The Pros And Cons Of Animal Testing

About 1,027,450 animals were used for testing in 2007 (Evans). Animal experimentation is when animals are used to test the safety of products. These products range from cosmetics to medication and anatomy. Many animals are used for testing such as dogs, monkeys, rats, birds, and mice. Some people believe that these testings should go on because it gives essential information about humans (“Animal Experimentation”). Those who are familiar with animal experimentation will have a better idea about all the ways that animals testing is unneeded. They will know how this process is abusive and cruel to animals. People will also know about how there are now new technologies that could act as alternatives. Animal Experimentation should stop because animal testing is unnecessary, it's cruel to animals, and there are alternatives.

According to ( Animal Testing and the Law), There are legal tests that include burning, poisoning, starving, forced smoking, mutilating, blinding, electrocuting, drowning, and dissecting innocent animals without painkillers. We allow animal testing to happen all the time to animals, even baby animals! We animal test on cosmetics, medicines, foods, etc. For example, a person decides to test on an animal for a cure to a new disease, it could kill the animal or make it really sick. Testing cures in animals is cruel and inhumane. They shove medicine and other devices down an animals throat or forcefully into the animals body. We don’t recognize that animals, big or small, have feelings and a life too! Scientists who test on animals as their subjects are mean to the animals and force them to do things they don’t want to do. (Sing Animals for Testing), says that in animal testing, countless animals are experimented on and then killed after their use or during the experiment. Other animals are injured and will still live the remainder of their lives in

“Given the climate of poor regulatory oversight, many animals are also abused, neglected, and harmed in ways that violate the law”( “Animal Testing and the Law” ) , revealing the horrific underlying effect of animal testing that society does not want to display to the public. Not to mention, many animals are unprotected by the law and forced against their will to undergo a horrid experience—“legal tests include burning, poisoning, mutilating…, and dissecting without painkillers”( “Animal Testing and the Law” ). Many animals are caged behind closed doors that the public cannot see because scientists who use these techniques do not want to upset the public; however, the law is not forcefully used to protect animals in a harmful environment. Furthermore, animals have no voice to establish a strong faith for their future; humans determine the fate and well-being of the animals. Animal Welfare Act, a Federal law that addresses the standard of care animals receive at research facilities, excludes about 95 percent of animals used in research and has low protection for the rest ( “ Animal Testing and the Law” ). Precious animals used in experimental research should be protected fully, if animals are going to be used, otherwise animal testing should be banned if the laws cannot fulfill their duty of protection because of the horrible experiments that may take place. “M.A. Fox

When it comes to the topic of animal testing, most of us will readily agree that it is a debatable topic. Where this agreement ends, however, is on the question of whether it helps ensure the safety of drugs for human consumption. Where some are convinced that these drugs tested saves many human lives. Others maintain that these tests serve no purpose in the end because the drugs used fall short to heal human disease. My own view is that testing animals with these drugs is not the most efficient way since animals and humans are not exactly similar, making the results unreliable.

Although, animal testing may have saved people from diseases, but at what cost. “All procedures, even those classified as ‘mild,’ have the potential to cause the animals physical as well as psychological distress and suffering. Often the procedures can cause a great deal of suffering” (Humane Society International, 2017). Humane Society International (2017) also listed out common procedures used in animal testing: forced chemical exposure in toxicity testing, exposure to diseases, genetic manipulation, ear-notching, tail-clipping, periods of physical restraint, food and water deprivation, surgical procedures, infliction of pain to study its effects, behavioural experiments designed to cause distress, and killing by carbon dioxide asphyxiation, neck-breaking, decapitation, and other means. Not to mention, all of these procedures are cruel, and the animals can feel pain that has been inflicted upon it. In fact, a majority of these procedures is considered animal cruelty. According to the NDAA (2016), animal cruelty constitutes as “physical harm or killing,” and animal neglect is considered when failure to provide food and water. Practically all of the common procedures fit into these categories. Despite how animal testing aligns with animal cruelty, almost all state laws exempts animals in research (NDAA, 2016). So, it continues. Another negative aspect is how animal testing is unreliable; Humane

In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted a search and found that 92% of drugs labeled as “safe” in animals, did not even enter the clinical trial phase, as they were deemed unsafe for humans (Capaldo, June 2014). Many people have the assumption that these laboratories use animals that are similar to human, DNA or physically wise. However, in 2011, the Institute of Medicine concluded

Charles Darwin, a renowned scientist, wrote to the Oxford zoologist Ray Lankester in 1871 : “You ask about my opinion on vivisection (animal testing). I quite agree…it is a subject that makes me sick with horror, so I will not say another word about it else I shall not sleep to-night, ” So you’d think, that nearly 150 years after Darwin’s words there would be some change in opinion. You’d think that when a scientist’s idol shows absolute disgust for animal testing they’d stop, especially as there are more effective and money-saving methods today. Experimenting on animals is cruel and morally wrong. Even as I speak, animals are being crammed into cages in the name of medical ‘research’. Animals are very different from humans, their anatomical structures are also different, so why test on animals when it the drugs they are being tested with are meant for HUMANS? What kind of sick logic is this?

When considering the topic of animal testing, it draws attention from the government, general public, and of course, scientists. It has been an extremely contested moral issue for hundreds of years. In the 17th century Rene Descartes, a French philosopher, argued that animals were no more than automata and could not feel pain. This was rejected by Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century who extended his utilitarian conception of rights to animals due to their capability to suffer. (Ethics, par.1) To put an end to this ethically wrong practice people need to be educated on the animals affected, the industries testing on animals, become aware of the alternatives, what people are doing to

Animal testing is abusive, ineffective, and should be outlawed. The use of animals in life sciences has been in laboratories for over a century. The American Medical Society endorses allowing testing of all animals to create new medicine or treatments for humans. Ever since animal testing has been put into action, many people have expressed their ethical and scientific unease about the experiments. Not only does the procedure cause the creature physical pain and psychological distress, but also it wastes resources.

Animal testing is a small phrase for a vast view on the experiments done on animals, this can include cosmetics, psychology, medicine and food. “Controversy surrounding animal testing first started in the 17th century, when physiologist Edmund O'Meara and his supporters argued, 'the benefit to humans (does) not justify the harm to animals.'”(Sun, Shany. "The truth behind animal testing." Young Scientists Journal). As far as the practice for medicine went back, even then it was questioned if the life of an animal matters more than a human. Most will say that humans matter far more but others have very different opinions and lean toward the fact that most animals are abused. “Many organizations, such as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, actively condemn the cruel treatment of animals in medical research.”(Sun, Shany. "The truth behind animal testing." Young Scientists Journal). People see that they have morals, most act on these morals and protest or try and save animals by donating, offering care, or even taking animals from where they are being experimented on. The experiments conducted on the animals are considered, by

Over the years millions of animals are killed in laboratories, Including thousands of dogs- most Beagles. These beagles get confined for years or months, The dogs are usually kept in small cages or runs. Most of the time of their lives, Their being used for toxicology, the Beagles get fed lines of experimental drugs. They do this until the Beagle is dead from all the toxins it consumed, leading to a slow and painful death.

Have you ever really thought about what happens during animal testing? How the animals are treated, or what tortures they have to face on a day to day basis? More than one-hundred million animals suffer and die every year through animal testing. Ninety-five percent of animals used in experimentation aren’t even covered under the Animal Welfare Act, which regulates the treatment of the animals that are used for testing. Some animals are abused and mistreated so badly that they die before they are even experimented on. Animal testing is a cruel procedure and should be made illegal.

In the UK, pets have become just another member of the family. With a variety of pets domesticated and integrated within around ‘40%’ of UK households as of 2016 . Consequently, one may find it safe to assume that the United Kingdom is a nation of animal lovers. That said, many of these animals are still being abused with the RSPCA alone having rescued and collected 129,979 animals. Some may argue that this isn’t a lot when compared to the estimated 57 million pets owned , however that number is from the RSPCAs statistics and does not take into account all the dogs that have been rescued from other charity’s such as dogs trust and Battersea dogs home as well as other smaller rescue centers that specialize in different animals and breeds, and on top of this it does not count any of the animals that are still suffering.

Thirdly, there are many alternatives that now exist that can replace the harmful use of animals. Methods such as in vitro testing, advanced computer-modeling techniques (often referred to as in silico models), and studies with human volunteers are ways that are more inexpensive than animal testing and provide better results. For example, in vitro tests can be used where scientists study the cell cultured in a petri dish. These tests can produce more relevant results than animal testing because they use human cells which are more accurate. This methods and the other methods are not altered by the difference in species making it easier to apply the tests to humans, taking less time and money. In addition, Harvard’s Wyss Institute has created “organs-on-chips” that contain human cells grown in a state-of-the-art system to mimic the structure and function of human organs and organ systems. The chips can be used instead of animals in disease research, drug testing, and toxicity testing and have been shown to replicate human physiology, diseases, and drug responses more accurately than harsh animal experiments do. If these tests can be used rather than the testing on animals, then why do we still murder primates for unnecessary reasons?

According to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, every year about 100 million animals will be used for lab testing in the United States.(PETA) These animals range from fish to horses, and everything in between; and although this type of experimentation endangers the lives of animals, still many argue that it greatly benefits mankind. The opposition believes that limiting animal experimentation will stop the progress they are making in science, and experimentation in laboratories isn't unruly. The American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, or AALAS, has established nine guidelines that all experimenters must follow when using animals; these guidelines were put in place to protect animals from being harmed. Although they were intended for the purpose of protecting animal rights, most scientists don’t comply with them. Cases of animal abuse and neglect have risen and are very common amongst laboratories. These guidelines created are not providing enough restrictions to prevent animal abuse in the laboratory setting. Solely using guidelines will not stop the abuse and neglect that goes on in these experiments.