up in 1940’s. It has always been a contentious issue, however the problem of animal experimentation really became prominent when animal and monkey testing reached a peak during the 1980’s, and evidence was released of animals be mistreated. It was revealed that experiments were being conducted where monkeys were given drugs that could potentially cause pain, but were not being anaesthetised, for fear it would ‘interfere’ with the results of the testing. This was around the time when the ‘Animal Rights Movement’ started to build momentum, and the rights of animals were discussed and debated on a regular basis. It was this that sparked the argument on whether animal testing was morally right, and if it was ethical to perform such experiments on monkeys, and animals in general. Since then, the line between what is morally right when it comes to animals and primates in particular has become further blurred.

Observation and experimentation are how we as humans have been able to learn more about ourselves and the world and universe we live in. One of the most common methods of experimentation is animal testing. However, there are controversies surrounding animal testing. There are some that believe animal testing to be cruel and overdone, advocating for the eradication of the practice and further reliance alternative research methods. Groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and other animal rights advocates fall in this category. There are some that believe animal testing to be an invaluable resource and should continue, such as some scientists and research groups. However, there appears to me to be a consensus that is closer to the middle: the belief and understanding that while there are benefits to animal testing, there are flaws in the practice and there should be changes to increase its efficacy while we simultaneously explore alternate testing methods. Many scientists and the National Institute of Health (NIH) subscribe to this idea. I aim to explore the benefits, problems, and implications of animal testing in order to reach a more informed conclusion about a position that is most validated by the information I have used.