According to a study, between 25 and 50 billion animals are meaninglessly killed in laboratories each year and the scientists rarely care about the poor animals. These are some of the more commonly used animals in animal testing are mice, rabbits, dogs, guinea pigs, cats, horses and monkeys. Innocent animals that participate in testing are burned, subjected to lethal chemicals, blinded by products like bleach being dripped slowly into the eyes for hours, and purposefully killed for “research”. Ninety-four percent of animal testing is actually done to determine the safety of cosmetics and household products. This leaves only 6% for actual medical research! Animal testing should not be legal for drugs and especially cosmetics because they blind, poison and even purposefully kill innocent animals.
Some may argue that if animal testing stopped 50 years ago, there would be no solution to polio or other important vaccines we have now. That was the past; we can stop only the testing in future to save animals now. According to one study, more than 2.5 million live animal experiments were allowed in Great Britain in 2000. This is one-half what it was in the 1970s. This is good for future animals.
Some animal drug tests are faulty because humans are different from other animals. There have been many unknown side-effects in humans that don’t show in animals. Animal testing, in many situations, is a waste because the drugs or products being tested work on the animals but not on the humans, even after all the cruel testing. Sometimes the stress put on the animals during testing can affect the outcome of the experiments and make them faulty. The animals are very often seriously scared and this may influence the results. Scientists are so malicious to the animals that their bodies react as if they’re being attacked and products may not work with them.
Animals are still used to test items like cleaning products and beauty products, which benefit mankind less than if they were used for testing for medicines or surgery. Substances, from eye shadow and soap to furniture polish and oven cleaner, are tested on animals despite the fact that test results do not help prevent or treat human illness or injury. Animals want to live, too, because they can feel the pain and they suffer. Animals have as much right to life as human beings do. People who approve of animal testing say that the suffering and loss of life of animals are worth the enhancement in human health and the reduction of human suffering. They don't believe that alternatives to animal testing are able to replace the animals in all cases. This does not make sense. Why do humans think that they are so much better than other animals or mammals? All species are living beings that breathe and feel.
Although there are laws to “protect animals”, these laws are, at times, not enforced. Deaths of animals because of research are absolutely unnecessary and are in fact morally no different from murder. Many people who are for animal testing say that animals are given drugs so that they won’t feel the pain. Well, how do we really know? How can scientists really say that every animal in there doesn’t feel pain?
People may say that animals are killed for meat and food so why does it matter if animals are being killed for testing? Well, animals killed for food products are not put through all the agony as they do in drug testing. Also, animals cannot give their informed consent to whether or not the want to participate in the testing. Why should humans subject them to it? These animals are not able to comprehend what the humans will do to them in testing, until they are in severe pain.
When people think of IAMS dog food, they tend to think of a company trying to make your pet healthier. They promote giving your pet a longer and healthier life. This company, hypocritically, DOES test on animals. They are, in fact, killing or hurting many dogs and cats in the process of making that pet food. It is very cruel to animals. Doesn’t that seem kind of ironic? Some other companies that test on animals include: Gillette, Arm & Hammer, Clorox, Colgate-Palmolive, Cover Girl., L’Oreal U.S.A., Pantene, Suave, and so many more. Pretty much everyone has at least one product at their house that was made by using animal experimentation.
Scientists could save the lives of many animals by just doing a few simple and effective things. They could eliminate the redundant or pointless experiments on animals, which, in turn, could technically be done on humans. Another approach could be to replace animal tests with non-animal methods. There are tests that look at how different toxins and medicines react with samples human tissues, including muscle and organ tissues. Taking samples does not hurt or harm humans so these are better and safer alternatives. Test tube studies on human tissue cultures, the use of statistics and computer models can also reduce the need for animals in experimentation. Scientists can modify the animal-based tests to reduce the number of animals used. This would help minimize pain and distress which can help reduce the number of killed animals.
In the U.K there has been a ban on animal testing for cosmetics. They are making an excellent improvement for animals around the world. Their policies are more moral than the policies that we have in the U.S. right now, so we want similar policies here. It would be the very least that can be done for animals.
Everyone can make a difference. There are different things people can do at each age that will help. Write letters to companies and government to make them stop animal testing. Start petitions against companies. This has been done in Great Britain and as mentioned before, and they exonerated testing cosmetics on animals. Related to this, don’t buy the cosmetic products that use animal testing. Even just one person makes a difference. If everyone in just this room does this, we could essentially keep those companies from making thousands of dollars. We spend so much money each year on household products that test on animals. And this is just from us alone. If we get others to join in this, we could possibly keep even more money from the companies, and actually make a huge difference. People have even used social networking sites, like Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter, to petition animal testing and to let others know about it. Get a group of fellow believers together and spread these ideas around the world. Don’t be afraid to speak your mind about it either. You won’t be helping the suffering animals if you keep it all locked inside of you.
The policies and laws on animal testing need to change, and it needs to happen quickly because millions of animals each year are being killed and tortured for either cosmetics or for the benefits of humans. It is not fair to the animals. No human would ever want to be put through what scientists are doing to animals, so why are they? It is simple and easy to make a difference, so everyone should go out and make the difference. Animal testing needs to stop.