The Pros and Cons of Animal Testing Approximately 60 million animals are used each year in the laboratories of the United States. Whether or not animal testing is cruel or acceptable is an issue many argue over today. Although most acknowledge the negative effects of animals in laboratories, there are many pros in the scientific research. According to the California Biomedical Research Association, almost every medical advancement in the last 100 years is a direct result of animal testing and research. The use of animals has become standard procedure in a wide range of testing and experimentation, including product toxicity testing, biomedical and veterinary experiments, drug development and testing, and education. Major advancements in treating and understanding chronic conditions such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, malaria, and tuberculosis, have been achieved due to animal research. Also, the development of pacemakers, cardiac valve substitutes, and anesthetics are also direct results of the testing and observation of animals. On the other hand, many people believe that animal testing is cruel and inhumane. In many laboratories animals are subjected to force feeding, food and water deprivation, physical restraints, and infliction of pain. Because the animals cannot protect themselves, many people argue that exploiting animals to better the lives of humans is wrong and should not be permitted. One reason that animal testing is beneficial is that animals can sometimes make better research subjects then humans because of their shorter life cycles. For example, laboratory mice only live for two to three years, so researchers can study the side effects of the tests that are preformed over a whole lifespan, which would not be possible ... ... middle of paper ... ...on-animal equivalent to a rat uterotrophic is $24,000 cheaper. It is evident that measures could be taken not only to protect animals but also save the money of our government. In my opinion, I think that if there is an alternative way in getting the same test results, then animal testing should be avoided. If the use of animals is required in order to obtain more knowledge of medicine then I believe that the welfare of the animals should be a priority of the researchers and if the well-being of the subjects is compromised then measures should be taken to correct these mistakes. I am not an advocate of abusing animals in order to advance research, but I do believe that the use of animals in research studies is extremely beneficial. Without the use of animal testing researchers would not have as many answers and solutions to problems that we have, such as sickness.
Albert Sabin, the developer of the polio vaccine once said, “Without animal research, polio would still be claiming thousands of lives each year.” Polio is a deadly disease caused by a virus that spreads from person to person. This infectious disease renders the brain and spinal cord helpless while also ensuring a permanent case of paralysis to the victim. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “…13,000 to 20,000 para-lytic cases were reported annually,” before the 18th century. After the introduction of the polio vaccine, “…a total of 2,525 paralytic cases were reported, compared with 61 in 1965.” This dramatic decrease in the prominence of the polio disease can only be attributed to the success of animal testing. Animal experimentation is used in the research of genetics, drug testing, biology, toxicity testing, cosmetic testing, and many other fields. Despite all of its beneficial traits, animal testing has been wildly controversial over the past decades because of its perceived unethical treatment towards animals. Although animal testing may be deemed unethical by many, it is a form of medical testing that has not only saved lives but has also greatly revolutionized the medical world.
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.
Medical sciences are required to keep us healthy when there are diseases spreading and animal testing is a key part of this research. Animal test is not wrong because it is the only way to keep ahead in the arms race against disease. Disease keep changing and evolving so scientist must keep researching and making stronger, more potent medicines to combat them. Thus we must use living creatures as test subject for the medicines.
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation and animal research, is using various nonhuman animals experiments, whether it be a psychological or physical test of the animal, or testing medicines and cosmetics to determine if they are good enough for human use and consumption.This specific kinds of research are often conducted at various medical institutes, universities, pharmaceutical companies, and commercial facilities that does the task of testing the products on the animals. Each year, more than 100 million animals are used and die in the name of scientific research. Those animals include rats (12%), frogs (1%), cats (0.8%), dog (0.6%), mice (69%), monkeys (0.1%), guinea pigs (1%), rabbits (1%), fish (10%), and birds (4%). (BBC) Just like anything else, animal research has its pros and cons, but in this case, the cons severely outweigh the pros.
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.
Although not as strictly addressed, there is still a schism when it comes to the matters of experimentation involving animals. Those in opposition of it see it as being against the will of the animal, because animals have no say in the matter. However, through animal experimentation there has been vast medical advances in hospitals and veterinarians , research has led to cures for various diseases that would normally take many more years to cure, and the use of animals is highly ethical considering what could be the alternative, although there is progress being made to change these measures. This is how animal experimentation is of use to society for humans and animals.
What would you do if someone decided to force you to become their personal experiment? Guys, how would you feel if someone decided to put makeup all over your face? You would not like that, would you? So if you agree that you would not like being a test experiment , why agree to animals being tested? On the other hand, how would you feel if someone sold you a product that has not been tested and could possibly kill you? Is that better than mistreating animals? From doing research, I have found a few pros along with cons to testing animals.
Is the use of animals in research justified? Should animal experimentation be permitted? Should these animals be liberated? A logical person would say the benefits justify the research. Without animal testing, products would be based on theory. No one would want to use something, which may damage eyes, be poisonous, cancerous, and cause birth defects. Animals used in testing are not from the endangered species list; also many of the types of animals used are killed each year by rat or mouse traps, animal control, exterminators, and animal shelters. Animal testing reaps great benefits such as finding effective drugs to combat disease, improve surgical procedures, and make products safe.
An estimated 26 million animals are used every year in the United States for commercial or scientific testing. Did you know according to an article on Animal Testing.org that research on living animals has been practiced since at least 500 B.C. California Biomedical Research Association states that an estimated medical breakthrough in the last 100 years has resulted directly from research using animals. When a new drug or surgical technique is developed, society deems it unethical to use that drug or technique first in humans because of the possibility that it would cause harm rather than good.
At this moment, millions of animals know cold cages in laboratories as home, but why? Some of these animals are subjects for medical research purposes, while others are used out of pure curiosity and to test different products. Majority of these animals are used in painful experiments and are left in agony. While many of them die, a few animals survive, but these unfortunate ones wish they could be put out of their misery as well. Although scientists have resources they could use to lower the pain each animal endures and even alternatives of their test subjects, millions of innocent creatures are still suffering. The fact that animals are still used when animal experimentation is avoidable and not necessary makes animal testing unethical.
Imagine your sweet cat locked in a cage inside a laboratory with other various animals. Millions of animals every year are locked up in labs for testing. Animals are used to test medications, cosmetics, biology lessons, and for medical training. Thousands of mice, rats, primates, cats, dogs, and other animals are used for testing. Most of these animals will die in cruel testing experiments. Animal testing is tortures to the animals, an unreliable option for medication, and there are better safer options for testing.
Many people and scientists alike don’t realize that there are several alternatives to this cruel and unusual punishment that can also be beneficial, considering that the majority of procedures that are used in these labs just end up proving common knowledge, or things that cannot be applied to the field that they are being tested for. Animal testing in laboratories, whether it is medical or cosmetic, is unnecessary and should be banned.
In the article, “Experimenting with Animals: The Good and Bad” it gives numerous reasons on why animal testing is expensive, “One of the major animal testing cons is that it is a costly affair. The costs incurred in animal breeding in captivity, housing, feeding, caring, testing and treatment with drugs are quite high. The genuineness of these experiments become questionable when the testing does not yield the desired results. So at the end of animal testing cycles, many animals actually die without a justification.” (Karthik). This concludes that animal testing is expensive and how the government should invest money on alternative methods. The money that these researchers get are usually from taxpayers. According to PETA, they found that more than 50 million of government funds were spent on animal experiments. They have yet had any results so that is just money going to waste. Of course, in the past they have had some successful clinical trials and that is why many people are pro animal
92 percent of drugs have been tested on animals do not make it through phase 1 of human clinical trials (Noel Merino). Diseases that are artificially included in animals in a laboratory are never identical to those that occur naturally in human beings. Animal testing has been around since 1922 every year, more than 100 million animals are tested on. Animal experimentation, also known as animal testing, is the process of using animals to test the safety of products such as cosmetics and medication and to understand the working of a human body (Gale). 43 percent of adults surveyed opposed the use of animal the scientific reasons (Merino). I think that animal testing should be banned because the testing does not improve human health, animals do not have rights, and the testing is failing.
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.