Persuasive Speech Against Animal Testing

998 Words2 Pages

To give you a technical definition, animal vivisection is the use of non-human animals in research and development projects, for purposes of determining the safety of substances such as foods or drugs. It is estimated by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, that over 100 million animals are harmed every year by this on-going process. There are several types of tests that are used on animals behind closed doors. The Draize eye test is a type of eye irritancy test that is mainly used on rabbits. They physically scream while toxic chemicals are poured into their eyes; which can lead to redness, bleeding, ulcers, blindness, and often death at the end of the experiment. Rats are typically injected with carcinogens that induce …show more content…

One of the main reasons being because it is not always accurate. In fact, The Food and Drug Administration stated that 92 out of the every 100 drugs that pass in animal testing fail when given to humans. For example, rabbits are used to test substances in their eyes, yet the structure of the cornea in a rabbit significantly differs from that of a human’s. Rats are induced with cancer cells, yet studies have shown that they are much more prone to cancer than humans are. Animal testing is also very wasteful. While I am a strong advocate towards the search for a cure to cancer, the odds of finding one based on an animal test are very low. Huge charities such as the Cancer Fund of America donate a portion of their donations to animal testing when they could be researching and trying other methods that do not include testing them on animals. Instead of facing the truth that animal testing does not have a high successful percentage rate on humans, the problem is swept under the rug and more animals are killed every day. The scientists who do admit to this universal problem have discovered new beneficial ways to test chemicals, cosmetics, and other consumer products that are currently being tested on animals. Harvard’s Wyss Institute developed “organs-on-chips” that comprise human cells that are grown to replicate the organs in a human body. These chips can be used for toxicity testing, drug testing, and to research cures for diseases. The institute says that “organs-on-chips” have been shown to more accurately imitate human physiology, drug responses, and diseases than the cruel experiments on animals have shown. The HuRel Corporation and other companies have already turned these chips into products that can be sold to researchers in the place of animals. And that is just ONE of the many methods that have been created to use in the substitution of animal testing. So, my question is, what on earth are

Open Document