Attention! Animal testing may have just saved your life! Throughout the course of history, improvements, new products, and medical advancements have been made through animals testing. Testing on animals for scientific and commercial purposes poses many benefits. A lot people are at risk of cancer and heart problems, while many actually do suffer from these things. Major medical breakthroughs have been made possible through animal testing, and these breakthroughs have been able to save lives. According to https://www. nap. edu/read/ 10089/chapter/2, in the 1900’s heart problems were very common, and many people died from them.
Doctors knew that something had to be done, so they communicated with scientists and researchers. Further research on hearts resulted in operating on animals similar in DNA to humans. Pigs have been found to have very similar hearts to humans, and studies have shown that their valves can actually be used in human bodies. Using these valves in humans can lead to fewer heart problems consisting of blood clots, cardiac arrest, stroke, and heart failure, which have all been linked to a type of problem in the valves of the heart.
In that time, a 12-year-old was able to be treated for heart disease and live because of the knowledge gained from testing on animals. Going along with the heart, in the 1930’s, doctors and researchers started to create pumps that circulate and aerate the blood so that the person under a heart operation can keep the blood flowing. Even today, these pumps – although they have been modified – are being used. Did you know that these pumps were originally tested on animals? With the knowledge that they learned from the originally pumps, they created ones for humans and in the year of 1953, he first surgery using one of these pumps was performed. As have already said, cancer is another disease that many people have and put a lot of people at risk of getting it. A mouse is over 90 percent similar to humans, and some types of mice carry Herceptin, which has been linked to treating breast cancer. However, scientists would have never known that unless they chose to do testing on mice. Also, a species of woodpecker has been found to carry viruses similar to Hepatitis B, which has led to further information on cancer of the liver.
One last detail for this was vaccines; it has been proven that some animals carry diseases similar to diseases humans have. When scientists are trying to cure a disease,- let’s say smallpox – they go to the animal with something similar. They find ways to treat it and eventually cure it. Then, they use the information that they receive from treating the animal to come up with a possible solution or cure for humans. Now, many people say that it’s cruel to do this to animals, but actually, these scientists and veterinarians do all they can to keep animals in the best condition as possible without pain.
It’s not just for the animals but for the result of the testing. They need accurate results, and if animals are treated bad, the results are inaccurate and won’t provide the information needed. Something stated in my source listed above was, “Without animal research, none of these techniques could have been developed. ” This is stating that, without the testing on animals, some of the major breakthroughs in the medical field would not exist. Many people would have died, and still could die, because we didn’t come to the sense of testing on something relatively close to humans.
Animals are benefited because of the testing. Some animals carry diseases that are extremely dangerous to both humans and other animals. Scientists are able to take the virus and inject it into an animal in order to work towards treatment options. Then, when the virus is almost “dead” they can take it and inject it into other animals of the same species so that it takes a very short amount of time to defeat it. As a result, the animal’s body will remember the way that it got rid of the virus the first time and will not take a long time to get rid of it afterward.
This can help prevent the widespread breakout of a certain virus. This provides a greater chance of survival to animals that are prone to a certain virus. I would also like to state that, if animals weren’t tested on with vaccines, many would have actually died from rabies, distemper, feline leukemia, canine parvovirus, and many more. Testing on animals to create vaccines is very important and helps prevent an animal from getting a specific virus that could be very harmful. Animals in these testing facilities can be treated better than house pets.
A YouTube video called, “Touring an Animal Research Facility” has shown that animals need to be treated the best possible in order for accurate results which are needed to ensure human safety. Without testing on animals, there is a much greater risk of animals getting sick and causing a very large outbreak, which would kill more animals than what testing on them would do. Finally, most products would not be available to the public if it wasn’t for animal testing. Women use the average of 12 personal care products, which can include makeup.
There is a law that states that all products need to “live” up to expectations. One of these expectations is that it has to be safe for humans. Testing on humans is illegal, and we needed and still need other ways to figure out how things could possibly affect humans before humans use or do it. However, there was a catch; it needed to show accurate results. They couldn’t just take a foreign object and hope that it affects it the same way that it would affect a human. As I already stated, they needed to test on something relatively similar to humans.
Animals are the closest thing to humans, and it depends on their DNA. Mice have over 90 percent similar DNA to humans and are the main animals that are tested on. In the United States, it is illegal to test on endangered animals, which is a great idea. Mice, on the other hand, are much more populated and reproduce very quickly, if you know what I mean. Anyway, there are many products that would not be here today if it wasn’t for animals testing. This would affect humans greatly.
According to http:// www. ca-biomed. org/pdf/media-kit/fact-sheets/FS-FAQs. df, humans would not have the advancements and some things that we need for survival wouldn’t be available without animal testing. If there wasn’t any animal testing and the law that all products need to have certain requirements wasn’t a law, humans would suffer from many other things such as hives, rashes, severe breathing difficulties, injuries, and even death. Just think, a tiny mouse might have just saved your life! Others oppose animal testing because so many animals die, but really, there are worse cases of animal death that is more common.
I it even crueler that over 56 billion farm animals are killed yearly for human consumption, and we’re not even talking about seafood and fish. I find this worse than the amount of animals killed due to testings. We kill these animals and then eat them. We eat them! Also, another big cause of animal death is cats. Cats actually kill 1. 4 -3. 7 billion birds and 6. 9 – 20. 7 billion mammals yearly. You may find this weird, but cats do kill more animals than animal testing does in about 14 years. This is using the smallest number of 1. 4 billion.
Humans are a huge cause of animals’ deaths. We kill them because we consider them a nuisance. If a mouse was to get into your house or garage, you would take every step possible in order to kill it. Mice are the most common animal used for animal testing. We kill those rabbits that eat our plants in order to survive just because we don’t want our plants to die or look bad. To expand our communities, we destroy animals habitats, which leaves them homeless and without safety. As I already stated, we eat them. Some household pets are abused, and some are even killed through the process.
I’ve done a lot of research on animals abuse and according to www. humanesociety. com, animals in testing facilities are treated better and have a better chance of surviving than abused animals. Unwanted animals in shelters are euthanized, meaning they are put to their own death through a deep sleep that they will never wake up from. I feel that all of these things are worse than testing on animals that we both can benefit from. For example, animals killed for human consumption don’t benefit from it, but we do because we get food from them.
Through animal testing, both humans and animals can benefit. Testing on animals for scientific and commercial purposes poses many benefits. Medical breakthroughs and advancements have been made through this process and have been used to treat common diseases. Both humans and animals benefit from it. It helps prevent widespread breakouts of viruses in animals. We gather more knowledge. Humans would be greatly affected without it. And remember, it may just save a life, and that life could be yours.