Why Animal Testing Should not be Used According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it was reported that in 2016, 71,370 animals suffered pain during experiments without being given any anesthesia for relief. Unfortunately, this is a recurring problem in which every year there are over twenty million animals used for testing and experiments. Reasons show why animal testing should not be permitted because it is cruel and inhumane, unreliable, and not necessarily safe for humans. To start, animal testing is harsh and “...has no place in our modern world,” (Alexis Croswell). Just like humans, animals have the same right to live in our world without being forced into suffering. These creatures that are used for experiments are usually left with severe pain and serious trauma. For example, some animals are forced underwater for a long period of time or purposefully have their legs broken. Many are even deprived of …show more content…
According to neurologist Aysha Akhtar, “94% of drugs that pass animal tests fail in human clinical trials.” She also claims, “...over 100 stroke drugs that were effective when tested on animals have failed in humans…” This shows that the low success rate of animal experiments in research is not useful and threatens human safety. However, many claim that these animals that we test on share up to 99% of our DNA and have the same vital organs and suffer the same diseases. Yet, in 2011, according to Theodora Capaldo, “...the Institute of Medicine concluded there was no current need for chimpanzees in biomedical research.” The National Institute of Health decided shortly after to retire 90% of its chimpanzees used for testing because of the lesser need for them. If humans’ closest relative, the chimpanzee, is not useful for for human research anymore, then how could any other species be? Most people still do not have an answer to
In modern society, animal experimentation has triggered a controversy; consequently, vast amount of protests have been initiated by the animal rights community. Although these organizations have successfully broadcast their concerns toward animal experimentation, its application continues to survive. Sally Driscoll and Laura Finley inform that there remain fifty million to one-hundred million animals that experience testing or experimentation throughout the world on a yearly basis. But despite opposition, animal experimentation, the use of experiments on animals in order to observe the effects an unknown substance has on living creatures, serves multiple purposes. Those particular purposes are: research of the living body, the testing of products, and the advancement of medicine.
Over 100 Million animals are burned, crippled, poisoned and abused in testing labs every year. Animals are used to test the safety of products, advance scientific research, and develop models to study disease and to develop new medical treatments, all for the sake of mankind. Animals should not be used for scientific research because animal testing is inhumane, other testing methods now exist, and animals are very different from human beings. While animal testing has led to many life-saving cures, animal testing is cruel and inhumane because it involves inflicting pain and harm on the test subject to study its effects and remedies. Testing involves physically restraining, force-feeding, and depriving animals of food and water.
The roots of animal experimentation began in the early 1600s when the world expressed in interests on the functions of animals and their uses in human life. However, it wasn’t until the incident regarding the drug thalidomide in 1960 did the government make it a requirement for drugs be tested on animals. During the incident, millions of women took the medication believing that it would be a source of relieve from morning sickness, not knowing however that it would cause irrevocable effects on their unborn children (Watson 4). Although the ruling seemed to provide a sigh of relief to some, the very idea of placing animals in strange uncomfortable environments and experiencing pain and euthanasia angered many. According to the American Anti-Vivisection Society, commonly known as AAVS, It is wrong to treat animals as objects for the purpose of scientific research, and to cause them pain and suffering (“Animal Research Is Unethical and Scientifically Unnecessary”). Although the arguments against animal experimentation seem credible, animal testing on medicines and products are necessary in order to insure the safety of human beings.
Animal Testing is one of the most horrible things you could do to an animal. When an animal is tested you could cause it to become crippled for the rest of its life whether they make it blind or even making it to become paralyzed you could even cause extreme pain or death.
Every year about 100 million animals suffer through being poisoned, shocked, and burned for unsuccessful medical research. Some may believe that animal testing is a crucial part to medical research and should be used more frequently. Others believe the pain and suffering inflicted upon the animals is morally wrong and should not be done, no matter what benefits come from it.
There is a moral blind spot in the treatment of animals that enable us to justify the cruelties for the perceived benefits of humans. Animals are living things. They have lungs which breathe, hearts which beat, and blood that flows. In fact, animals sense of smell, sight, and sound is much more acute than our own. Therefore, we can assume that their sensitivity to pain is at least equal to ours. According to Hippocrates, “The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different.” This can go with the Duty Theory that states that every individual gets treated the same. The intentions of animal testing is not to harm the animals, but that is exactly what it does.
(Sub-Point # 1) According to The Humane Society International, animal testing is the process of using living animals for research purposes. Much of this research is done for common human use such as medicine, cosmetics, shampoos, cleaning products,pesticides, contact lenses, and diapers. Most of these research facilities will tell you that the pain the animals feel during testing is considered “mild”, but still have the potential to cause pain, suffering, and even death for the animals. Common procedures include forced exposures to chemicals which is done by injections. Animals are also inflicted pain with wounds so that either their healing or stress level can be studied. At the end animals are killed or are used in other experimentations. The number of animals that have been tested on should be reported, but 90% of the animals used in testing here in the United States are not represented on government statistics (Rowan,
Though some people are not supporting animal testing due to the suffering of unwanted pains for animal models because they think it is cruel and inhumane acts. In fact, some are against animal testing because it providing unreliable result and also certified that animals do have cognitive thought. But for researchers, animals are lower class in animal kingdom compared to humans and lack of cognition thought. Despite, some animals can speak by using simple English but they cannot expressed their feeling and thought through words. Humans have developed language, which enables them to cooperate with each other, whereas apes do not tend to work together unless there is an immediate benefit for the self (Gaertner, 2011). Last but not least, animal testing is important for medical research which provide advantages to human and also animal itself in order to solve infectious diseases that are still transmitted all over the
In addition, people consider that animals are suffering in the experiments. But according to the author Harish (2011), 44% of animals were used in experiments, which involve pain. What’s more, most animals are getting pain relief drugs in the experiments. That can make animals not feel pain. So, the medical animal testing should be done.
Every year, millions of animals experience painful, suffering and death due to results of scientific research as the effects of drugs, medical procedures, food additives, cosmetics and other chemical products. Basically, animal experimentation has played a dominant role in leading with new findings and human advantages. Animal research has had a main function in many scientific and medical advances in the past decade and is helping in the understanding of several diseases. While most people believe than animal testing is necessary, others are worried about the excessive suffering of this innocent’s creatures. The balance between the rights of animals and their use in medical research is a delicate issue with huge societal assumptions. Nowadays people are trying to understand and take in consideration these social implications based in animals rights. Even though, many people tend to disregard animals that have suffered permanent damage during experimentation time. Many people try to misunderstand the nature of life that animals just have, and are unable to consider the actual laboratory procedures and techniques that these creatures tend to be submitted. Animal experimentation must be excluded because it is an inhumane way of treat animals, it is unethical, and exist safer ways to test products without painful test.
More than 100 million animals suffer and die in the U.S. every year in cruel chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics tests as well as in medical training exercises and curiosity-driven medical experiments at universities (Peta 2). Animals used in testing are commonly subject to force feeding, physical restraint, and burns. They develop neurological and behavioral issues due to the lack of nutrition and deprivation, and are disease prone. Animals are infected with diseases that they would never normally contract, tiny mice grow tumors as large as their own bodies, kittens are purposely blinded, rats are made to suffer seizures, and primates’ skulls are cut open and electrodes are implanted in them (Peta1). Not all products tested on animals are necessarily safe.
Did you know that more than 100 million animals die each year because of experimentation? According to PETA, 100 million animals are killed in the U.S from scientific experimentation. They used animal testing during the space race by sending animals into space on rockets. Animal testing was unnecessary during the Space Race.
Animals are used in research to develop new medicines and for scientists to test the safety of the medicines. This animal testing is called vivisection. Research is being carried out at universities, medical schools and even in primary and elementary schools as well as in commercial facilities which provide animal experiments to industry. (UK Parliament) In addition, animals are also used in cosmetic testing, toxicology tests, “defense research” and “xenotransplantation”. All around the world, a huge amount of animals are sentenced to life in a laboratory cage and they are obliged to feel loneliness and pain. In addition scientists causing pain, most drugs that pas successfully in animals fail in humans. It is qualified as a bad science. Above all, animals have rights not to be harmed even though the Animal Welfare Act does not provide them even with minimal protection. The law does not find it necessary to use current alternatives to animals, even if they are obtainable. Animal testing should be banned due to animal rights, ethical issues, alternative ways and the unreliability of test results in humans.
Throughout the years animal rights groups and organizations have frowned upon animal experiments. Animal testing has been thought to be inhumane and cold-hearted to animals. Because of these accusations medical researchers have to suffer threats from individuals and the media. If animal testing weren’t allowed would that be a drawback in advancement in medical research? Animal testing is beneficial to people because these trails lead to improvements in medical research. Animal experiments have led to finding new cures and vaccines to fatal illnesses. Because animal experiments are helpful in making vaccines to prevent these sicknesses, these trails are the reason so many lives are saved. Animal testing is very necessary and useful to people, but animal rights groups believe that these trails doesn’t benefit humanity. According to Ellen Paul, “Breakthroughs in treating injuries, like practically all medical advances, depend upon experimentation on animals.” Animal experiments have given way to many new instruments to fight against diseases like cancer (Paul). For example, mice and other rodents contributed to scientists developing new tools for fighting different forms of cancers (Paul). Animal testing has helped science in many ways, but animal organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) believe that these experiments are cruel to animals. Even though most animals endure some sort of pain during these experiments, the results are very beneficial to people.
Is it necessary to test animals by sending them off to space? A scientist would send animals to space and test them to make sure that it was safe for an astronaut to go to space. Animals are used for many things but the one thing they shouldn't be used for is testing.