Why Animal Testing Should Be Banned
In the twenty first century, we have so many other alternatives besides continuing to burn, shock, poison, starve, and kill over 100 million animals to test new household products and medicines when it has been proved that animal testing is an ineffective way to cure illnesses and improve human life. Animals do not suffer the same illnesses as humans do and injecting them into animals and studying the effects delays our time to further understand the sickness on an actual human. Seeing that an animals’ genetic makeup is much different from a humans then certain medicines that work on animals more often than not are not effective on humans. Therefore, results are often very misleading. “Animals are fed harmful substances, infected with lethal viruses, subjected to brain damage, heart attacks, strokes, and cancers”(“What’s Wrong With…”). Through a humane perspective, the murder of millions of animals is a disturbing thought to hold. As a country, we continue to remain oblivious to what continues to go on behind laboratory doors for cosmetic, medical, and industrial purposes.
“If it is wrong to inflict pain on a human being, it is just as wrong to inflict pain on an animal”(Andre and Velasquez). Across the United States, lab animals only know a life locked inside cold bare cages only to be released for the sake of science and not knowing what they will endure in the process of a future experiment. In fact, the trauma that experiments cause, influence the overall result of the product on the animal. “The distress that laboratory animals are forced to endure has been proven to cause unpredictable changes in neurochemistry, genetic expression and nerve regeneration, leading to unreliable and ineffect...
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...ates alone. Experimental animals will never get to experience a life outside of a lonely cage and will continue to be forcefully held down for testing purposes. When scientists and companies already know what brands are and are not safe for public use, especially cosmetic companies. It is ridiculous to manufacture new products with unknown chemicals when it is already known what is dependable and harmless for human consumption. Medically animals are not a reliable ‘model’ because the genetic makeup of a human and animal is so far from identical. There are so many other alternatives that do not involve taking innocent lives of harmless animals, such as “In-Vitro’ and “Organs on a Chip”. Animals do no harm to us and we have no right to go killing millions of animals for experiments and tests. They are not toys, they are living creatures who deserve our respect.
Animals are tested on for many cosmetic and medical products, but the treatment of the animals and the quality of the test results are often less satisfactory than the consumer realizes. Every person has most likely purchased either a pharmaceutical or cosmetic product in his or her lives, but the careless techniques for making these products may astound individuals that rely on drugs for everyday use. According to the Food and Drug Administration, “every year about fifteen -hundred” drugs are created, but “twelve-hundred” are deemed unusable for people. Regardless of such a high number or drug rejections, about “one-million Americans are hospitalized from flaws in drugs” (“Animal Experimentation,” 2009). Most of these drugs were tested on animals before being approved for human use, which proves that animal testing is not a successful method of experimentation. Some factors should be considered when deciding what testing method is most helpful to society; whether an animal has similar genetics to humans, if testing animals are treated humanely, and the costs of conducting the tests. Scientists and animal support groups have quarreled for centuries over the morals of using testing animals and human safety when using animals for toxic experimentations. Individuals for animal testing usually claim that there are no alternatives or it is the safest out of all the methods, but he or she may not be aware of modern technologies that are capable of making a new and improved data for certain pharmaceutical products.
Another reason animal testing does not make sense is because we have alternative ways of testing. There are many new ways of testing besides testing on animals. By doing these other types of tests, people can save animals from pain and save their lives. In the article, “Alternative Testing” stated, “some new ways of testing could include ways like using tests on cells, using tests on types of tissues, and using tests on computer stimulations” (Howard). The article, “Ban Animal Testing” stated, “that an alternative method of testing is in vitro studies, which are cells used to test properties of drugs and tissues can also be used to test products and reactions from drugs as well” (Stachura). Some would argue to say that these alternative tests
According to an article by PETA, “experiments on animals are cruel, expensive and generally inapplicable to humans” (PETA 1). This shows how not only many laboratories and companies that use animals in their experiments are wasting money and time, but also wasting countless lives of animals. As a human, one does not have to suffer through unconsenting pain because no one would ever consent to be treated the way lab rats would be treated. A study done by the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that” medical treatments developed in animals rarely translated to humans” (Hackam, Redelmeier 1). This being said, it is not easy to comprehend why animal testing continues. However, as a community people think that “the benefits to humans does not justify the harm to animals” (Hajar 1). This goes to show how people who are pro-animal testing, marginalize the damage animal testing is doing to animals. While some may say that there needs to be alternative methods to animal testing, others may say that without animal testing it would be harder to test out new products for humans. Yet, with the information given by doctors Hackam and Redelmeier, it is clear to see that the use of animals is no longer
Certain countries are considering a ban on animal testing and experimentation. I disagree with this ban on animal testing. While it may seem that animal testing is cruel and unethical, it has helped both humans and animals in many ways. For example, many horrible diseases that have been cured have, at some point used animal testing. This and many other reasons is why there should not be a ban on animal testing.
Experimentation on animals in the twenty-first century has unearthed many great findings but also resulted in detrimental consequences to the lives of human beings today. A few positive results of animal testing include: new medicines, surgical procedures, cosmetic products, and many important medical discoveries. Some of these discoveries altered the way we, as humans, will live forever, but most of the experimentations performed to these animals constitute cruel and inhumane. For instance, the barbaric testing of animals in the medical and cosmetic industry causes the unnecessary suffering and death of millions of animals every year. The harsh horror inflicted upon laboratory animals may be easily avoided and replaced with more effective, moral alternatives.
Since experiments are cruel and expensive, “the world’s most forward-thinking scientists have moved on to develop and use methods for studying diseases and testing products that replace animals and are actually relevant to human health” (“Alternatives to Animals”). Companies claim that this sort of cruelty will benefit the human population by testing the “safety” of the products, as they have been for hundreds of years, and although this may have been helpful in the past, scientists have discovered otherwise. “While funding for animal experimentation and the number of animals tested on continues to increase, the United States still ranks 49th in the world in life expectancy and second worst in infant mortality in the developed world” (“Animal Testing Is”). This evidence shows that while we still continue to support and spend money on animal testing, it is not working as well as we thought.
Hundreds of millions of animals die every year from animal testing in the United States. Innocent animals are used everyday in laboratories for biology advancements, medical training, curiosity-driven experimentation, and chemical, drug, food, and cosmetic testing. They are used to provide information to make better products that are safe for human use. Although animal experimentation has some benefits, the negatives outweigh the positives. Animal testing is killing off innocent beings for the possible human benefit, and with modern technology, there are alternative ways to test products that leave animals unharmed.
Mahatma Gandhi, who was an important Indian civil rights activist, once said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”. Animal testing is currently a major moral issue in this century. Millions of animals are used today to get information about the safety, toxicity, and working ability of new drugs or substances that companies want to put in certain medicines or cosmetics. On one side, many people think that animal testing is cruel and inhumane because of the experiments and techniques done on the animals to get information for cosmetics or medicine. Others would say that animal testing is needed to help create life-saving treatments and medicines.
Animal testing is a controversial subject, due to concerns over how animals are treated, and whether testing on animals is necessary or useful. However, when all points are considered, animal testing is fair for the following three reasons: it leads to medical and scientific breakthroughs; they are similar to humans in many different ways, and therefore provide a way to conduct medical research without risking human safety; and there are laws and regulations in place that ensure that many forms of animal testing are conducted humanely.
Those sad words sum up the cruelty of animal testing. Have any of us ever given a thought to these animals, of what exactly happened in testing labs? Well here it is. Animals are trapped cages, strapped onto tables, deliberately shocked, poisoned, burned, starved, drowned, brain damaged and ultimately die, all so we could live a little bit easier. But guess what? It doesn’t have to be this way – because these methods don’t even work. The reason is simple – animals just aren’t humans, their bodies just doesn’t work the same way as ours do. A majority of human diseases (98% in fact) don’t affect animals and 92% of drugs passed by animal tests immediately fail when first tried on humans because they’re useless, dangerous or both. There are better alternatives out there – alternatives such as cells and tissue cultures that are both humane and more efficient.
About 800,000 animals are used in the cosmetic industry for testing. So that lotion,foundation, perfume, and everything else in-between was tested on an animal except if it was cruelty free. So what is animal testing you may ask. Animal testing is when products are being tested on living creatures such as rats,rabbits,hamsters,etc, to find a reaction. If they find a reaction that means that that product won't work for us. Animals should not be used for cosmetic purposes or procedures because it is unnecessary, wasteful, and its unethical.
Experimentation has been performed on animals such as rats, mice, and primates in testing various products from cosmetics to drugs. The experimentation of animals usually involves pumping a substance into the animal’s stomach or applying it to the skin and eyes; they are confined to cages and not allowed the freedom of their natural way of life. According to a report by PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals),” this causes great stress and discomfort to the animals (2011).” The animals may not die, but they are scared and maimed for the rest of their lives. Practices such as this are still used today even though there are cheaper and more conclusive ways of conducting this testing; in vitro (test tube), genomic, computer modeling technique, and human volunteering. These research methods are more humane, cost effective alternatives to animal testing. “The harms to the animal conflict with perceived societal benefits that will result if ...
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.
Many companies around the world test Cosmetic and medicinal related products to make sure it is safe for human consumption. Most branded cosmetic or medicinal companies have testing labs working every day. Animals are very similar to humans biologically, and are accepted in many households as pets. However companies have tested products on animals for many years. Medicines like insulin were discovered directly from the experimentation on dogs. Although testing on animals has helped humanity by providing medicines, the cosmetic testing is unneeded, and with alternatives available for both medicinal and cosmetic testing the testing on animals must stop. The inhumane living conditions and forced feeding after deprivation are unneeded as technology advances.
Using animals as testing models for scientific research has become one of the serious issues in the world. According to Procon.org, almost 26 million animals are used for scientific testing every year in the United States, and more than 10 thousand animals died in those testing experiments. Many scientists believe that animal testing is necessary because it can help humans to develop more scientific research. However, the truth is that many animal testing experiments usually fail when they are used in humans. Therefore, animal testing should be banned because human’s DNA is not similar to animals, there have better ways, and animals have right.