The Pros And Cons Of Animal Testing

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Each year, over 100 million animals are burned, crippled, and abused for animal testing just in the US. Even then, that number does not include 90% of animals that are used in the tests. Animal testing is defined as “procedures performed on living animals for purposes of research,” by Humane Society International. This should be banned, or at the bare minimum reduced by laws that are enforced, and there are many reasons why. Some of the reasons include the unreliability and impracticability of animal testing, the cruel environments the animals are in, and the unecessity of animal testing.
Although many animals share DNA with humans, animal test results are highly unreliable. Animals still do have many differences from humans despite the common DNA. Also, as said on a website dedicated to the pros and cons of animal testing, “The anatomic, metabolic, and cellular differences between animals and people make animals poor models for human beings.” This can cause inaccurate results because some things harmful to animals may be helpful to humans, and vice versa. 75% of side effects that occurred during animal testing do not actually occur in humans. This can cause an increase in animal testing to test all the side effects, which can also result in huge amounts of money that can be used for many other things. In the 1950’s, a sleeping pill that passed animal testing cause many birth defects. Animal testing is obviously not practical, and rather a useless waste of money. Also, many things harmful to animals are not for humans, which limits the accuracy of the tests and could cause cures that could greatly help humans to not ever be found.
Another factor that reduces the reliability and practicality of animal testing is that only 1.16% ...

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... animal testing is not the only way to see what will and will not harm humans. It can also save the lives of millions of animals that could have been tested on, and also saves the government a lot of money which can be used for other research projects.
In conclusion, animal testing is simply impractical and unneeded, among other things such as cruel and inhumane. Millions of animals’ lives are lost each year, and many of the results the sacrificed animals gave us are not even relevant to humans. The basic needs of the animals used in these experiments are also not met, and the animals endure many days of pain. 97,123 animals were experimented on without any relief of the pain just in the US in 2010. Many of the animals used in experiments are euthanised or left to die afterwards. Animal testing is cruel, and it would be better for everyone if we would just ban it.

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