Animal Experimentation Research

Animal experimentation began in the early 3rd and 4th centuries BCE with the Greeks performing the first experiments on living animals. Ever since these early periods there has been a search to answer the question of whether animal testing is ethical. This question is proposed due to the suffering of animals during medical experimentation. Throughout research there have been proposed ideas to use the three Rs: reduction, refinement, and replacement. I believe their needs to be reduction of duplication in studies and share the data found with other researchers. Refinement is experimenting in other ways and providing better living conditions to limit suffering of the animals. Replacement should be achieved by using alternative techniques such as using computer models, experimenting on cell structures instead of whole animals and studying on human volunteers.

Over 1.13 million animals used in experiments each year and that is excluding mice rats and reptiles. There is also an estimated 100 million mice and rats and within those 100 million over 76,000 subjected to pain without any pain relief. Although many people believe that medical research on animals is unethical, results found from experiments allow researchers to apply their findings in order to advance medical technology for humans. “Animal experiments are not used to show that drugs are safe and effective in human beings-they cannot do that. Instead, they are used to help decide whether a particular drug should be tested on people. Animal experiments eliminate some potential drugs as either ineffective or too dangerous to use on human beings” (“Animal Experimentation”, Par. 8). With the use of animal experimentation researchers have been able to use research in order to ben...

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...n it. We often judge from the expressions on people’s faces, but in animals they only have a limited capacity for facial expressions. For example birds, because of the structure of their faces, virtually have none (Spedding, 32).

In conclusion, the federal government needs to amend the Animal Welfare Act of 1966 to provide stricter regulations for medical research on animals. Millions of animals are suffering due to inhumane conditions, and because there is a duplication of animal testing by different entities for the same purpose. Therefore, decreasing tax payers dollars going toward the funding for animal experimentation for medical research and passing this amendment would lead to a better society for all. There needs to be action taken by the United States Congress to provide stricter regulations to reduce pain and suffering of animals throughout this process.