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The Pros And Cons Of Animal Testing

Decent Essays

Have you ever wondered how it would feel to be forced to do things against your will? Every year more than 100 million animals suffer each year. They are forced to eat, get physically hurt, and overall being traumatized. Despite animals not being exactly like humans, they still feel the same pain and emotions as us. Animals should not be used in medical testing or product testing because animal testing is cruel and inhumane with animals being forced to do things they wouldn't want to do.
Animal testing mainly began when there was a belief that animals do not feel pain. There was also the belief the humans are superior to animals. English Philosopher Jeremy Bentham was one of the first people to come up with the question of whether or not if animals could suffer. During the World War I era, one of the first actual testing methods was discovered, the testing of acute toxicity which is known as the LD50 test today. With this testing, animals were force fed, forced to inhale the product, or made skin contact with a product or a chemical, which was used in dangerously high amounts.The animals would have to endure side effects that included severe abdominal pain, seizures, convulsions, paralysis and bleeding from the nose or mouth until they died. Another type of testing is the eye and skin irritation testing which started back in the 1940’s. In these tests substances are dropped into a rabbit’s eye or put onto their shaved skin. Then Laboratory Technicians would record the damage which would include scabs, ulcers, inflamed skin, and blindness. The test results for this type of test were deemed unreliable due to the fact a rabbit’s eye is different than a human’s eye. In 1966 the first Animal Welfare Act was signed into law. This law regulates the treatment of animals in research, exhibition, transport and dealers.
People that justify the use of animals in medical and product testing, usually have good reasons to believe so. “By studying animals, it is possible to obtain information that cannot be learned in any other way” (National Academies Press). One reason they believe it's the right thing to do is because of its benefits. Some of those benefits include advances in knowledge and improvements in disease

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