Animal Testing Should Be Banned by Society and The Government

Nude protests have been occurring all around the world to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. These activists are protesting against animal experimentation and the killing of many innocent animals for their meat and fur. Animal testing has turned into a very controversial topic within the past decade. With new inventions of different products and advancements in modern medicine, many animals are being abused and tortured for unnecessary reasons. Because animal testing has been such a norm in our previous generations, scientists and business owners are believing they can test on just about anything. Animal testing needs to have legal boundaries and limits because most animals do feel pain, it is unethical, and results could be found in alternate ways.

Animal testing however, has been a huge stepping stone in the knowledge and foundation we have today. Without some of these experiments, America and most of the world could be swept away in disease and sickness. Most scientists believe that animal testing should have no legal boundaries because their results are too significant, most tested animals do not feel pain, and that animals are just simply “animals”.

Scientists have found very valuable information while testing animals. All of our modern medicines and vaccines we have today have been once tested on a mouse, a bird, a rabbit, or even a chimpanzee. Regardless of the pain animals endure during this process, the information is significant enough to have the animals be put through this. According to understanding animal research.org, there are three main reasons why animal testing is significant; to advance scientific understanding, to develop solutions to medical problems, and to protect the future safety of people, animals and the environment.

It is necessary that our economy as a whole continues to grow healthy and safe. These experiments increase our knowledge and inquire stronger medicines for our future population. It is known that invertebrates do not feel pain, and vertebrae’s do feel pain. Most lab tested animals in fact are vertebrae’s. Which mean they have a similar nervous system as humans. However, most animals being tested have such small brains they do not tend to realize what is going on. Scientists are careful on animals and do not intend to hurt them. On many occasions animals make it out alive and do not undergo any physical pain. “Animals are used when there is a need to find out what happens in the whole living body, which is far more complex than the sum of its parts. It is very difficult, and in most cases simply not yet possible, to develop non-animal methods to replace the use of living animals” (Understanding animal research, 1). This states that it is far easier to take the chance hurting an animal than it is to figure our expensive and extensive alternatives around animal testing.

Through the process of animal testing, occasionally an animal will die. Mice are the most tested animals in the laboratory because they are one of the most hated animals in the animal kingdom. Mice are so insignificant to the population that no one really seems to care if one dies. Animals compared to humans in the scheme of things are insignificant. Scientists have the common view, “It is better the animal dies then the human, they are just animals”. Most of society has the same viewpoint. Animals die in the laboratory for society’s safety and security.

Scientists have their views, and many people in society have separate views. Animal testing has become an issue because scientists and even businesses are abusing their privileges with these animals. Products such as make-up, shampoos, chemicals, and even diseases have been tested on animals just to see their reaction to these substances. That right there is an example of abusing the right to test on animals. Peta .com’s web article, “Animal Experiments” protests, “animal experimentation is inherently unethical and that citizens of the United States should not have to put their tax dollars to support this”. The idea of animal testing has been passed through generations and experimenters have been abusing this opportunity. The fact that scientists have been testing animals on such insignificant research makes the whole situation unethical.

“Today we know that all vertebrates, animals with a backbone, have the same nerves that humans have. In other words, they feel pain” (Greek, 1). Regardless of how small these tested animals brains are, they feel pain. They feel almost identical pain as humans. According to “Animal Experiments, a web article, “each year, more than 100 million animals—including mice, rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds—are killed in U.S. from animal experimentation”. That means that all of these animals, being vertebrae’s, have felt the same pain while dying as a human. However, these animals died while being tortured. Animals do feel pain, and need to be spared during these insignificant experiments.

There are many alternatives to animal testing. One being to simply stop researching insignificant data. There is no need to test hair products and make-ups on animals. Nonetheless, “The problem is that animal testing hasn’t worked, and it’s time we stopped dancing around the problem. … We need to refocus and adapt new methodologies for use in humans to understand disease biology in humans. These modern methods include sophisticated tests using human cells and tissues, advanced computer-modeling techniques, and studies with human volunteers” (Zerhouni, 2). Dr. Zerhouni preaches that animal testing hasn’t been working and scientists need to accept this fact and find other alternatives. Skin graphing, human volunteers and computer generated models are all perfect explanations of saving innocent animals lives. Animals have feelings, and just because they cannot scream in horror and speak out for themselves, does not make it right to test on them.

There needs to be a middle ground or some type of compromise scientists put forth in regards to these innocent animals. One being, there needs to be a limit on the amount of animals dying in the laboratory. One hundred million could easily be decreased to ten million, or even one million. Secondly, there needs to be more effort in using alternate sources of experimentation. Scientists are smart and should not take the easy way out of things. Lastly, scientists and business owners especially, cannot test on insignificant data. Hygiene products, make-ups and different chemicals should not be tested on animals. The Government needs to do a better job on regulating restrictions such as these on animal testing.

In conclusion, animal testing is a huge problem that can be easily resolved with little to no effort. Scientists believe that their data is significant enough and that they aren’t doing any harm to discontinue these experiments. Whereas much of society views animal testing as a cruel insignificant process that must be stopped. Once the government and society decides to intervene, animals will finally have a voice.

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