Could anyone imagine their pet being abused for the sake of a test? The animal is forced into living without food, water, or fresh air for days, even months. Millions of animals each year endow this treatment. They are forced to be tested on, in horrible and unimaginable conditions. But, the government continues these methods even while there are new and innovative ways to change. There are even laws and bans to help stop animal testing, but the effects of the test during and after are unbearable to think about for anyone or anything.
Animal testing should be stopped. There are plenty of alternatives, laws and bans that should be better enforced, and that testing on animals is inhumane and immoral. There are more efficient, inexpensive, and more reasonable ways to test products instead of using innocent animals. Nineteen and half million animals are killed due to testing every year. One point one three million farm animals are being used for testing in the United States alone. Once companies start using alternative methods these numbers can be brought down to zero.
One way the world can bring down these numbers is by using three dimensional prints of human cells to test products with, which can give the same or even greater results (Testing Cosmetics). Or else, companies can use human volunteers for products that are made for humans. This allows the most accurate display of how a human being would react to the product. It also allows the creator to tweak the product more precisely. Using humans will lower the amount of rats, mice, cats, and monkeys that are forced to live with brain damage from testing, although the testing on humans will not have the same effect.
Humans will not be given the same dosage of the product as the animals and with humans being larger in size it will not affect them the same, thus no brain damage (Alternatives to Animal Testing). Another alternative would be to use human cells and human tissue to replace animals. Using human cells can make it easier to tell when or if the product will spike a fever and how it will affect the body once it reaches the blood, organs, and skin. They can also use a realistic torso that bleeds when cut instead of cutting into live pigs, dogs, or goats to get more advanced information (Alternatives to Animal Testing).
An additional alternative is a technology model known as a silico model. This will help scientists better understand the effect of the product on the whole body not just the brain or the bloodstream. Using silico models will help eliminate a huge portion of animals being used for testing. Many scientists agree that animal testing has been old technology that has needed to be replaced or fixed in some way. “We have moved away from studying human disease in humans. … We all drank the Kool-Aid on that one, me included. .. 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. ” (Zerhouni, Alternatives to animal testing) This just further proves that it is time to change the old and traditional ways to something more innovative and non harmful (Alternatives to Animal Testing). Along with replacing animal testing, the government should further the laws and bans against it.
Currently the laws against animal testing do not apply for ninety to ninety five percent of the animals that are actually being used or harmed (Society). But, the laws against it do not apply to the millions of farm animals being used either. (MacClellan). The government also does not exclude or halt any experiment no matter if it is dangerous, stressful, or deadly for the animals being used (Society). Although countries including Europe, Israel, India, and the UK have put bans on animal testing and how it is done, the U. S and other countries refuse to do the same (MacCleallan).
According to the PETA on animal testing, “The environmental organization from the U. S is continually pushing for more testing to be done while the rest of the world is trying to cut down. ” The U. S has also been known to protest the use of non-animal testing methods (Testing Cosmetics). It is unbelievable that the U. S is continually going head to head with this problem even when countries using alternative methods, such as Europe, have agreed and stated that using alternative methods are more valuable, informative, less expensive, and quicker than the traditional way (Testing Cosmetics).
Although governments all around the world are updating some of the laws to change to the needs of the specific species that are being tested, it is not enough to protect all of the animals being used and abused. Such as, a regulation that was passed in 1966 to protect and regulate the amount of animals killed, but it hasn’t be changed to cover all the animals such as fish, mice, and rats (MacClellan). Or in the instance, as to when the labs administer pain relievers to the animals or if they do at all, but it does not apply to rats and mice (MacClellan).
This should not be the issue, the government should be working harder at protecting these animals that are not able to protect themselves. Every year hundreds of thousands and even millions of animals that are used for testing (Seth). These animals are being abused and tortured to the extreme everyday, whether the animals can help it or not. Not including the horrific short and long term effects of the testing. These animals daily lives are constantly under stress and forced inside without sunlight or fresh air (Society). Many of the animals used in the tests die either during or after the tests. In toxicity testing, animals used in chronic toxicity and carcinogenicity studies receive the test substance daily, seven days a week, for up to two years with no recovery periods. Many, if not most, animals die before the end of the study. With the exception of chimpanzees, animals who survive their use in research and testing can be killed after the study is completed. “(Society)
These animals that are not able to live normal lives due to labs and businesses believing this is the only way to find information. “In research and testing, animals are ubjected to experiments that can include everything from testing new drugs to infecting with diseases, poisoning for toxicity testing, burning skin, causing brain damage, implanting electrodes into the brain, maiming, blinding, and other painful and invasive procedures. It can include protocols that cause severe suffering, such as long-term social isolation, electric shocks, withholding of food and water, or repeated breeding and separating of infants from mothers. ” (Society) The labs will even use “immobilizing tools” to stop the animal from moving during part or the whole test.
Sometimes the labs take it as far as hanging the chimps tails and encasing them in tubes. Because of this unethical treatment, many chimps go insane during the testing and start to inflict wounds on themselves by biting wounds, pulling out hair, and mutilating themselves. Many say that, “ Animal testing is like being in a hospital bed for your whole life without knowing when or if you are going to die and not knowing what is going to happen to you”. This should not be happening to innocent and forced upon animals (Society).
Although animals are forced into the testing life, many believe it is for the better. Those who believe in animal testing and its way will say that there are more benefits than downfalls to it, and some of this is proved true. Many tests using animals have cured and furthered the development of diseases and treatments. Like how mice have raised the rate of cancer survival, testing has lowered the rate of Aids, and made the effects less severe, (Forty Reasons) or how monkeys and cows have lowered and tamed polio (Cook). Smallpox has also been deceased of the Earth for animal testing (Cook).
But, there are also procedures that have been tested and improved due to animals. Such as, organ transplants, tetanus shots, pacemakers, (Cook) insulin, and inhalers (Forty Reasons). Having all these improvements in the world just shows that testing is helping humans survive longer and longer than before. And although the animals used are not one hundred percent the same, the labs use what the animals and humans have in common to test rather than the differences (Cook). However, the process of testing is still hazardous and obscene.
Now although animal testing has somewhat improved the world’s medical fields in a lot of ways, it still does not erase the fact that innocent animals are still being hurt and killed in the process. There are still other alternatives to animal testing, there are laws and bans that could be better enforced, and there are just too many animals being killed to continue this method of testing. There could be 19,500,000 less animal deaths every year, but yet most of the world has not figured out how (Seth). All it takes is changing an old and outdated action to save millions of animals. Just one person to start a wave of change.
