Animal Testing
Is it morally correct to test on animals?
What is animal testing?
Animal testing is the practice of performing operations on live animals for the purpose of experimentation or scientific research. This is also known as vivisection. Animal testing is done every day in thousands of labs across the U.S. Animals like dogs, cats, monkeys, and bunnies are tested every day. Animal testing is a very controversial subject because without it medical research would slow, stop, and then reverse but it leaves many animals traumatized, hurt, or dead.
Eco-Terrorism is one of the biggest problems caused by animal testing today. Eco-Terrorism is when animal activists cause damage to something to get a point across. This can range from cutting fishing nets to breaking into animal testing facilities to arson and bombing. These activists are not peaceful and will do anything to get these animals out. From 1980 at 2000 eco-terrorists destroyed over $100 million in property damage.
Animal testing is often gruesome and leaves animals hurt or dead. The only law that protects animals in testing facilities is the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). This law requires minimum care standards for animals in these facilities, including housing, handling, nutrition, water, veterinary care and protection from extreme weather and temperatures. This law only protects any live or dead dog, cat, monkey, guinea pig, hamster, rabbit, or any other warm-blooded animal. It doesn’t protect birds, rats, mice, livestock used for food or fiber, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates. This means 94% of the animals in facilities aren’t protected.
Dogs in animal testing lab.
Eco-Terrorists.
Pros of Animal Testing.
Even though animal testing is sometimes gruesome, it has helped develop medicines and other products in many ways. Many medicines today that have cured millions came from animal testing. There are so many different diseases in the world and animals seem to be the only living subjects we can test on. We have developed vaccines for this like the flu, chicken pox, and HPV all because of animal testing.
Animals are appropriate research subjects because they are similar to human beings in many ways. A pig has an almost identical heart to a human. We often test artificial valves on pigs to see if the same results could save humans.
Animals are not only our pets, they’re our friends but computers or technology will never be able to replace the results we get from living things. Computers results can be wrong and we can’t take that chance. Scientists are exploring other possible ways to get results but nothing has turned out to be as exact as animal testing.
While humans are the ones proving most beneficial from animal testing, animals benefit too. They have created cures for animals that would have never been found if they hadn’t run tests on other animals. Animal testing is very benifical in many ways and have cured millions of people from the results.
Cons of animal testing.
Animal testing is a harsh and cruel process. When testing on animals the animals have nothing that is natural to them. They are confined to barren cages with minimal food and water. They get no exercise and often live in a space much too small for them. This can cause the animals to suffer from not only physical, but also mental pain. They sometimes suffer from depression or even suicidal thoughts.
Animal testing is very expensive as well. Even though they give the animals minimal care they still must pay for food, housing, handling, nutrition, water, and proper veterinary care. Because it is so expensive labs are looking for a cheaper and more productive way to test medicines. Animal care can cost up to three or four thousand dollars annually per animal.
The tests that are done on animals often leave them extremely injured, and sometimes dead. There are an estimated 21 million animal deaths in labs annually. This doesn’t include non protected species like mice, birds, and cold blooded animals. With those animals taken into account there are an estimated 98 million animal deaths a year from labs in the U.S. These animals are killed by being injected with fatal diseases, fatal wounds, or not getting the proper care. These deaths are performed for the research of chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics testing.
The main problem with animal testing is that the results do not always transfer to humans. On animals they have created cures for cancer, aids, and even ALS but when given to humans the same results didn’t appear. While the heart of a pig is similar to humans in many ways there still are differences that can change results.
These animals are enduring their skin being burned and their bones being crushed. They are being injected with fatal diseases just so scientists can watch the results. Many times they don’t try to cure the animals. They let them die to collect data. With 98 million deaths a year in U.S labs that come out to be about 268,500 deaths a day. Animal testing can be a very disturbing and inhumane way to collect data.
Monkeys in cages.
These monkeys are confined to their cages with minimal food and water. They cannot move around or interact with anything.
Rabbits Being tested on.
My thoughts on animal testing.
I believe that animal testing is immoral and wrong. Animals are our pets, our families, or friends, and our loved ones. The fact that they are being locked away in cages and tested on, tortured and killed is horrible to me. While I do believe that we wouldn’t be where we are today in medical research and technology I think that we are productive beings and we could have found an alternative. Every day dogs, cats, birds, monkeys, pigs, cows, and many more animals are killed in labs. They suffer from burns, broken bones, and the in-humanity of animal testing. They are injected with diseases that destroy their brain or kill their bodies. Why not inject one mouse with prostate cancer and then another to see if you get the same results. Instead we infect hundreds and let them all die. We have had millions of deaths due to this process and I feel that that number needs to be cut down. Vivisection can be morally correct if it is done the right way. If animals are given proper care and not treated as just test subjects. In the end I do believe that animal testing is immoral.
Bibliography
Works Cited
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