Animal testing

Introduction

Animal testing is the experimentation on animals by human that seek to control factors or traits that affect human behavior or to determine the effects of a biological system that is under study. Mostly in pharmaceutical industries animals are tested on in order to further research such as, finding cures to diseases’ and testing the effect of cosmetic products. Mostly, after animals are tested on they are euthanized and allowed to die because of incurable diseases acquired during the process of testing them on new products. Some nations such as Britain support animal testing and argue that any major medical achievement relied on animal testing and not even sophisticated models of computers can be able to produce results such as the ones produced from animal testing. Animal testing is cruel and it subjects the animals to a lot of pain and suffering. Animal testing should come to an end and humans should consider using other alternatives that are available in order to save the life of many animals.

Rights of animals is a debate that emerges due to the invention of modern day science. Scientists are using animals to check the safety of the food that humans consume, to check and ensure the safety of drugs before they are used on humans, effects of beauty products such as lipsticks and eye shadows before humans can be allowed to use them. Britain is a country where animal testing is legalized since the year 1876, this led to a brutal series of animal testing in the country in the years that followed 1885, when the nation found a cure to rabies it was tested on dogs and rabbits to ensure the safety of the cure, in the 1930s, the country developed modern anesthesia and tested it on dogs and in the early 1940s treatment for arthritis was tested and studied on rabbits and monkeys (Hayhurst, 8). This is evident that the rights of animals have been violated in the country by using them as test subjects on researches that might even kill them.

Countless pictures taken of these animals that are tested on shows that these animals endure a lot of pain in the process. Many people, including doctors and scientists believe it is time to end the era of animal testing and start using other methods for scientific advancement. It is their belief that animals should be living in their natural habitats but not in laboratories. As much as there are two sides of a coin, this debate on animal rights has two sides, those who think it is time to end animal testing, and those that believe that animal testing should not come to an end and it is a vital tool in the advancement of society. They feel that the advantages that have emerged from animal testing such as finding a cure for polio and find out the effects of cancer chemotherapy outweighs all the suffering that the animals go through when carrying out these tests (Hayhurst, 9). These people view animals as lesser creatures compared to human beings and they cannot share equal rights. This debate on animal testing is one that ignites strong emotions from both parties.

There is also people who feel that animal testing is right, but some boundaries should not be crossed when carrying out tests. Some parties feel that it is right to carry out animal tests on foods that are for consumption of humans but testing beauty products and cosmetics on animals should not be allowed. Some of the products that should not be tested on animals include hair shampoos and toothpastes. It is recommendable that animals being subjected to testing should be put to sleep in ways that they will not endure more pain. Animal testing can be tolerated if scientists are seeking beneficial results such as cure for polio (Hayhurst,11). When more humane methods are used to test on animals it is arguable that animal testing can be tolerated.

For effective treatment of diseases affecting humans a wide detailed and effective research must be carried out. For medical researchers and doctors to understand how diseases affect the human body and to learn how to cure diseases', researches introduces disease causing viruses and bacteria into the bodies of animals. They later study the changes that occur in the animal and later they introduce different kinds of treatment on the animal to see how the animal will react to them. It is well known that animals suffer from the same diseases that affect humans and the way the animals will react to a certain treatment is the same way humans will react to that treatment (Watson, 8). At other times doctors need tissues from animals in order to come up with a cure for a certain disease, an example is the use of hormones from the pancreas of cows or pigs to make insulin, a drug with the capability of curing diabetes (Watson, 9). Animal testing is important to develop drugs affecting humans but it is still advisable to use other means if producing these cures than hurting animals.

The animals in a laboratory live a life full of isolation from their fellow animals, they experience a lot of misery and are deprived of their right to exist and live in their natural habitat. The United States allows scientists to carry out all types of experiments on animals including burning, shocking, drowning, isolating and starving these animals (Day, 106) No experimentation on these animals is prohibited. The country has continued to carry out animal testing even in researches that have other options. In the process of experimenting on animals, these animals contract disease that they would never contract when living in their natural habitats. Mice’s get tumors that are twice as large as their bodies and kittens are forced to undergo surgeries and experiments that leave them blind. These animals undergo painful surgeries and are latter dumped in their cages without any pain killer to calm the pain (Best, 20). These experiments performed on animals show the cruelty they are subjected to in the process of animal testing.

Animal experimentation lessens the value place on life since many animals after experimentations are killed. Animal testing has its advantages and it is the duty of the society to ensure that these advantages do not outweigh the value of the life of animals. Animal testing enhances the safety of products being released out to consumers, animal testing ensures that no harm comes to humans since they cannot be used as test subjects in an experiment and lastly, animal testing is responsible for most of the medical advancement that have taken place in the society. Animal testing as suitable as it may seem it has its disadvantages. Many of products tested on animals are never approved to be used by humans therefore, if a product in not needed by humans an animal should not be subjected to torture when testing that product. Animal testing many not always offer results that are valid (Ayres, np). It is true that animals do not share the same rights as humans but they should be allowed to live and enjoy their natural habitats.

Conclusion

Animal testing which is the practice of conducting experimentations on animals should come to an end and if not, more controlled measures of experimenting on animals should be put in place. Throughout the history of some countries such as Britain, animals have been used in laboratories to conduct medical researches and to find cure for diseases. Animals in laboratories are subjected to a lot of pain through acts such as burning and scientists who perform countless surgeries on these animals. These animals are deprived the freedom to live in their natural habitats and are isolated from the rest of the animals. Animal testing has its own advantages and disadvantages, but the society should not let the advantages outweigh the value of the life in these animals. Society should try and replace animal testing with other modes of experimentation in order to reduce the cruelty that animals face during these test. No living creature should be deprived of the rights to exist in its natural habitat freely with the rest of the species.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work cited

Ayres.crystal.14 Pros and Cons of Animal Research. (nd). Retrieved from; https://vittana.org/14-pros-and-cons-of-animal-research

Best, Samuel J, and Benjamin Radcliff. Polling America: An Encyclopedia of Public Opinion. Greenwood Press, 2005. Print.

Day, Nancy. Animal Experimentation: Cruelty or Science?Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 2000. Internet resource.

Hayhurst, Chris. Animal Testing: The Animal Rights Debate. New York: Rosen Pub. Group, 2000. Print.

Watson, Stephanie. Animal Testing: Issues and Ethics. New York: Rosen Pub, 2009. Print.