Is Animal Testing Right?
Animal testing, which refers to medical or scientific experiments done on living animals, has always been a controversial topic. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (2021), more than 100 million animals are killed in U.S. laboratories for medical experiments and testing each year. From my point of view, the method of animal testing is unreliable, cruel, and replaceable, which should be banned globally.
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First, animal testing is unreliable since many of them do not work as the same, and one of the reasons is because of the differences between a human body and the bodies of other animals. Even if a test resulted successfully on an animal, it might not have the same effect on the human body. According to a report by Simmons and others (1998), cancer in mice has been curable for decades, but it simply did not work in humans. In addition, Junhee et al (2013) suggested that to date, there are no studies that could evaluate how well the rodent clinical models mimic human inflammatory diseases in patients. Hence, animal testing has not completely been proven to be a reliable way to test the medicines that would be used on human bodies.
Also, animal testing is cruel and treats the
animals’ lives like disposable experiment
equipment. Before the experiments, they are
forced to be caged in extremely small spaces
in solitary, and the process of the experiments
is even more painful. PETA (n.d.) stated,
“Before these animals’ deaths, some are forced
to inhale toxic fumes, others are immobilized
in restraint devices for hours, some have holes drilled into their skulls, and others have their skin burned off or their spinal cords crushed.” These poor animals might bear negative psychological and physical issues before their traumatic death.
However, some might argue that it is necessary to do experiments on living animals before testing medical products on humans. While this opinion is reasonable, there are still other ethical alternative ways, such as using cell cultures, human tissues, computer models, and human volunteers. With these methods, the test results would be extra accurate to observe the actual effects on human bodies. Additionally, using these alternative methods could reduce the cost of money and time that are spent on animal testing. Thus, ethical alternative ways are the best options to replace animal testing.
In conclusion, the method of animal testing for medicines and health products is unreliable because of the differences between animal bodies and the human body. And it is also unethical and cruel to treat living animals as disposable objects. Moreover, this method is replaceable by other alternatives. Nevertheless, I would say that with the development of computer modeling technology and other ethical methods, there is a hope that animal testing could be banned globally someday.
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References:
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture., (2021, Apr. 27). Annual Report Animal Usage by Fiscal Year: Total Number of Animals Research Facilities Used in Regulated Activities. Retrieved from: https://speakingofresearch.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/united-states-2019.pdf
Simmons M. et al., (1998, May 6 ). Cancer-Cure Story Raises New Questions. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from: https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19980506&slug=2749152
Junhee, S. et al., (2013). Genomic Responses in Mouse Models Poorly Mimic Human Inflammatory Diseases. PNAS. 110(9), 3507-12. Retrieved from: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1222878110
PETA., (n.d.) Facts and Statistics About Animal Testing. Retrieved from: https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/animals-used-experimentation-factsheets/animal-experiments-overview/
Resources
Picture 1. Retrieved from: https://images.app.goo.gl/esPQqroMxT9BnVxj6
Picture 2. Retrieved from: https://images.app.goo.gl/YvGxkMt1dCGoNFFt6
