Should Animal Testing Should Be Banned?

Animal Testing Should be Banned

Animal testing refers to the experimentation carried out on animals to assess the safety and effectiveness of everything from medication to cosmetics, as well as understanding how the human body works (Murnaghan, “Informed Discussion on Animal Welfare in Animal Testing."). Millions of animals are euthanized and tortured to ensure the safety of products for human consumption; from toiletries to the painkillers you take. However, is all the cruelty really necessary? It is estimated that “more than 115 million animals worldwide are used for testing every year. But because only a small proportion of countries collect and publish data concerning animal use for testing and research, this data is inaccurate and

Even companies like L’Oreal, who used to invest billions in buying animals for testing, is has “invested 900 million euros in researching alternative methods to animal testing over the past 30 years” (“How some brands ensure safety without resorting to animal testing”) This paragraph will focus on In Vitro testing. In Vitro is a high-speed robot automation of cell-based screening system, which can reveal how products alter regular processes in the body dramatically at an extremely detailed way: at the level of cells and molecules ("About Animal Testing: Humane Society International."). It contains human cells grown to mimic function of human organs, such and the eyes and lungs (PETA, “Alternatives to Animal Testing”). This means that it is way more fruitful and relevant to humans rather than animal tests. Cell-based tests and tissue models can be used to examine the dangers of medication, cosmetics, and various other substances (peta.org). In Vitro has proven to be a great success and a huge benefit for both animals and humans as when “cosmetics companies began to replace the Draize eye test with tissue-culture assays and other in vitro methods, sometimes discontinuing animal testing altogether” (Wilhelmus, “Animals and Ocular Toxicology”) in the 1980s, the number of rabbits used for the Draize test soon dropped to 87–100%, causing the cost of animal testing to rise (Wilhelmus, “Animals and Ocular Toxicology”). In Vitro methods, for now, cannot yet entirely replace the Draize eye test, using in vitro to assure safety to test relatively huge amount of substances is a good first step (Wilhelmus. “Animals and Ocular