Few can argue against animal research when it comes to assistance for medical advancement. Even so, with the advancement of medicine, the ethical treatment of animals may be sacrificed. For the past 20 years Wayne State University has been funded for animal research and is now under investigation for cruel and unusual methods for animal testing. Wayne State University has been using dogs for cardiovascular research. Therefore, they are mainly on a treadmill for most of the day and “sometimes they’re so tired they can’t even eat — they’re listless, then the dogs are all eventually euthanized if they don’t die on the treadmill or in their cage later.” The treatment of these dogs used as subjects have concerned the Physicians Committee for Responsible
According to one of the largest organizations for social change with 4.3 million members: Do Something, the article “11 Facts About Animal Testing” states, “92% of experimental drugs that are safe and effective in animals fail in human clinical trials because they are too dangerous or don’t work.” Even after scientists force innocent animals into excruciating pain, the results are proven to be meaningless. This delineates how impractical animal testing is. By the same token, according to Pro-Con, a nonprofit public charity that provides research on more than 50 controversial topics, “Paul Furlong, Professor of Clinical Neuroimaging at Aston University (UK), states that ‘it's very hard to create an animal model that even equates closely to what we're trying to achieve in the human.’” This demonstrates how distinct animals and humans are and proves we should not use animals as a representation people.
Over 100 million animals are used as test subjects in the world, with approximately 26 million of them in the United States. Sadly, a majority of the time the products that are being tested on animals are not even effective once human trials begin. Consumers might object that if the products were tested to be safe on animals then they would be safe for humans. Yet, 92% of the times the products actually work in animal trials they are later deemed too dangerous or uneffective for people. Which means that most of the animals used in scientific testing are being abused for no apparent reason.
Since 2000, around 16 million in government funds have gone to Wayne State University, or WSU, for animal research, specifically for experiments that use dogs to attempt to simulate or replicate cardiovascular conditions in humans. However, Wayne State’s methods of research have concerned Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, who aims to file a lawsuit against WSU. These dogs are used to simulate cardiovascular conditions. For example, “The dogs have the blood flow to their kidneys obstructed to create hypertension.”
Furthermore, some major ethical issues with animal testing is that animals are often forced to suffer diseases, injuries, and live in isolated cages awaiting death by the end of the study; but, even though researchers try to reduce the pain, “they aren’t able to completely prevent any pain from occurring” since animals are living beings. Animals experience a considerable amount of pain and are subjected to all kinds of suffering including testing as awful as forced diseases, injuries, and enduring a life of isolated captivity. However, when the scientist no longer needs the animal, the animal is put to sleep without any thought about the animal’s life or purpose; so, this poor treatment of animals is morally wrong because animals live and breathe just as humans do and should be treated with more respect. Because much of medical research has nothing to do with animal testing, there seems no reason to continue this kind of animal abuse for animal testing is obviously not the core of medical progressions. Also, alternatives in the medical field are being made to replace animal testing, so animals no longer have to deal with the torture they have been subjected to, and these alternatives will most likely advance the medical field more than animal testing has advanced the medical field.
These days, many companies use a variety of methods for product development and stability verification. One of them, animal experimentation, has been a controversial issue in the past until now and it has also confronted with various reactions in regards to its admissibility. We need to respect and cherish the dignity of animals. They are, like humans, are entitled to basic needs and their way of life should not be intervened and determined by human beings. Also, animal experiments are an act of looking at animals and ignoring their basic rights as living beings.
The practice of using animals for biomedical research is severely being criticized from Animal protection and animals rights group. For example, drug fiascos have occurred, such as the diethylene glycol (DEG) use in 1937. This substance was poisonous for humans, but was still used in flavors of taste. And this ended up with more than one hundred people in death. After this incident, a law was passed that the drugs were only to be used on animals first to be marketed!
There is much controversy with regards to animal testing for medical research and there has been throughout the centuries. We can trace the issue back all the way to the 4th century when we have the first record of animal experimentation, Aristotle dissecting animals for study. In the 1600s, scientists began using animals as a way to explore the human body which led to many advancements in the medical field. Such advancements include Emil von Bering finding a cure for diphtheria toxin for guinea pigs; further research allowed him to produce a diphtheria vaccine for humans (Bright).In spite of these many medical achievements brought on through the use of animal testing, there are still those that argue the practice is not justifiable and should
2.0 Body Content 2.1 Reduction A way of justifying animal testing is to reduce the number of animals involved in animal testing. In 1970s, 5.5 million of various animals including chimpanzees, dogs, mice, rabbits, monkeys etc. are involve in the medical research field as test subjects for various experiments (PETA, 2014). However, some experiments were not beneficial to the development of the medical field but cost over a million dollar. In the United States of America, 16 billion dollars had been used on animal experimentation- 1.9 million dollars are used on the experimenting on heart diseases on dogs conducted by Ohio State University, 5 million dollars were used on obesity experiments conducted by Oregon National Primate Research Centre, while 16 million dollars were used by Harvard University to fund 1200 individual experiments on drug addiction by using monkeys as test subjects. Although animals were sacrificed in the experiments, most experiments did not reach its goal due to flaws causing a waste of life (Grant, 2013; Peta, 2014).
Gandhi once said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”. Research shows that there is no point to animal testing as they make very poor test subjects. They are very different from humans, with size, shape and different body chemistry which means that the products that they are testing could work for the animals, but have bad effects on humans that could even cause death. Although testing on animals has contributed to many life saving cures and treatments, it is still cruel and inhumane because of the suffering that the animals go through, the failure of experiments and it is unethical. Some argue that animal testing doesn't harm the animals; however there is evidence that the animals
Animal testing has abused thousands and thousands of animals. From shattering the hearts of millions of animal lovers, making beagles inhale poison, locking animals in small cages and horrifying the poor innocent things. Here’s the evidence to support that animal testing must stop soon. Heartless scientists put thousands of adorable animals through trauma and pain just for medicines, drugs and much more.
The innocent animals who are unwillingly used in these experiments
The use of animals in experimental research will always remain a controversial issue and the people will always divide into two opinions either with for the great benefit in the medical field that comes from the animal testing or against for the ethical problems and the animal rights. Animal testing has helped a lot in the past, and its absence will cost a lot. Moral concerns are important, but not the most important. It might be difficult to know which side to support but can the life of an animal be the reason for loosing lives of
Every year, millions of animals were suffering or killed due to scientific research. Some animal rights groups suggest that we should ban animal experiments because use animals for experimentation is cruel and animals should have the same right of living as human beings. A report from U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that more than 100 million animals are killed in U.S. laboratories for biology lessons, medical experimentation, and chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics testing. There are some other people believe that the death of animals will help and save millions of human lives. Personally I believe that the experimentation on animals for scientific and medical should not be stopped.
Last year the European Union banned using “animals to test the safety of cosmetic ingredients”(Mone). Relying on animal testing has delayed the evaluation of different chemicals because the “animal-based tests take too long and are too expensive”(Mone). They usually take up several years and millions of dollars. The validity of the results from testing on animal subjects can be compromised because we are very different. The cosmetic companies are waiting to hear how they are supposed to test their products without animal testing, and the researchers are attempting to finish some alternatives.
This is an example of someone just not following directions. Animals and pets deserve better than this. I don’t want to go through the pain of having our pet die because some vet was careless. We need to stop animal testing even testing drugs for dog diseases. Animal testing is a sad careless thing that people think they can get away with.