Is Animal Testing Ethical?
Is It Good Or Bad?
What is animal testing?
Animal testing is the use of non-human animals in experiments, research, testing for behavioral studies, bio-medical research, and cosmetics. Some people believe any testing on animals is not humane. However, some animal testing can save human lives.
Animal Testing is Not Always Very Effective
- 92 percent of experimental drugs that are safe and effective in animals fail in human clinical trials because they are too dangerous or don’t work.
- According to the Humane Society, registration of a single pesticide requires more than 50 experiments and the use of as many as 12, 000 animals.
- Even animals that are protected under the Animal Welfare Act can be abused and tortured.
Cruel Procedures
- Up to 90% of animals used in U.S. labs aren’t counted in the official statistics of animals tested.
- Over 100 million animals are burned, crippled, poisoned and abused in U.S. labs every year.
- “Lethal dose” tests are used where animals are forced to swallow large amounts of a test chemical to determine what dose causes death.
Other Options Than Animal Testing
- Cloned human skin cells
- Human skin patches
- Computer and mathematical models
- Tissue culture systems
- Cell and organ cultures