Animal Testing: is it Ethical?

Animals being sacred gifts given to us, they are the best part of our lives and provide us with a special way of love. They do nothing but bring joy and happiness to us. My whole life I’ve grown up with all different kinds of animals. I’ve had a dog named Shelby, two cats Ruby and Smokey, a bird named Cheeks, two hamsters Bernard and Sandy, and I currently have a dog named Rocky and a rabbit named Daisy.

I have always had a heart for animals, and they mean everything to me. It hurts me to see the way others treat animals in a poor way because they don’t deserve that. All they do is try to love, if you’ve ever been to someone’s house who has any type of animal, you can tell that they just try to kiss you by licking or if a cat rubs his/her head up against you. Some people believe that testing products on animals is good idea because, they feel as if using animals is safer than trying it on humans because they don’t have to worry about injuring anyone. Also, they test on animals to get results to see if it would work on humans and can be sold in stores. I believe this is wrong and cruel. Animals have no say, they can’t talk nor, can they express their feelings. It hurts not only me but many others to see these animals being hurt and seeing pictures of this cruel job people are doing. A majority of animals are just being held hostage, waiting for humans to just non-caringly start testing on them. Causing a lot of them get severely sick, or even die.

Several million animals are tested every year for various reasons. The testing had created lifesaving treatments for humans and animals. However, animal testing may be considered cruel and inhumane. Also, animals are very different from humans, some research results may end up being irrelevant. Animal Testing should only be utilized for serious type testing, for instance to save lives and cures for severe illnesses. But animals should not be used to be tested on makeup and other beauty supplies, because that can be tested in various of different ways.

Society has advanced in research by animal testing and many important studies have arisen by animal experimentation. For example, Russian Psychologist Ivan Pavlov studied dog behavior and Conditioning behavior and he came to some interesting findings that could be correlated to human behavior which involves learning to associate a conditioning stimulus that creates a response. Article Simply Psychology written by Saul McLeod, Oct. 08, 2018. However, there is an ongoing debate regarding the ethics of animal experimentation. An Article on The Ethics of Animal Experimentation, written by Stephanie Liou on July 6, 2010, In Huntington’s Outreach Project for Education at Stanford addresses the fact that animal experimentation has been used to gain knowledge about human disorders and diseases that could lead to specific treatment to help humans with diseases such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s. My grandmother, Marina died from Huntington’s Disease and had research been more advance with studies possibly performed on animals they may have been able to prolong her life of found a way to keep the Huntington Gene dormant. Cures for many diseases may be found by testing medicine on animals. However, are animals less important than humans? Many animals are the same as humans and they can feel pain and happiness. My dog Rocky becomes extremely excited when I come home from college, jumping up and down, wagging his tail, licking me and loving me. When I leave to go back to college he becomes sad and his eyes become watery. We can’t dismiss the fact that animal have feelings and care just like humans. Just like babies, animals can’t speak up for themselves or protect themselves from mistreatment

Thinking about this more I wondered, could there be any other way to find information out about products other than using animals? Benefits of non-animal testing Animals in science/ Alternatives , In this article they talk a lot about what the non-benefits are for animal testing and one that stood out to me that they talked about is the use the humans’ tissue, the toxicity is a more accurate in experiments for testing, instead of animals. In the article it says that it has a rate of 85% accuracy compared to the rate of 61-65% . They always use human tissue that is donated which means it is not injuring anyone.

Following that leads into another benefit where non-animal testing is more cost effective and more time consuming. In the article it states, it takes animal studies months to do, and estimates that it can test five or six products for less than half the cost to study a single product in animals. It is more efficient to use the method of testing on human skin rather than testing on animals because testing on humans you will get more products tested on humans than you would on animals, which would lead to it being more costly to use animals because you have to buy more materials or products since only one single product can be tested on animals rather than multiple. Trying to research more about other ways to test products out other than using animals I came across this article according to Iowa State Daily Angelica states that the FDA believes animal testing is the only way to ensure new drugs will respond well to live organs and organ systems. This could be true in a way and totally understandable to know what the side effects are going to be before giving it to someone and something tragic happening to them like death or getting severely ill. Although that is a something that is important for us, we are also hurting animals and not really caring about it.

I believe animal testing is a very cruel action of people to do. Although there are some different viewpoints that will be discussed for being pro-animal testing. One of the pros I have found from is Animal testing has contributed to many life-saving cures and treatments Animal Testing . Yes, this could be very helpful to us, but these animals have no say into what is happening to them. They just get to be our guinea pigs and for us to experiment on them hurting them and not caring at all about their feelings. Yes, it is good that it helps us humans out for not getting killed and keeps us from getting severely sick, but we do not need to hurt and kill animals for our sake. We could stop animal testing now, but we decide not to. There are alternative testing methods that can be used without having to use animals. Then again that is a choice these cruel humans don’t get. It is like people who experiment on animals purposely want to be inhumane and kill animals.

After reading for a while and finding out that there are different alternatives for testing other than doing it on animals. I still am curious as to why they continue to test on animals? If there are different ways of testing now, which there are, since we are more advanced in our modern technology nowadays it would be more humane to conduct research without animals. Especially when there are alternative ways in testing such as plants and bacteria. Animals should be considered the last resort when it comes to testing. Scientist could even use unborn fetuses over live animals. As I stated above scientist have used human skin, leftover from surgery’s where skin and fat were taken out.

In this article Arguments against animal testing Cruelty free international , it expresses how animals don’t get many human diseases, many types of cancer, HIV, Parkinson’s disease, or schizophrenia In the labs they artificially induce these different types of illnesses in animals. This article argues that a lot of the times treatments that are said to be good because they were tested on animals often tend to be bad and don’t even take effect in humans. They are saying that animals shouldn’t be used for something serious when they know they are different, and it won’t have the chance to take effect. It is a waste of our time, money, and the animal’s lives.

According to the Pat Dutt and Jonathan Laythem, Phd in their article the experiment is on us; science of animal testing thrown into doubt . New scientific research has brought about doubt in the testing of several consumer products and everyday products, such as soft drinks, baby foods, cosmetics, shampoos, etc. contain synthetic chemicals as preservatives and the safety of theses chemical were based on animal experiments that used rabbits, mice, rats, and dogs. The results of these experiments challenged the fact that animal experiments are of direct relevance to humans. In summary repeated experience determined that when it comes to inflammation mice and humans have little in common, just like the previous article I talked about said as well. Basically, mice are a poor model for human disease and for trying to find cures. Unfortunately, several millions of dollars are being contributed towards animal research when instead it can go towards other ways to figure out cures for human illnesses.

As I have mentioned previously some different alternatives for animal testing, I have found this article that elaborates more on the different types and why they could be more efficient. In this article alternatives to animal testing; a review written by Sonali K. Doke and Shashikant C. Dhawale documents a procedure for alternative to animal testing, where they suggest three R’s; Reduction, Refinement, and Replacement. The strategy of the three R’s was put in place to make an animal experience more humanly. This approach motivates the use of minimal number of animals for the experimental purposes, to reduce the pain and distressed caused to the animals during the experiments. More advanced animals should be replaced with alternative methods and lower organisms. The reduction helps with the careful selection of study design. It can produce a more meaningful experimental results, like with vitro cell culture is a good way to screen the compounds. The refinement is specifically to enhance the cage environment by taking better care of the animals and reducing the stress of the animals. Lastly comes the replacement which is different alternatives to the use of animals such as in vitro models, cell cultures, computer models, and new imaging/ analyzing techniques.

Overall, alternatives to animals testing should be utilized first and for most. Due to the fact that they are less harmful and more ethical in keeping animals safe. Testing for animals should only be used when seriously needed. Animal testing is a serious issue where it is half and half mixed feelings people have about. There are some good outcomes that can come out of it, but there also some really bad issues that are associated with it too. Animal testing is very costly and time consuming and a lot of times isn’t always the cure or best way to research products or treatments.

Work Cited

ProCon.org. “”Animal Testing ProCon.org.”” ProCon.org. 2 Nov. 2017, animal-testing.procon.org/

Animals in Science / Alternatives. Harm and Suffering, www.neavs.org/alternatives/in-testing.

http://www.crueltyfreeinternational.org/why-we-do-it/arguments-against-animal-testing

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1319016413001096

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