Animal Testing Is Unnecessary

Animals are poked and prodded at daily in the hopes of advancing human medical research. Instead of the medical advancements that scientists are hoping for, the results of these tests are animals ending up dead or damaged beyond repair. The tests almost always fail because humans and animals are different and people should not depend on animals for human medical information. Many people think that animal testing is helping improve our medical knowledge and curing diseases but really it is just cruel and inaccurate. It is clear that animal testing is not beneficial and should be banned because animal testing is unnecessary for medical research, it is cruel and unsafe for the animals and humans, and animal testing is expensive.

The most important reason is that animal testing is unnecessary for medical research. For example, less than 2% of human illnesses are actually found in animals. 92% of medicines the are passed on animals, fail on humans. Scientists are wasting resources and time on unreliable tests. Also safe substances on humans such as vitamins and vegetable oil, cause birth defects on animals. Safe medicines like aspirin, digitals, insulin, and more failed when they were first tested on

animals (Peta2). This shows that humans and animals are very different when it comes to medicine and many other things.

Another reason is that animal testing is cruel and unsafe for the animals and humans.

For example, every year more than 100 million animals are killed in just U.S. labs. Before the animals die they are tortured, going through countless traumatizing procedures. The animals go through things like being burnt, inhaling toxic fumes, being drilled at, and more (Peta). Animal testing is no different if not worse than animal abuse. If animal abuse is illegal, then animal testing should be too. Another example is in America, 106,000 deaths are caused by reactions to drugs that passed on animal tests. 2.1 million are hospitalized. These reactions can also cause serious disabilities (Peta2). All in all, animal testing is injuring or killing much more people than it is

helping.

The last reason is that animal testing is expensive. For example, more than 16 billion dollars in taxpayer money goes toward animal testing. 3 million dollars of just Wisconsin taxpayer money goes to mice tests (Peta). This does not even show how much money out of the government or other states is being used. It could be millions more. That money could go towards causes that would really help people. Also animal tests can take years and years. Millions of dollars can go into just one rat test (Humane Society International). On the Human Society International website, there is a chart comparing costs of animal tests to an alternative, in vitro tests. In vitro adds up to be thousands less than animal testing, which could save billions every year.

Others will say that animal testing is needed for medical breakthroughs. Such views are inaccurate because research shows that most animal tests fail. For example, out of the 8% of drugs that were approved in animal tests and work on humans, half are banned. They are banned because of dangerous side effects that were not shown in the animal tests. There are also alternatives to animal testing. There are more modern ways like in vitro testing. In vitro uses human cells and tissues for testing. Another way is using computer simulations called in silico tests. Both ways are less time consuming and expensive. Using human cells and tissue or computer simulations provides much more reliable results than animal testing does (Neavs).

Once the animal test fails, the animal is tossed aside. It is not cared or treated for. There is more money and time wasted based on the thought that animals can be used for human sciences. It may be true that animal testing has been responsible for some important medical research but the majority of tests fail. Animal testing is not helping and should be banned. There is no point on hurting humans, animals, and spending lots of money on tests that people can not rely on. It’s important to realize that animal testing is causing more harm than good and should be put to a stop.