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Positive impact of animal testing
Why animal testing is necessary
Positive impact of animal testing
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Animal testing can actually help people and other animals. Animal research has played a big part of the last 100 years for humans and animal health. For example here are some things that hey have done blood transfusions, dialysis, organ-transplantation, vaccinations to chemotherapy, bypass surgery and joint replacement and these have been with research of animals and their health.
Animal systems actually help the human systems because of how much similarities they have between physiological and genetic systems. Most of the lab animals are mice and rats. To be exact there is less then one-fourth of a percent of dogs and cats together. Some of the animals that are researched on are rabbits, guinea pigs, woodchucks, pigs, sheep,
Since the time of Aristotle, animals have been used to further human progress. When Galen pioneered the study of anatomy or when Harvey discovered the circulation of blood, they used animals as a vital portion of their work. Why? Because at the time there was no alternative short of testing on human beings, an option very few would morally accept then or even now.
Albert Sabin, the developer of the polio vaccine once said, “Without animal research, polio would still be claiming thousands of lives each year.” Polio is a deadly disease caused by a virus that spreads from person to person. This infectious disease renders the brain and spinal cord helpless while also ensuring a permanent case of paralysis to the victim. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “…13,000 to 20,000 para-lytic cases were reported annually,” before the 18th century. After the introduction of the polio vaccine, “…a total of 2,525 paralytic cases were reported, compared with 61 in 1965.” This dramatic decrease in the prominence of the polio disease can only be attributed to the success of animal testing. Animal experimentation is used in the research of genetics, drug testing, biology, toxicity testing, cosmetic testing, and many other fields. Despite all of its beneficial traits, animal testing has been wildly controversial over the past decades because of its perceived unethical treatment towards animals. Although animal testing may be deemed unethical by many, it is a form of medical testing that has not only saved lives but has also greatly revolutionized the medical world.
Why do we have to use animals for research? Many humans and animals get the same illnesses because animals are biologically similar to humans. Animals have a shorter life cycle than humans and as a result, they can be studied throughout their whole life span or across several generations. According to information from the Office of Technology Assessment, it is estimated that between 17 and 23 million animals are used in research each year. Approximately 95% of these animals are rats and mice specifically bred for research and 4.25% of these animals include rabbits, guinea pigs, sheep, fish, frogs, insects, and other species. Most importantly, only 0.75% of the animals in research are cats, dogs, and primates. Major medical advances have been made because of the research of these animals. (Animal Research 2013)
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation and animal research, is using various nonhuman animals experiments, whether it be a psychological or physical test of the animal, or testing medicines and cosmetics to determine if they are good enough for human use and consumption.This specific kinds of research are often conducted at various medical institutes, universities, pharmaceutical companies, and commercial facilities that does the task of testing the products on the animals. Each year, more than 100 million animals are used and die in the name of scientific research. Those animals include rats (12%), frogs (1%), cats (0.8%), dog (0.6%), mice (69%), monkeys (0.1%), guinea pigs (1%), rabbits (1%), fish (10%), and birds (4%). (BBC) Just like anything else, animal research has its pros and cons, but in this case, the cons severely outweigh the pros.
Animal testing has been used for developing and researching cures for medical conditions. For example, the polio vaccine, chemotherapy for cancer, insulin treatment for diabetes, organ transplants and blood transfusions are just some of the important advances that have come from research on animals (“Animal Testing”). Consuming animals for research benefits in developing various treatments and also benefits in discovery better methods for cures. According to the article “Animal Testing”, it says that the underlying rationale for the use of animal testing is that living organisms provide interactive, dynamic systems that scientists can observe and manipulate in order to understand normal and pathological functioning as well as the effectiveness of medical interventions. It relies on the physiological and anatomical similarities between humans and other animals (MacClellan, Joel). Meaning that animals have the same body components and features as humans and is the best thing to research on to better understand the human development. Even though several argue that animal testing is harming the animals, one has to think back to all the benefits that has come from it. There may be a little remorse for endangering animal lives, but realizing how far medicine has come makes it worth the while.
One word comes to mind when I think of animal testing: cruel. Animal testing has been a subject of debate for many years. While most people think that using animals to test products is a reasonable approach, in reality the outcome does not always show how the products will react on humans, and the animals suffer unnecessarily. The United States needs to ban all animal testing like the European Union did because testing on animals is cruel and animals should not be dying from it.
In all, animal testing helps research science. Animal rights activists can argue their points until the end, yet in a matter of their life or their families lives, more than half of them would have to contest and say that they would rather have an animal be tested for something before their family member. It is done in humane ways and is reliable.
Firstly, animal testing helps scientists learn how the human body works without actually experimenting on humans. The animals most commonly used in experiments are mice and rats. The California Biometrical Research Association says rats and mice are effective for experiments concerning humans due to the fact that, “mice share more than 98% DNA with humans…” This means that humans and mice share many similar problems and disabilities, making them a good organism to test. Many scientists do these tests to cure illnesses and to find answers that they could not determine in computer or cell and tissue tests.
Throughout history, animal testing has played an important role in leading to new discoveries and human benefit. However, what many people forget are the great numbers of animals that have suffered serious harm during the process of animal testing. Animal testing is the use of animals in biological, medical, and psychological studies. The development and enhancement of medical research has been based on the testing of animals. There are many questions being asked if animal research is good or not or if the benefit for us is way greater the abuse of animals. Doing tests on animals can help find ways to cure diseases, but testing on them is wrong. Although we want to find cures for diseases to help many people, testing on animals not only brutally hurts them but it also denies the animals the rights they have.
Besides, “Animal research has led to vaccines against diptheria, rabies, tuberculosis, polio, measles, mumps, cholera, whooping cough, and rubella. It has meant eradication of smallpox, effective treatment for diabetes and control of infection with powerful antibiotics. Cardiac pacemaker, microsurgery to reattach severed limbs, and heart, kidney, lung, liver and other transplants are all possible because of animal research”(O’Neil 210). In short, animal testing saves lives. Animal testing helps find causes, and cures, of diseases, genetic defects, birth defects, and abnormalities.
Animal testing is the use of non-human animals for scientific experimentation. There are estimates that 50 to 100 million vertebrate animals worldwide, from zebra fish to on-human primates, are used annually. Much larger numbers of invertebrates are used even flies and worms are used as model organisms are very important, experiments on invertebrates are largely unregulated and not included in statistics. Animals are euthanized after being used in an experiment. Some of these animals are purpose-bred and others are caught in the wild or they are supplied by dealers who obtain them from auctions and pounds.
Animal testing is known as vivisection and in vivo. In Europe, there are approximately 12.1 million animal testing experiments were conducted annually (Murnaghan, 2010). Animal testing has been practiced across the history of medical research and one of the famous researcher was Galen, ‘Father of Vivisection’. In recent years, a lot of animal rights groups and animal protections were published that cause the practice of using animals for biomedical research has come under severe criticism (Hajar, 2011). To illustrate, Chinese activists protested against dog meat festival in southern town of Yulun even though dog meat is a traditional dish in some area of China (Rajagopalan, 2015). Although animal testing may have unreliable results, it can
According to the book “Science, Medicine, and Animals” by Committee on the Use of Animals in Research, National Academy of Sciences (1991), the animals also provide protection to a lot of endangered animals. The scientists can invent medicine, which is used to treat animal diseases, from animal experiments. Animal experiments can study the habit of animals, and help build suitable living environment for endangered animals. In addition, the animals who born in the laboratory have higher survival rate then the animals born in the nature. The most important thing is that, after the experiments, the animals will be released to the natural. So, the animal experiments can help animal
Imagine your sweet cat locked in a cage inside a laboratory with other various animals. Millions of animals every year are locked up in labs for testing. Animals are used to test medications, cosmetics, biology lessons, and for medical training. Thousands of mice, rats, primates, cats, dogs, and other animals are used for testing. Most of these animals will die in cruel testing experiments. Animal testing is tortures to the animals, an unreliable option for medication, and there are better safer options for testing.
Animal testing hasn’t been beneficiary towards any scientific breakthrough or discovery. Elias Zourhini says, “Animal testing has been useless” he is one of the main people who are strongly making a push to try and stop animal testing as a whole. “There have been thousands of dead and injured animals in the past years or so and there has been any reward or safety ensured because of these animals. Animals have been being used for testing for many years now, and especially now, the number of animals that are being used to be experimented on are extremely high. However, you may not know that laboratories aren’t required to publish how many animals they used or how many experiments conducted. Maybe that would help to find out especially what animals need to be strongly protected against testing. “Every laboratory should publish an annual statement setting forth plainly the number and kind of experiments and the methods of conducting them” (Gould qd. in Leffingwell 211). This would help many things and especially organizations that are protesting, to give reasons and facts about testing. Animals are used and then unaccounted for. Truly, you may never know h...