Persuasive Essay: Should We Replace Animal Testing?

Animal testing has been a controversial issue for the past thirty years. Society feels as if animal testing is a technique of the past and should be outlawed in the United States like the majority of the world. Federal law shows us how little protection animals have, numerous recalled or discontinued medications are proof that research on animals to predict effects on the human body is highly unreliable. The humane society provides numerous examples of the cruel treatments and conditions animals must endure. Scientists have presented us with alternatives that are more cost-effective and produce less waste with higher accuracy rates.

Animal testing is known as vivisection and in vivo. There are approximately 12.1 million animal experiments were conducted annually in Europe (Murnaghan, 2010). Animal testing has been practiced across the history of medical research and one of the famous researchers was Galen, ‘Father of Vivisection’. In recent years, a lot of animal rights groups and animal protections have criticised about the practice of using animals for biomedical research (Hajar, 2011). To illustrate, European Union regulators have decided to forbid on the import and sale of cosmetic that contain ingredients that had tested on animals and pledge to pursue China to accept alternatives (Kanter, 2013).

Introduction Using animals in research has been an important issue for discussion as it affects both humans and animals equally. While the arguments for using animals in research are strong; the argument that it is cruel and unnecessary in many cases is also strong. The basic arguments and reasoning for and against animal testing will be presented.

Imagine this: you hear your mother crying in another room. She has just gotten terrible news. Her youngest son has died from bleeding in the brain from an injury. The loss in the family has been hard on everyone. Your brother received this brain injury while taking a hard blow to the head while in football practice. You probably know that these sort of deaths are a serious problem, and scientists are trying to prevent them. It is a comforting thought to know scientists are trying to stop these deaths. However, this research could not take place without the animals being used as test subjects. The use of animal lives in medical research and in testing of drug is a necessary sacrifice to save countless human lives.

Since the dawn of time humans and animals have had a close relationship. Humans have relied on animals for food, clothing, and companionship; however, using animals in research and testing products has been a topic of heated debate for decades. Each year, more than 100 million animals are killed in the United States for biology lessons, medical training, curiosity-driven experimentation, and chemical, drug, food, and other product testing. People have different feelings for animals; many may see animals as companions while others view the living creatures as a means for improving medical techniques or furthering experimental research. Whichever way one may interpret the use for animals, the fact remains that they are being exploited by research facilities and cosmetics

When putting on your lipstick, do you know what brand your lipstick is? If you are not aware, you might indirectly support animal testing without realizing it. Animal testing is a scientific experiment performed on animals to study the effects of drugs, cosmetic products and other chemical products on humans. In other words, it is used to evaluate the effectiveness of new drugs. About 1.4 million animals die each year because of animal testing. Science researches believe that products which have been tested on animals will make humans’ life better. However, the main concern on this issue is that animals are suffering from unnecessary pain. Animals are mostly exposed to radiation, forced to inhale poisonous gases and injected with harmful substances prior to the experiment. Thus, animal testing should be banned because it is cruel, the result is unreliable and expensive.

“No matter whether it’s someone from the political left or right, we just need a voice to stand up and defend animal rights” a quote from Brigitte Bardot on animal experimentation. Animal experimentation has been going on for over 300 years and this is just what has been recorded in records. There are many types of test performed on animals:Draize Test: A laboratory test in which a cosmetic or drug is dropped into a rabbit 's eyes, which are held open with clips, to determine the level of irritation. Named after John Henry Draize, a twentieth century pharmacologist with the United States Food and Drug Administration. Also there is the LD50 Test: A toxicity test used in animal testing that is performed until 50 percent of the animals are dead. Animals should not be required to be tested on before the use of a medical drug, cosmetic, or food additive.

The publisher’s intended audience are people who advocate for the rights of animals and are searching for different methods of testing products. The purpose is to inform the people that animal testing is “old school” compared to the new innovative ideas. They want the people to be aware that these experimentations are not successful with the animals nor when they are tested on humans.

“Nine out of ten drugs that pass animal studies fails in humans” (Moore 2). Many patients in the world of medicine need drugs with low risk factors. Animal experiment is becoming a thing of the past and for good reasons. The experiments are no longer answering the scientists questions, but when the products does work on animals it is never going to be hundred percent for humans. Animal experimentation is wrong because animals can register pain just like humans, the medication is not reliable, and money is lost when it is ineffective.

Mahatma Gandhi once stated, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” In today’s world, animals are being used to control scientific variables in experiments including drug testing, the creation of cosmetics, and treatments for diseases. Animal testing can be beneficial in the aspect that it has contributed to many life-saving cures and treatments. However, on the other hand, animal testing can be seen as cruel and inhumane because of the way animals are treated. Animal testing is more complicated in the aspect that it is not just simply putting the end product on the animals, but torturing the defenseless animals with relentless experiments causing an unknown amount of pain.

Animal Experimentation is a large controversial topic across the United States because of the harm forced upon innocent animals for the benefit of mankind’s health. The use of animals in laboratories is a common occurrence in the medical field, cosmetic industry, and in clothing production. Animals are used in experiments to test the safety, durability, and quality of many everyday products. In order to end these unethical testing methods, society must be informed of the harsh realities that include wasted profit due to expensive testing, unnecessary procedures that lead to inaccurate results, and the mental and physical abuse inflicted upon these innocent animals.

Animal testing is the inhumane act of using conscious, innocent animals to test products without care of what the aftermath may be. According to PETA, the largest animal rights organization in the world, more than 100 million animals are slaughtered in U.S. laboratories every year. Those who have the heart to inflict this type of brutality do this by immobilizing them in restraint devices for hours, in order to drill holes into their skulls and have their spinal cords crushed (PETA). Along with the physical atrocities that humans are forcing these vulnerable animals into, humans are also isolating them from their own kind, confining them in barren cages, and thus traumatizing them for the rest of their lives. Those who possess an ounce of compassion

Animal Testing: Beneficial to mankind or just plainly immoral? A controversial subject such as animal testing always has strong supporting evidence coming from both sides of the metaphorical “battlefield’’, but is there really a need to choose a side? Is it possible that there is a “right” and a “wrong” argument on this topic? Testing different products (albeit medical or cosmetic) is extremely difficult to do without a suitable test subject, because when testing products for humans it is often times frowned upon when e.g. new medicine for combatting cancer is tested on a live person.

Animal testing has become a double-edged sword topic all around the world. Researchers believe that it is morally ethical to conduct extreme research procedures on animals when it is unethical to conduct on humans. Research is responsible for many medical breakthroughs and an important factor to the development of medical advances is the inclusion of animals in research. Medical research with the help of animal testing has prevented hepatitis B, measles, etc. (Karayiannis et al. 2004).

Animal testing is a phrase that most people have heard but are perhaps still unsure of exactly what it involve. Whether it is called animal testing, experimentation or research, it should be defined as all testing methods on animals including, medical exploration, cosmetics, toxicology trialing, and psychological examination involving animal subjects. It is used to assess the safety and effectiveness of medications and beauty products as well as understanding how the human physiology works. While supporters believe it is necessary practice, those against animal testing believe that it involves torture and suffering to animals. Medical research is the hardest case of proposition in the debate whether animal testing should be banned or not, since it has previously yielded substantial benefits for humanity.