The Importance Of Animal Testing In The United States

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.)

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.

An estimated 100 million animals are used every year in the United States for scientific and commercial testing. Animals are used to develop medical treatments, determine how toxic medications are, check the safety of products for human use, and health care uses. Animal testing is unnecessary and should be banned because of how they treat the animals, Animal testing is pointless, and because of how they suffer and die.

To begin with, why is it done? Animal testing is done to protect humans from bad products that may hurt them, also to find ways to cure diseases that haven’t been cure yet. 95 percent of mice and rats are used for research. Mice represented the largest increase in research with their numbers going from 1.2 million to nearly 1.9 million in that period. Other animals also saw increases (Qtd animal experiment up to 73 percent, study says). Other animals that are used in research are rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, farm animals, fish, and insects, and also less than one percent cats, and dog’s area also used for research. Another reason is to treat injuries and learn more about the animal bodies to find the similarity to the human body (qtd. animal research). Animal testing is inhumane when testing to protect humans. Some people say testing on animals are life changing experiments and with the help of animal experiment can discover blood transfusion, kidney dialysis, and gene therapy for example cystic fibrosis and types of cancer( Coster 7). Others think experimenting on animal is cruel and they suffer a lot. It is true

Every year the united States spend between $12 billion to $14.5 billion on animal testing. Many sciencetifics have been getting so used to harming monkeys, mice, dogs, that now they don’t even hear the animals cry or feel their bones when cutting them or taring them apart. Preventing animal testing could prevent side effects on humans, decrease animal death, and help humans by having an animal as a pet to protect them from danger physically but not killing their pets.

The issue, which is also a prominent controversial issue in the country, is animal testing.

Animal testing is a substantial controversy across the nation. According to Rush, Catherine M. et al. “Animal Models to Investigate the Pathogenesis of Rheumatic Heart Disease.” Frontiers in Pediatrics 2 (2014): 116. PMC. Web. 27 Oct. 2016., animal testing has been around for quite some time. Her article states that “Animals have been used repeatedly throughout the history of biomedical research. Early Greek physician-scientists, such as Aristotle, (384 – 322 BC) and Erasistratus, (304 – 258 BC), performed experiments on living animals. Likewise, Galen (129 – 199 / 217 AD), a Greek physician who practiced in Rome and was a giant in the history of medicine, conducted animal experiments to advance the understanding of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and pharmacology. Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar), an Arab physician in twelfth century Moorish Spain, introduced animal testing as an experimental method for testing surgical procedures before applying them to human patients.”

It is been assessed that about, twenty-eight million animals are used every year in the United States for science and profitable testing. Animal testing is used to progress in medicinal treatments, to determine the toxicity of medications, research safety of products intended for human use.(Lawrie, 2014).

Animals protected by the Animal Welfare Act, the only federal law passed that regulates animal testing, make-up 10 percent of the animals tested, (About the Issue). At first, these animals - mice, rats, and birds - were considered being protected, but a 2002 Amendment declared they do not count as warm-blooded animals, resulting in 90 percent of tested animals not protected under the Animal Welfare Act (About the Issue). This Amendment did, however, require a record of a number of animals being tested on, but it is not regulated so those reports do not get submitted. Committees that document animal misconduct are unable to intervene in the experiment if they believe mistreatment is present in the experiment, but instead have to submit a report that takes more time to reach the powers able to stop the experiment than the amount of time it takes to perform the experiment. The discard towards this issue has left enforcers powerless as well as participating in the experimentations that occur. Animal experiments are usually used for determining how a product will affect a human being, but experiments also can be rewarded with research grant awards that will fund other future experiments. In order to lessen the number of experiments animals need to be part of, most experiments can be replaced with non-animal alternatives. The transition from animals to alternative testing strategies, however, is a risky process: testing animals and determining the effect the tests have on humans is already a guess, but using other methods that are not as popular and scientists are not as familiar with creates a potential threat to the experiments being conducted. Because of this threat and without the experiments being regulated, the use of animals in testing in federally-funded labs

“The question is not, ‘Can they reason?’ nor, ‘Can they talk?’ but ‘Can they suffer?’” Jeremy Bentham said this, and this quote has become commonly used when speaking against animal testing. Why should those who are defenseless, have no say on their future? As technology advances, alternative methods of testing have come to the surface, but are ignored by those who believe that the results may not come as accurate. Many countries in the world, such as India and Israel, have passed laws against the use of animals to test cosmetic products. If they were able to use alternative testing methods then why shouldn’t the U.S.?

18% would feel safe if an animal is said to be safe on a product.

Everybody in the world is dropping like flies around you. Don’t you wish you would of done something? Animal testing is what we use to get our preventions and medicines for illnesses. We test on animals because otherwise, we would be tested on. Some people believe that this is evil because animals have rights. If we didn't use animals for testing, we could put harmful medicines and vaccinations in our body that would do more harm than good. Animal testing should continue to be a part of our country, because it will help us cure illnesses, it won't let us become the lab rats, and it will help our country grow in the long run.

In the field of scientific research, animal subjects have become a primary source of medical testing. Investigating the effects of these procedures and chemical experiments to generate evidential conclusions is widely disputed by opposing audiences today. Advocates propose the necessity of animal usage in scientific testing for the advancement of human welfare, while critics argue on behalf of the rights available to such animals used in these procedures. Despite the controversial debates and publications written about this topic, the harsh realities of its practice continue to linger. A statistic often supplemented to the context of this issue, reported by the nonprofit organization PETA, says “More than 100

Animals are used by scientists to develop research for new medications and experiments daily. The Humane Society is working to decrease the use of animals in laboratories by promoting the advancement of affective alternative approaches. Animal testing provides a useful model for treatments of diseases and possible cures. According to the US-based foundation of Biomedical Research, animal testing has made a major advance within the last century- for veterinary health and humans. The practice of using animals for testing has been debated for many decades. Is it morally right or wrong to use animals during experiments? Does federal law ensure that animals used in research are treated humanely? When considering the benefits of animal testing,

Animal testing has long played a part in the science of testing, and it still plays a very important role in the medical world. Testing on animals in order to create a cure for AIDS is one thing, but testing on animals for human vanity is another. Animal testing is used to test the safety of a product. It has kept some very unsafe substances out of the cosmetic world. However, in this day in age, animal testing is not the only way to test the safety of a product. Animal testing in cosmetics has decreased over the years. However, it is still used by many companies in America. Animal testing is not only cruel, but it is also unnecessary in today’s advanced scientific world.