The Ethical Treatment Of Animal Testing

Imagine a life locked away in a cage with no form of control on your existence. It’s cold, dark, and you are scared. You don’t have a choice of what you eat, where you live, or how you are treated. You are unsure if it is day or night or what will happen to you next. You are locked away in a prison cell and you committed no crime. This is the life of a laboratory animal. Animal testing is the use of animals for scientific research purposes and experiments. It can be used for the findings of cures and medicines to testing new drugs, to understanding the behavioral psychology of the animals themselves. “Around fifty to one hundred million vertebrate animals, ranging from fish to primates, are used in experiments each year” (Lloyd). There are

“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.

Cohen argues that humans may morally use animals for biomedical research, the study of biological processes and disease, because animals lack rights. He defines rights as moral claims that one human can hold against another, which are bound in both law as well as in comprehension of right and wrong. As animals lack self-conscious placement in a higher ethical order with the ability to weigh needs of self against the needs of others, they therefore lack the ability to have rights. (Cohen 1986: p. 215) To support the morality of animal research, I will show how it has led to many successful treatments of disease in humans, due to the common physiology that we share with other animals. Furthermore, I will argue that the pain caused on research

A long time of debates go back and forth on the rights of all animals with further argument or debates, do humans have the right to use animals on medical testing and lab use? There are several issues that can be placed in this argument this research will acknowledge four important topics in the rights of animal testing. Is it right to use animals for testing? Is it right to compare animal DNA to human DNA in these animal experiments? Is it right to use real animals instead of computers to generate results? Is it right to state animals are being protected and cared for while giving toxins to make them sick? Therefore, the question needs to be asked if animals should be used for scientific experiments in labs all across the globe.

Animal testing classifies as legal, sanctioned abuse. When an animal is in a lab as a test subject, there is no limit to what harm may be inflicted upon it. Over one hundred million animals go through this torture each year (PETA). These animals spend the majority of their lives in an unnatural, stressful environment, fearing what kind of thing will happen to them next. They are kept behind bars with usually no access to sunshine or fresh air, unable to act as they would if they were free (PETA). Dogs being tested on can not run around in the grass, birds can not fly around outside, and mice have no wheel to exercise on. Animals in labs go through thorough, invasive experiments, often ending in death. Many of these tests they go through

For thousands of years animals have been used as research subjects, but with the advancement of science and society, animal experimentation has morphed into a controversial bioethics topic. Animal experimentation is the use of animals in scientific research. This experimentation ranges from testing pharmaceuticals on rats to measuring the elasticity of tendons in rabbits to implanting mechanical devices in calves. And while the FDA has dozens of guidelines to keep animal testing as ethical as possible, a strong opposition to animal research (particularly mammalian research) still exists.

In 2012, a 24-year-old art student named Jacqueline Traide was subjected to animal testing methods in a Lush store window. Passerby – as well as the rest of the world, after this story was spread – were baffled and sickened by how this young woman was treated, enduring being pulled around by a rope, physical restraint, having cosmetics poured into her eyes, being shaven and more (Harris). She participated in this appalling display to portray the reality of animal testing tortures through our own kind, rather than other species, presenting the question: if this treatment is not acceptable for humans, why is it acceptable for animals?

For decades, the question of ethics in using humans and animals for research has been a constant battle in the fields of science, medicine, and even cosmetics. According to the Animal Welfare Association, approximately 19,500,000 animals - including mice, dogs, cats, guinea pigs, and frogs - are killed yearly on average due to research. Although more than 50% of adults in the United States are opposed to animal testing, many popular companies like Maybelline, Vaseline, Dove, and Windex choose to remain in the shadow of animal cruelty and use animals as expendable lab equipment.

From the early beginnings of civilizations, humans have had a symbiont relationship with animals. Animals have allowed humans to make great progression through history, from early farming methods, to transportation, even scientific research. Recently the ethics of the use of animals in scientific research and clinical testing have been a subject of a controversial debate. Animals have been used in scientific research as early as 500 BC (Miziara et al. 2012). One of the most impactful innovations for quality of life since the end of the middle ages has been medicine, drastically improving life spans and reducing child deaths. One of the key sources of medicinal research during this time and to this day are animal models.

Animals for animal testing are given life for a short time just to have it ripped out by a scientist in a lab coat. If it was a human child that was treated in the same way nobody would stand for it, why? Because animal testing is inhumane, cruel, and morally wrong. Animal testing started with “William Harvey 400 years ago to learn how blood circulated in the body” (FAQ). In a time before medical and technological advancements it was necessary to use animals to develop cures for horrible diseases such as smallpox and polio (Cook). However, in today’s society with a cure or vaccine for over 250 known diseases, Not to mention the 10 infectious diseases that have been 90% eradicated from the Western world (Lloyd). Animal testing is becoming obsolete with the modern advancements in today’s growing world.

Every year, more than 100,000,000  animals, containing mice, rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds die in the United States facilities for the use of chemical, food, drug, and cosmetics testing (PETA). Animal experimentation pertains to the experiments and procedures that are performed on living animals for insight into many diseases, the effectiveness of new medications, examining  the health effects on humans because of  products, environmental safety for industry and consumer products including household cleaners, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food additives and agricultural and industrial chemicals (Humane Society International). Animal experimentation for medical and cosmetic use is inhumane

Every year in the United States of America more than 100 million helpless animals will suffer and die from malicious chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics tests. Rabbits, Cats, birds, reptiles and amphibians are not covered by the minimal protections of the Animal Welfare Act, so they go unnoticed towards the millions of sufferers. Millions of rodents, birds, rabbits, primates, felines, canines, and other types of animals are locked inside barren cages in laboratories across the country. People have diverse opinions on animal testing and its morality. Morality refers to the standards of right and wrong shared in the society. We can define it as “human rights.” Ten moral traditions that all serious people accept are:

Animal testing and research is highly debated around our world, with people comparing the successes of the research to the inhumane side of testing. Many medical advancements can be attributed to animal research, but of course, some tests are unsuccessful or provide no further knowledge. More humane methods of testing are being developed, and the tests that are performed with the intent of harming the animals are backed with painkillers, anesthesia, or euthanasia. However, testing for cosmetic products has proven to be unnecessary and unsuccessful, and also brings distress and pain to animals for no reason. Because of the overall benefits, animal testing should be permitted for medical research, but not for cosmetic products.

Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, or animal research, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. While most people think animal testing is necessary, others are upset by what they see as needless suffering. Experimentation on animals help scientists increase knowledge about the way the human body works. Animal research can also expand the knowledge of biological, medical, psychological studies, and has led to vaccines against smallpox, measles, mumps, and diphtheria and tetanus. Sources of laboratory animals vary between countries and species, most commonly used animals that the experiments are conducted with include: mice, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, and dogs. The research is conducted in universities, medical schools, pharmaceutical companies, farms, defense establishments, and commercial facilities that provide animal-testing services to industry. The earliest references to animal testing are found in the writings of the Greeks in the second and fourth centuries BCE. Aristotle and Erasistratus were amongst the first to perform experiments on living animals. Avenzoar, an Arabian physician in 12th-century Moorish Spain who also practiced dissection, introduced animal testing as an experimental method of testing surgical procedures before applying them to human patients. All animal experimentation should be outlawed because animal testing is unethical, inaccurate, and costly.