The Use Of Scientific Research On Animals

Worldwide, there has always been a plethora of issues concerning whether animals should or should not be used for biomedical research. There are some advocating for the best and most-advanced medicine for the people; with disregard for the animal’s health. They believe people’s needs should be the first concern. However, others put the animal’s health first. If the animal is not in safe conditions, then it does not matter what medicine advances might be discovered. Biomedical research is defined as “The application of the natural sciences, especially the biological and physiological sciences, to clinical medicine” (“Biomedicine.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/biomedical.). Without biomedical research on animals, modern medicine would not exist. Animal testing has enabled the findings of treatments for cancer, antibiotics for infections, and preventatives for illnesses. For these reasons, animal testing should be used in the process of developing biomedical research.

Although animals testing help humans in many ways it can be cruel and inhuman to the animals being tested on. Depending on which lab the end up in they could be treated poorly and starved. They could be “inflicted with burn wounds and pain to test for a healing process” (Brown, 2017). This is cruel and just wrong for many reasons. “When testing to evaluate irritation caused by

Initially, the overall notion of using animal models for human health problems was contrived in response to concerns about infectious diseases. The basic presumption was that if these animals were used empirically, became afflicted with an infection and were cured, there was a feasible theory of stopping the same disease in humans. Animals were originally thought, to be valid models of human health concerns. The animal’s disease however, must have the same biological components, symptoms, and responses to the treatments that are similar to human counterparts. Failure to meet one

One reason they might not be stopping it is because they might not know what is happening when animals are tested. Here are somethings that happen to animals when they are tested on: “Food and water deprivation, surgical procedures followed by recovery, infliction of wounds, burns and other injuries to study healing, infliction of pain to study its physiology and treatment, behavioural experiments designed to cause distress, e.g., electric shock or forced swimming, other manipulations to create “animal models” of human diseases ranging from cancer to stroke to depression, killing by carbon dioxide asphyxiation, neck-breaking, decapitation, or other means” (hsi). And most common used animals in animals testing are animals that are usually pets. Such as: mice, fish, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, birds, cats, dogs, and mini-pigs. In theory more than 150 million animals a year are killed because of animal testing. Even though there is a ton of evidence that animal testing is bad and doesn’t work it still continues. Why? The reason is that animal testing is much cheaper than the new methods and that’s why it

Interestingly animal research has created advancement in the understanding and treatment of conditions such as breast cancer, brain injury, childhood leukemia, cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis and many more. Additionally, other people feel that animals themselves benefit from the results of animal testing. Millions of animals have received vaccines for rabies, distemper, canine parvo virus and other diseases as a result of animal testing and research. The issue with this reasoning is that there is not any regard for the animals’ life when there is alternative means of testing. The value that we place on the lives of animals should be the same as what we place on human

We don’t know if the scientists in unregulated labs are treating the animals in the right way, if the workers have any training, or if the labs are clean. When unregulated scientific research on animals occurs, animal cruelty increases. Regulated facilities require workers to be trained. If unregulated, it is not known if these scientists and lab technicians have been trained or if they're just regular old people in lab coats. Unregulated animal testing is like riding a dirt bike without being trained. If you don’t know what you’re doing, it can be dangerous. For all we know, the employees in these labs could be mistreating the test subjects and hurting them unnecessarily. This is another strong reason that this type of research should stop. (aldf.org) ,

Since Ancient Greece, humans have used animals as means of learning more about the world. The first known vivisection was done by a Greek philosopher, Alcmaeon, in 450 B. C. E (“Animal Testing” NP). Since then, animals have had invasives tests performed on them, been killed, and been experimented on in the name of science or for profit. Some experiments are in order to demonstrate already known facts to students, others are to further medical knowledge, and some are to test drugs and cosmetics (“Animal Testing” NP). Scientific testing on animals has led to many medical discoveries. Animals are used, and have been used for millennia, in order to make products, procedures, and life in general safer for humans - stemming from the belief that human lives are more important than animals’. In order to moralize animal experimentation, people tend to draw attention to the benefits of animal experimentation and draw attention away from the cruelties and injustice committed towards animals. To lessen the suffering and lack of fairness of animals, people should find and use alternatives to animal experimentation.

I had the privilege of interviewing Tracy Ziegelhofer, who for fifteen years has been a manager for Envigo, an international private company that works to advance pharmaceutical development, modern therapies, and test the toxicity and safety of substances through animal testing. She reassured me that the stereotype animal testing has been given could not be more false. Animals who are used for testing are specifically bred for this purpose; they are not taken out of their natural habitats (APSPhysiology). Additionally, of the 26 million animals tested each year (ProCon Team), mice and rats account for more than ninety percent, where large animals such as pigs, dogs, and primates make up the remainder (Ziegelhofer). After successfully testing cardiovascular devices for humans on a beagle, Ms. Ziegelhofer adopted the dog, informing me that many animals are “retired” after testing and are put up for adoption. Animals who exhibit pain are humanely euthanized following an experiment (Woods). She also described the quality of life for laboratory animals. “All the animals are very socialized,” she said, “They have plenty of toys to enjoy playing with, and of course they have beds for relaxing, and they always have food available to them,” she continued (Ziegelhofer). Regarding what laboratories can and cannot do, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have

Animals used in laboratories dates as far back as the 17th century (Unknown, 2015)6. When I first read this statistic, it was surprising because the amount of time testing has been around really makes one think about the advancements made because of that. Due to the amount of time animal testing has been around, two general groups have formed in response to this. The people advocating for it are commonly part of the science community or anyone that supports what science hopes to accomplish and then there is the community of people who would not want animals to have to endure the pain from being tested throughout their entire lives. In this paper I will be presenting two perspectives on the topic regarding the use of animals in laboratories. The first perspective will show how animal testing is extremely beneficial to the world of scientific research as well as to the world in general. While the second perspective will show how the animal rights activists believe that the animals being tested on should not be forced to go through painful testing procedures.

“We have made a way from studying humans… we all drank Kool-Aid on that one included…The problem is that (animal testing) hasn’t worked, and it’s time we stopped dancing around the problem…We need to refocus and adapt ne methodologies for use in humans to understand diseases in biology in humans” (Dr.Elias Zerhouni). Animal testing is when animals are taking from their habitat and put in cages in a laboratory. They wait in the cages until scientist have to do scientific testing and commercial testing on them. These poor animals get tortured just so a company can take out a new hair spray. We should not use animals for scientific or commercial testing.

Many laboratory get a lot of money for equipment and other things to test on animals. From www.navs.org “In 2015, the NIH budget of almost $22 billion resulted in well over $10 billion in funding for projects that included animal experimentation.” All of that money that is going to waste on animal testing could go to something way more important, like more universal health care and make medicine cheaper so people don’t go broke just to get healthy again. We shouldn’t let our government pay that much on something like

If humans do not go through this pain, then why should animals have to suffer this ominous treatment? To add on, if the medicine is not safe to use on animals than it is most likely not going to be safe on humans either. “Animals used in experiments are commonly subjected to force feeding, forced inhalation, food and water deprivation, prolonged periods of physical restraint, the infliction of burns and other wounds to study the healing process, the infliction of pain to study its effects and remedies, and "killing by carbon dioxide asphyxiation, neck-breaking, decapitation, or other means." (“Animal Testing”). Medical testing on animals makes them suffer through the same pain that one may feel, so making them go through this horrible process is a form of incredulous animal

Animals have similar nervous systems as a human, and are still able to feel pain and hunger. Very few success have come from animal testing, and these little successes do not outweigh the cost of millions of animals lives. According to Santa Clara University, “ [a]nimals are starved, shocked, burned, and poisoned as scientists look for something that might just yield some human benefit.” These animals are also not properly given painkillers and anesthesia that could lessen the suffering that they endure. Not only are they not properly given medication, they are also poorly treated and the handlers of the animals are

Many groups who test on animals do not follow animal rights laws which results in fines. Colleges waste a lot if their money because they break animal right laws (By the Numbers: Animal Testing). One example, was Harvard Medical School being fined $24,000 for animal welfare violations (By the Numbers: Animal Testing). These colleges do not care if they lost money. They do not even try to protect the animals. Many colleges use illegal methods to test drugs which is not right. Each year animal testing wastes money that can be used in other ways. Animal testing in the United States spends about 12 billion dollars each year (By the Numbers: Animal Testing). The United States could use the 12 billion dollars in a more useful way. The U.S. can support seniors that are food insecure. The country could hire more teachers for America’s education. The government could give money for homeless veterans or give back money in federal income taxes. All of these options would help the country and its citizens. Animal testing should not use too much money in its experiments. Along with spending a lot of money, animal testing also harms a lot of

The scientists make sure the animals are not in very much pain, the scientists make sure they use proper safe tools when doing the tests on the animals. Scientists are very respectful of test animals. They make sure that the animals are treated well and do not suffer at any point in an experiment. The scientists do all they can for the animals when it comes to actually testing on them. If they think it will be uncomfortable for the animals they give them pain killers to relieve the stress and the pain if pain is even involved. The scientists don’t do the tests with intentions on hurting the animals they do it in hope to save lives of many people or make life easier on someone’s life.