In the United States records estimate the number of animals abused each year in laboratories for experiments in medical and cosmetic testing from 17 to 70 million. Scientists throughout the world believe that performing experiments on various species of animals such as birds, monkeys, and domesticated pets will assist them in finding a solution to various types of illnesses and diseases. However there are scientist’s who are for animal rights and are against this method of study. They have discovered that conducting animal experiments proves to provide little benefits for humans, and argue that there are better and more accurate ways to find cures and research that do not involve animal testing.

Specialists who are against animal experimentation have discovered that the biomechanical and biochemical compositions are different not only between each animal species, but also between an animal and a human. This finding states that it is not only impossible to take data from an animal and place it into another animal of an opposite species, but it is also impossible to place an animal’s DNA into a human. In agreement with this information, animals are unable to receive infectious diseases from humans, just as humans cannot receive a disease from an animal. In account of this information, scientists have not been capable of transmitting AIDS to an innocent animal. In laboratories, the biomedical establishment’s research is strictly based on the theory of “the animal model of human disease” which states that it is possible for scientists to duplicate ordinary human diseases such as cancer, muscular dystrophy and Alzheimer’s on immaculate animals. An animal’s body that is experimented on reacts differently to various substances. For example an ordinary guinea pig will die from consuming penicillin which is safe for most humans, yet they can eat a poison known as strychnine, which is one of the most fatal poisons and the guinea pig will not die. Each animal species has its own unique internal design making it immune to certain types of substances. The belief that veterinary medicine could be used with human medicine is what starts these experiments, they are its foundation, and scientists cannot expect to see every cure come from animals that are very diverse from a human being.
Analysts use animals’ everyday for their experiments to test cosmetics and hair products before administering them to humans. For instance, a worldwide corporation known as Mary Kay Cosmetics tests their hair spray on rabbits by holding their eyes open and spraying it in them to see if it burns. Scientists should look into “Three R’s” of alternatives for this method. The “Three R’s” of alternatives are replacement, reduction, and refinement. Replacement means that animals used for experiments would be replaced with non living methods including computer simulations, animal mannequins, and vitro techniques where research is performed with cells or tissues in culture. Both reduction and refinement are to reduce the number of animals used for testing in laboratories, and to also rid or minimize the amount of pain and stress that an animal has. Alternatives to animal testing have grown since the past and they will continue to grow, for example now day’s women who want to take a pregnancy test can buy one over the counter that tests for a specific hormone to tell if she is with child. In the past, a rabbit had to be killed for a female to even take one pregnancy test. By observing this past event, it is unmistakably obvious that the vitro method has replaced animal experimentation and that alternatives will continue to develop in laboratories. Two British scientists by the name of William Russell and Rex Burch first outlined the concept of the “Three R’s” by writing a book together known as, “The Principles of Humane Experimenting Technique.” A corporation called CAAT, or The Center for Alternatives to Animal testing built their foundation on Russell and Burch’s book. CAAT was designed to further push alternative testing into biomedical research.

Scientists often state to not only the public, but also the world that animal testing is an essential part of permanently riding humans of harmful and fatal diseases. “Since President Nixon launched the “war on cancer” back in 1971, and after spending countless billions of tax dollars infecting millions of perfectly healthy animals with artificially-induced cancerous tumors, the rate of cancer incidence has gone up by 18% and cancer deaths have increased by 7% (Burgos).” Our government enforces that before any medications are given to humans, they must be tested on animals first to observe the effects and symptoms on their body. The government also admits giving animal tested drugs to humans is very hazardous. It is very apparent that animal testing is ineffective and puts lives in danger for both animals and humans. Scientists are slowly killing animal populations by torturing and killing them. Many scientists say they avoid testing on humans by testing on animals, but they contradict themselves, because after testing on an animal the substance is evaluated on a human.

People over the age of eighteen have the choice to donate their body and organs to science whenever they die, just as this; they are able to volunteer to participate in an experiment for human health to evaluate drugs on the human body. Occasionally if a person contributes their time to an experiment for science they will in return receive a payment of some sort. Each person who volunteers for such an analysis is administered a drug after it was tested on an animal is just like a guinea pig locked in a laboratory. Humans have the ability to voice their opinion, thoughts, and feelings about anything they feel needs to be addressed. If a human is in extreme pain, they will make sure that it is known and that they get help, just so people can verbally or physically state if they want to be involved in a scientific experiment. They can say how they feel about it and if it causes them pain or not. Animals lack the ability to say that they have a stomach ache, or that they ache all over. Until researchers realize that they need to have a patient that can tell them how the substance makes them feel, they will basically be building their observations on guessing. All animal experimentation does is guess and hope for a solution to something that scientists clearly do not completely understand. If they understood science as they say they do, then they would not be performing very harmful and ineffective experiments on animals.

When looking for test subjects, Scientists will occasionally adopt a litter of kittens from an animal shelter without the shelter knowing their actual intention with them, and they will use them for ill-advised experiments. Ordinary household medications such as Advil and Ibuprofen are tested on dogs in various doses, and the ending result is death from kidney failure. “Streptomycin, a popular antibiotic, is teratogenic in rats, causing limb malformations in offspring (Greek).” Medications like these are tested on animals and fail, but are still released to the human public to hopefully assist in their pains. Each year the death toll rate of both animals and humans increases, because of incomprehension in laboratories.

Medical researchers strongly believe that animal testing is the only way that humans will ever have a possibility of destroying diseases. By experimenting on and with animals the knowledge of medical research has increased and shown high hopes for finding cures for human diseases in the future. In 1986 a law was passed known as the “Animals Act” which was established to push researchers to obtain a license from the Home Office, which observes their actions to provide an assessment of the study and the species they use in any experiment they perform involving the “Three R’s” in their work. This license sets rules for the scientists on using fewer animals, and also on how they must make the animal as comfortable as possible during an experiment. Some scientists attempt to provide the animal with anesthesia to keep them from becoming stressed out, because a stressed animal will likely be able to ruin an experiment and the results by not behaving in a normal manner. Researchers are naturally tending to use less expensive animals and techniques through reduction and replacement in order to avoid this issue with testing.

Most medications were developed for adults and not young children. Animals are now used in laboratories to assist in creating medicine for infants and young children, because of the child’s low toxity level to medication. By using dogs in experiments, humans have discovered the insulin used to treat diabetic patients. “In particular, animal experiments have been vital in discovering drugs that slow the progress of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (Lawrence).” Advancements in animal testing have also established an increasing solution for people suffering with for herpes and hepatitis B.

Vaccines are used every day to prevent diseases and contagious influenza in humans. There is no way to be sure that a vaccine will work unless it is tested on a life form. A vaccine cannot be observed in a test tube, each vaccine is different in its own form. If a vaccine destroys bone marrow the only way to come across this discovery is in a living form, a test tube does not have bone marrow. Non-human primates are significant for forming a vaccine for HIV. Drug testing on animals also first saves humans by making sure the amount in a specific dose is correct, therefore preventing the death of a human do to overdose.

Scientists state that animal experimentation will further push them into finding medical breakthroughs. This statement is incorrect on account that the biomechanical and biochemical make up of an animal are very different from that of a human. Majority of the drugs that are tested on animals that show a possibility for a positive result, are proven to have a negative consequence for a human being. Rats are a popular choice in science labs because they reproduce quickly providing more test subjects. A rat may reproduce more, but they lack gall bladders so the substance injected or consumed in them is released in their bile giving the impression that the experiment was a success, this is known as a false positive. Humans are born with gall bladders, and will suffer from a substance that receives a good result from an animal such as a rat, because of this faulty theory. The “Animals Act” contradicts itself because another act was established known as the “Animal Welfare Act” which requires the labs to report how many animals they use in their experiments. This act however does not include mice, rats, or birds which are used in 90% of experiments. In conclusion, the scientists who observe the “Animal Act” do not report to the Home Office. The tangible numbers of animals that are used in the labs are not reported, only the ones that are imported from other countries such as rhesus monkeys and miniature swine are. The birds, rats, and mice are particularly a popular choice for medical experiments. They are bought and abused from shelters and pet stores. The birds have their feathers plucked completely out, and the hair is shaved from the mice to administer to both animals a substance for cosmetics such as lotion and face foundation to observe their side effects on the animals’ skin to compare it to a humans. Private institutions and cosmetic companies pump their products into an animal’s stomach to see if it is toxic for a human, squirt them in their eyes, and force them to inhale aerosol products to see if it causes respiratory infections or death.

Experimenting on any species of animal is both unscientific and incorrect. The slip side is that experimenting on animals in hope for a solid cure is very weak and also very faulty. Occasionally a slight similarity might occur in a lab test, but in the long run it will destroy millions of people if they are administered a drug that was tested on an animal, who didn’t show complete agreement with a humans body and bone type. In the future humans will become more technology advanced, and hopefully will realize that they are wrong by performing experiments this way, and will find more solutions and alternatives to animal experimentation.