Persuasive Essay: Should Animal Testing Be Banned?

Sadly according to the Humane Society International (HSI) article About Animal Testing “in the United states alone around 26 million animals are tested each year for medical and commercial research” (HSI) even though animal testing is not required to ensure that the cosmetic being sold are safe. From those 26 million animals being tested most are not protected by the federal Animal Welfare Act. The animal welfare act does not include birds, rats and mice bred for research, and it doesn’t include cold-blooded animals. Animals testing should be banned because the animals tested suffer immensely, also animal tested is unethical, and because there are many alternatives.

There are many ways the animals suffer some of the ways are being forced feed, also being food and water deprived, and being inflicted of burn. Many cosmetic companies use The Draize eye test, which is used to evaluate irritation caused by shampoos and other products. This test uses rabbits, the rabbits are being incapacitated in stocks with their eyelids held open by clips, sometimes for multiple days, so they cannot blink away the products being tested. The rabbits are tortured for days even there is an

alternative that wouldn’t harm living animals. In many medical laboratories “sheep and pigs have their skin burned off, and rats have their spinal cords crushed (HSI)” and many more gruesome things are done to the animals. The animals that are tested in medical laboratories stuffer just as much or maybe even more than animals that are tested in cosmetic laboratories.
Animal testing is unethical, animals unlike people can’t stand up for themselves, so people tend to do whatever they please to them.

Imagine the pain the animals go through every day. According to the Humane Society International in 2010 The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that “97,123 animals suffered pain during experiments while being given no anesthesia for relief. The testing involved 5,996 rabbits, 33,652 guinea pigs, 48,015 hamsters etc...” (HSI). . It is horrifying how many animals are tested every year. As normal humans who have feelings, the people in the lavatories who are testing the animals should have some remorse and use the alternatives to animal testing. People shouldn’t be allowed to do anything to the poor defenseless animals that they wouldn’t do to

themselves.
Thomas Hartung a professor of toxicology at Johns Hopkins University, is for alternatives to animal testing because "we are not 70 kg rats"(Hartung). Like the professor established in the previous sentence we are not rats, so the drugs that are being tested on the rats could have an effective reaction on the rats but once in an actual human body the drugs could affect the body in a dangerous. There are ads on TV that say people that had taken a certain drug can receive compensation if the drug affected them in a negative way, those drugs were probably tested on animals and that’s why they cause an unexpected negative reaction on humans. For example the arthritis drug Vioxx was tested on animals it showed that it had a protective effect on the hearts of mice, yet the drug caused many heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths before it was taken out of the market. There are many alternative methods that can be used to replace the need for animals. For example “In vitro” testing which is studying cell culture in a Petri dish, can now produce more accurate results than animal testing because human cells can be used. Since human cells are being used the test shows more accurately how humans will react. Cosmetic companies could use the Isolated Chicken Eye Test instead of the Draize test, because those alternative test use eyes from animals slaughtered for the meat industry instead of live rabbits to detect chemicals and products that are severely irritating to the eyes. Other alternatives that can save many rabbits each year from painful skin related test are, EpiSkin™, EpiDerm™ and SkinEthic which are artificial human skin. There shouldn’t be a need to torture rabbits with testing if there is an alternative that will give the same results. Also since Animals are very different from human beings and they make poor test subjects therefore they shouldn’t be used for testing. The cellular differences between animals and people make animals poor models for human beings. Therefore the alternatives that have actual human cells are better.
There are many ways people can contribute to stop animal testing for example people can stop buying form companies that test their products on animals, and instead buying cruelty-free cosmetics and household products. There are also charities that people can also donate to like the PETA and The Humane Society to help stop animal testing. Animal testing should be illegal because it causes the animals a lot of pain, it is unethical, and because there are many alternatives. A new law should be passed to prevent all these medical and cosmetic companies from testing on innocent animals. The animals don’t have the choice to live a happy and joyful life like most of their species.