Animal Testing

Animal testing is something that is very common in today’s society. In labs, animal testing is used to find new medications and new procedures to help humans with diseases or illnesses. Although, some think animal testing is wrong because it harms the animals and sometimes even kills them, others believe it has led us to to the development of many life saving treatments.

Animal testing puts animals in life threatening danger that they do not deserve. “Millions of mice, rats, rabbits, primates, cats, dogs, and other animals are locked inside barren cages in laboratories across the country.”

They sit in the cages in pain, loneliness, and frustration. Being locked in the cages drives some animals crazy. Some start to spin in circles or rock back and forth. The animals that are being tested on are usually bred to be tested on. 31% of animal testing involves the animal to be in moderate to severe suffering. Some of the experiments even require the animal to die as part of the testing. The estimated amount of animals being tested on in the U.S in just one year is 26 million. Also, over 100 million animals suffer and die due to animal testing every year.

It is known that animal testing has been around since 500 B.C. Some dogs are forced to eat pesticides, mice and rats are forced to inhale toxic fumes, and they also drop harmful chemicals into rabbits eyes which are very sensitive. There are non-animal methods that can be used such as cell and tissue tests and computer models. These methods are completely animal free. Instead of using animals to test medicines they use human cells and human tissue to test the medicine. Computer models also do not use animals at all, they are studied with human volunteers. These methods are completely cruelty free towards animals, but they are still effective methods that can lead to medical discoveries. 

The amount of animals harmed due to experiments is appalling. For every new pesticide chemical tested 10,000 animals are killed. There are 32 beagles tested on for government required tests.

There is also a 100% agreement standard between each country that has to be met in order to eliminate one single animal experiment. Sadly animal testing is required by the government for lots of everyday use products. Products like perfumes, painkillers, and fabric dye in clothing. Those and many more have to be tested on innocent animals before getting released onto the market for consumers to buy. Some of these experiments use thousands of animals per experiment, and others take two or three times to get the experiment right, but every time they start a new experiment they use a different animal.

Something like animal testing should be taken more heavily by the government, and there should be more labs that turn to the cruelty free methods. An animal does not have to suffer or die just because labs do not want to use the cruelty free method. When those methods were discovered all labs should have switched to them. Although some people think animal testing has led to many medical discoveries, there are new methods available now and animal testing is completely wrong.

 "Animal Testing - Humane Society International." https://www.hsi.org/issues/animal-testing/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2019.

 "California's ban on animal-testing could remake cosmetics ...." 10 Oct. 2018, https://america.cgtn.com/2018/10/10/californias-ban-on-animal-testing-could-remake-cosmetics-industry. Accessed 22 Oct. 2019.