Although animal testing was a main component for the facilitation of medical research in the past, it is no longer necessary due to the option of alternate testing methods. Animals that fall victim to the mercy of animal research are subject to experimentation for the purpose of manufacturing harmless products (McKnight 2). Cell cultures, the MIMIC system, TraumaMan, in vitro, and human volunteers are substitutes for this inhumane procedure (Sullivan 4; “PCRM Scientists Educate” 10). Animal testing is a cruel, outmoded method that sacrifices the lives of innocent animals, despite the availability of humane alternatives.
In the twenty-first century, it is illegal for humans to be guinea pigs for research unless they volunteer themselves. On the other hand, animals are robbed of the choice aspect of the decision to play victim for harmful experiments. They are guaranteed suffering due to the inhumane nature of the animal research where they are operated on, forced to consume toxic substances and chemicals pumped inside of their stomachs and eyes (“Save the Animals” 1). Aristotle, a renowned theorist, emphasized the importance of animals receiving proper nutrition, social interaction, and a natural environment for a fulfilling existence (Rollin 3). However, the vulnerable animals who are experimented on never have a chance for this kind of life because they are sent to research facilities with little consideration for their welfare (“Save the Animals” 1). They are kept in metal cages called isolators where convenience takes priority over comfort and safety. The animals’ housing conditions results in serious mental and physical afflictions, and, even, death. This living arrangement has caused chickens to peck one another to death due...
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...McKnight, Peter. "It's a Dog's Life, and It Matters." Vancouver Sun 5 Feb. 2011. 15 Jan. 2014.
Park, Miyun. "The Globalization of Animal Welfare: More Food Does Not Require More Suffering." Foreign Affairs 91 (2012). 14 Jan. 2014.
Park, Miyun. "The Globalization of Animal Welfare: More Food Does Not Require More Suffering." Foreign Affairs Mar.-Apr. 2012. 15 Jan. 2014.
"PCRM Scientists Educate Governments, Cosmetic Companies on Nonanimal Tests." Good Medicine 1 Feb. 2009. 16 Jan. 2014.
Rollin, Bernard E. "The Moral Status of Invasive Animal Research." Utility and Morality: Contemporary Tradeoffs (2012). 15 Jan. 2014.
"Save the Animals: Stop Animal Testing." Save the Animals: Stop Animal Testing. 21 Jan. 2014 .
Sullivan, Kirstie. "Good Medicine." The Latest In Sept. 2009. EBSCO Animals. 14 Jan. 2014.
Throughout the last century the concern of animals being treated as just a product has become a growing argument. Some believe that animals are equal to the human and should be treated with the same respect. There are many though that laugh at that thought, and continue to put the perfectly roasted turkey on the table each year. Gary Steiner is the author of the article “Animal, Vegetable, Miserable”, that was published in the New York Times right before Thanksgiving in 2009. He believes the use of animals as a benefit to human beings is inhumane and murderous. Gary Steiner’s argument for these animal’s rights is very compelling and convincing to a great extent.
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.
In Alastair Norcross’ paper, “Puppies, Pigs, and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases” he describes a situation in which a man, Fred, has lost his ability to enjoy the gustatory pleasure of chocolate due to a car accident. However, it is known that puppies under duress produce cocoamone, the hormone Fred needs in order to enjoy chocolate again. Since no one is in the cocoamone business, Fred sets up twenty six puppy cages, and mutilates them resulting in cocoamone production in the puppy’s brains. Each week he slaughters a dog and consumes the cocoamone. When he is caught, he explains to the judge and jury that his actions are no different from factory farming because he is torturing and killing puppies for gustatory pleasure similar to how factory farms torture and kill cows, chickens, etc. for other people’s gustatory pleasure. You, the reader are meant to think that this is unacceptable, and therefore, denounce factory farming. Although there are many valid objections to this argument, I am in agreement with Norcross and shall be supporting him in this paper. I think the two most practical objections are that (1) most consumers don’t know how the animals are treated whereas Fred clearly does, and (2) if Fred stops enjoying chocolate, no puppies will be tortured, but if a person becomes a vegetarian, no animals will be saved due to the small impact of one consumer. I shall explain the reasoning behind these objections and then present sound responses in line with Norcross’ thinking, thereby refuting the objections.
However, billions of animals endure intense suffering every year for precisely this end.” Norcross was referring to the animals in a factory farms that produce meat to sell in supermarkets. Norcross explains the factory farms animals live cramped and stress-filled lives. The animals also undergo mutilations without any anesthesia. In the end of the factory farms’ animal life, they’re butchered for the production of meat such as chicken, veal, beef and pork to sell for a profit in places such as a grocery store or
"Cosmetics and Household-Product Animal Testing | Animals Used for Experimentation | The Issues." PETA. N.p., 2014. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/cosmetic-household-products-animal-testing/ .
Current animal testing has been a contentious subject ever since it started off 150 years back. Although a lot of people discover animal testing inhumane and egoistic, it is a important factor to boost our understanding of medication and to improve our understanding of science. Animal testing, to some, is the way to ameliorating our level of living and preserving many lives, and therefore has many benefits. On the other hand, the negatives may not be passed, and scientists are constantly trying to decrease the damages with some methods they create in the process. Even so, to the dismay of numerous animal lovers in addition to those who are endeavoring for animal rights, animal testing will not be stopped every time soon because, for now, it is the most trustworthy form of testing that includes the safety of daily products we use more carefully than any other procedure.
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.
Armstrong, Susan Jean, and Richard George Botzler. The Animal Ethics Reader. London ;New York, NY: Routledge, 2008. Print.
Factory farms have portrayed cruelty to animals in a way that is horrific; unfortunately the public often does not see what really goes on inside these “farms.” In order to understand the conditions present in these factory farms, it must first be examined what the animals in these factory farms are eating. Some of the ingredients commonly used in feeding the animals inside factory farms include the following: animal byproducts, plastic, drugs and chemicals, excessive grains, and meat from members of the same species. (Adams, 2007) These animals are tortured and used for purely slaughter in order to be fed on. Typically large numbers of animals are kept in closed and tight confinements, having only little room to move around, if even that. These confinements can lead to suffocation and death and is not rare. Evidence fr...
Peter Singer, an author and philosophy professor, “argues that because animals have nervous systems and can suffer just as much as humans can, it is wrong for humans to use animals for research, food, or clothing” (Singer 17). Do animals have any rights? Is animal experimentation ethical? These are questions many struggle with day in and day out in the ongoing battle surrounding the controversial topic of animal research and testing, known as vivisection. Throughout centuries, medical research has been conducted on animals.
"Factory Farming: Cruelty to Animals." People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Web. 29 April. 2014.
Cook, Kate and David Bowles. " Growing Pains: The Developing Relationship of Animal Welfare Standards and the World Trade Rules. " Review of European Community & International Environmental Law 19.2 (2010): 227-238. Academic Search Premier -. EBSCO. Web.
There have been debates on whether or not animal experimentation contributes enough to society to be worth the pain that animals go through (Clemmitt). Monkeys, cats, and dogs are being killed and tortured while science has yet to find a breakthrough discovery over the decades it has been happening. Even with this type of testing there is still alternative methods that would fulfill the needs of science (Leepson). However, these alternatives are not being accepted by the testing institutions. A respected doctor in the field, Dr. Elias Zerhouni, says “The problem is that [animal testing] hasn’t worked, and it’s time we stopped dancing around the problem … We need to refocus and adapt new methodologies for use in humans to understand disease biology in humans” (PETA). With this knowledge, it is hard to condone the actions of the experimenters, who are torturing the same types of animals you have at home, the animals you call your best friends. The new technology available is said to be more beneficial to human health, and includes testing with human cells and tissue (PETA). No matter the animal, animals have a life and that life is not destined to be only one existing in a cage. Driven insane by the drugs that are being forcefully admitted these animals have no
It is ridiculous to imagine that 80% of all of the world’s agricultural land is being used for animal production. These resources could be used to feel millions of hungry/malnourished families (Duden).
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.