The Pros And Cons Of Animal Experimentation

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.

For years, scientists have experimented with animals to study how diseases and disabilities affect them. Take neurologist Thomas Gennarelli for example. Dr. Thomas Gennarelli used primates as test subjects. For a little bit over 15 years, he bashed primates to imitate head injuries in human beings. He believed the results of his experiments would be beneficial in the future on how we should treat head injuries. The team that worked for him recorded the data via videotapes. Unfortunately, as much as he tried, Thomas Gennarelli flopped and could not create duplicate head injuries. In 1984, participants of the Animal Liberation Front broke into the University of Pennsylvania’s Medical school and swindled the tapes that’s withheld the data from the experiments. They edited the tapes to show the most gruesome abuses of the primates and submitted it to People for Ethical Treatments of Animals. Peta then submitted it to Congress and the media. Participants of these experiments claimed they appease the primates with drugs, so they would feel not pain. The videotapes told a different story. Just before the hammer smashed their heads, the primates tried to escape. The researchers used foul language and performed unsanitary procedures upon the primates. They mocked and chuckled at attentive primates with broken arms. The National Institutes of Health analyzed the videotapes. Thomas Gennarelli was condemned of 9 charges such as unacceptable veterinary care and lack of guidance for the

Scientists have a choice to make: they can choose to use animals and torture them or they can use alternatives like artificial skin from humans or animals to see how they react. Everyday thousands of animals are being tortured for science. The experiments that are performed on these poor animals are very inhumane.

Over the last several decades, scientific experimentation with animals has played an important role in developing new medical health breakthroughs for humans. Without the use of animals for research experiments, new vaccines, better surgical techniques, and cures for diseases such as cancer, would not have been developed. There are oppositions to using animals for experimentation.

The world we know today would not exist without animals. Today’s medicine and amenities have made everyone’s lives significantly better, but the methods used to find some of these things are not so wonderful. Namely, testing products on animals. Product testing on animals has been used for several breakthroughs in medicine and how we live our lives, but is it at a greater cost than it is reward? Animal testing has been used for several hundred years as a way to find new developments in medicine; however, some of the means of this are terrible and animals are subjected to great pain and die in captivity.

Throughout history, animals have repeatedly been used for testing for biomedical research, food, transportation, and as a companion. Animal experimentation has played a significant role in leading to new findings, human advantages, and many medical advances that have helped us in the past decades (i.e., several diseases). While most argue that animal testing is necessary, others say it should not be accepted and causes suffering to innocent animals because the balance between the rights of animals and their use in medical research is a delicate issue with huge societal assumptions. However, the pros outweigh the cons, as scientific experiments on animals are necessary to advance medical and biological knowledge. Animal testing is, and will be, a critical stage for the medical and biological research.

It is believed that animal experimentation is needed in order to benefit from the results and improve in the medical field. However, in reality, most of the experiments do not aid in making much progress in human health. A considerable reason would be the differences between animals and humans. Animal rights organizations

According to the National Institutes of Health, animal testing has been around since the days of philosopher Aristotle. According to ProCon.org, there are an estimated 26 million animals used for scientific and commercial testing in the U.S. alone. Animal testing has brought many good things to the medical world, such as the treatment various disease. Also, the animal is being tested by many cosmetics companies. On the other hand, organizations like PETA- People of Ethical Treatment of Animals have fought against the medical testing of animals. There are pros and cons that come with the usage of animals in the biomedical and cosmetic testing, and each side needs should be carefully examined before deciding one way or another.

These experiments are the direct cause of massive suffering of millions of animals. The most common animals used in these invasive procedures are “17,896 dogs, 3,713 cats, 358,213 rabbits, 6,686 horses, 6,095 monkeys…over 1,000,000 fish and over 8,500,000 rodents”(“Facts and Figures on animal testing”). In fact, in most of these animals, diseases that affect humans are not even prevalent in animals, such as major types of heart diseases, different cancers, HIV and more (“Arguments against animal testing”, n.d). These diseases are artificially introduced to the animal’s immune system, in an attempt to mimic human diseases. The fact that animals cannot get said diseases, greatly affects the outcome in humans (“Arguments against animal testing”, n.d).

Throughout history, animal experimentation has played a captious role in leading to advanced medical discoveries and human benefit. However, what a profuse group of individuals tend not to perceive are the enormous numbers of animal subjects that have suffered

¨Should animals be used for experimentation¨ is a question that has been floating around since the 1960s. This is an argument that has been going on for 50 years because of moral beliefs, medical reasons, and personal experiences. All of these factor in deciding whether we are for or against animal testing. There are laboratories and biomedical research groups that promote animal testing, while organizations like P.E.T.A (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) discourage animal testing. In 2013, a poll was conducted about if animal research was morally wrong or right. The poll resulted in 56% Americans morally approving it and 39% saying it was wrong (Procon, 2017).

Animal experimentation by scientists can be cruel and unjust, but at the same time it can provide long term benefits for humanity. Animals used in research and experiments have been going on for 2,000 years and keep is going strong. It is a widely debated about topic all over the world. Some say it is inhuman while others say it’s for the good of human kind. There are many different reasons why people perform experiments and why others total disagree with it.

The use of animals for scientific research has been a topic of debate for a long time. On one hand it is morally wrong to use animals for human benefit. On the other hand, removing animals completely from lab for research would limit our understanding of health and disease, and will affect the development of new and vital treatments. It is true that sometimes these studies do reduce the quality of life of animals, thorough regulations should be in place to ensure that they are carried out in a less violent way.

Animals are not made to be brutally burned or blinded and brain damaged daily. Cosmetic testing is not a bad thing when it comes to science, but it is morally wrong. There are 92% of products, that are tested on animals, that fail because they are deemed too dangerous for human use (“11 Facts About Animal Testing”). Cosmetic products should not be tested on animals due to the long-term negative medical effects, alternatives for such testing exists, and there is an abundance of cruelty free products that can be used.

Experimentation on animals has animal rights advocates and some scientists questioning the effectiveness and validity of animal testing for medical advancement. Dating back to the 2nd century B.C., early Greek scientists performed experiments on living animals for the purpose of advancing their knowledge and understanding of the human body. However, recent research has confirmed that, “animals rarely serve as good models of the human body” (Animal Testing). Everyone agrees that animals are used for research. Some people believe that using animals for research is cruel and unethical, while others believe that using animals for research is necessary to explore medical treatment for humans. Experimentation on animals is costly, unethical, and unreliable and should be prohibited.