“Animal Testing Should be banned free essay sample

Animal Testing Should be banned Imagine having a hole drilled in your head without any anesthesia. Imagine being kept in eternal darkness your whole life because one or both eyes were sewn shut or even removed for no good reason. How about being clamped down to a table with shock-producing electrodes attached to your genitals. Laboratory animals are put through these horrors every day. There are many views on this topic that I would like cover in this paper. Many new experiments and laboratory practices have evolved with technology. This new technology doesn’t require animal testing. There are organs grown from cells in a petri dish. Why do we even consider such toxic chemicals to be put in cosmetic products in the first place? Why do humans live such unhealthy lifestyles that require new pharmaceuticals and surgeries? Why are ridiculous tests with no scientific reason to back them performed on animals? I acknowledge some animal testing did benefit mankind in historical medical research. From vaccinations, transplants, bypass surgery and joint replacement, nearly for all experiments for the prevention, treatment and cure of disease, the knowledge has been obtained through animal research. There may still be a medical test or research that would benefit from animal research. If this animal testing is the only medical option; it needs to be done in a humane way. Animals deserve the use of anesthesia, painkillers and proper food and housing. The key part in all this research is that animal testing is barbaric and archaic. First off lets get through a few basic facts. Animal testing costs over $12 billion dollars annually for the American public, so animal testing is actually very expensive. (White Coat Waste Project, 2013)There are almost 400 known alternatives for animal testing being considered. Everyone, whether they are for or against animal testing, are very biased about their ideas but I will also tell you about the valuable things that are generated from animal testing. Many things such as cleaners, pesticides, and herbicides are tested on animals to make sure they are safe as well. There are many different kinds of tests for different things. For example dogs are used for cardiovascular work and mice are used for cancer research. Now lets move on to all of the awful things coming from animal testing. I feel that animal testing is definitely giving us nformation but it is not worth it for all the pain the animals are experiencing. Some of the animals are not properly anesthetized. In fact, almost ten percent arent and even 9 % of the ones who are die. (www. PETA. org, 2013) I believe that these laboratories are not using the animals to the full extent anyway because all of the drugs that pass through animal testing either harm or kill humans 61% of the time. Is that the kind of results that should be coming out of this, especially since 33 animals die in a laboratory every second? White Coat Waste Project, 2013) We cannot be completely sure if animal testing is very efficient either because 83% of tested products are found to be metabolized differently with humans and animals. The Food and Drug Administration reports that 92 out 100 drugs that pass in animal testing actually fail in humans. (www. PETA. org, 2013) Also a group of scientists tested on animals to see if they got lung cancer from smoking and they didnt, so is it safe to use them for our tests. (www. PETA. org, 2013) Animals also exhibit high levels of depression and stress from being contained inside of small cages. White Coat Waste Project, 2013) (www. PETA. org, 2013) A lot of scientists have come to the conclusion that animal testing is outdated anyway and they should consider more modern testing. They believe that we should be looking more into computer programs especially since you dont have to wait nearly as long for results and it is much cheaper. Animals must feel the same amount of pain we humans do; some might say othe rwise because they dont understand that the animals may be more intelligent and emotional than it seems. www. PETA. org, 2013) Most scientists feel that they get better results and they can be more confident from the amount of data that arrives after a human based test. Even though scientists feel this way I still dont think that we should allow human tests either. It is also a proven fact that most scientists who do animal tests have very high levels of guilt and sorrow even though animal facilities work very hard to make sure the scientists dont become emotionally connected with the animals. Benefits of Animal Testing, 2013) Some people, including me, might even say that animals have become the slaves of our generation and we need to fix that. Just because they are inferior doesnt mean we should pick on them. About 99% of all physicians have agreed that animal testing has played a great roll in medical advancements. About 97% of those physicians support animal testing. (Benefits of Animal Testing, 2013) So if all of these very well educated people believe that we should keep it, should we really get rid of it? After all, animal testing does help us find out answers for our medically related questions without us having to harm humans but we shouldnt have to harm animals either especially since there are so many alternatives. It is a big problem for some countries were they feel it is immoral or it has been made illegal to use a drug without it having been tested on an animal. In some countries they have to be tested on two different types of mammals. (Benefits of Animal Testing, 2013) Most people who are against animal testing, including me, say that animals are not very much like us internally. The people for animal testing could argue that they mostly just test the living patterns that occur when taking a certain drug that is being tested instead of going deep into the body where it actually would make a difference. (www. PETA. org, 2013) As proof, animal testing has given us cures for Polio, Herpes Simplex, Hepatitis B, Rabies, Malaria and Mumps. (AMP Americans for Medical Progress) Dont get the impression that the humans are selfish and they only use they results for themselves, scientists also use the results for medical advancements on animals. Lab Animal Welfare, 2013) Also, we probably wouldnt be able to get as much information without animal testing. I believe that this is true, and computer programs will not give as many results, but they display results more quickly. Therefore, given time, computer programs may be just as effective. They also argue that the scientists try as hard as they can to make their experiments the least painful as possible. Though the infor mation in the above paragraphs give a strong argument I still believe that it should be abolished. I have found animal testing to be cruel and wrong. I hope that you have too, because without the peoples permission animal testing will never be properly stopped. I hope that you will make the right decision so that we can take a step towards establishing a more peaceful America and getting rid of one dreadful thing at a time. References Benefits of Animal Testing. (2013). Retrieved from American Association for Laboraory Animal Science Foundation: http://aalasfoundation. org/faqs_research. html Lab Animal Welfare. (2013). Retrieved from MSPCA Angell Kindness and Care for Animals: http://www. spca. org/programs/animal-protection-legislation/animal-welfare/lab-animal-welfare/lab-animal-alternatives. html White Coat Waste Project. (2013). Retrieved from www. whitecoatwasteproject. com: http://www. whitecoatwaste. com/the-problem/ www. PETA. org. (2013). Retrieved from The PETA files: http://www. peta. org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2011/05/11/top-five-reasons-to-stop-animal-testing. aspx AMP Americans for Medical Progress. (n. d. ). Retrie ved from Animal Research Means Medical Progress: http://www. amprogress. org/animal-research-benefits