Animal Testing Essay

Animal Testing Every year, 20 million animals are mutilated, blinded, scalded, force fed chemicals, genetically manipulated, hurt and killed for research and science. Three fourths of these animals die for medical purposes and the rest are killed for tests on various products. Mice, rabbits, guinea pigs, dogs, cats, and other animals are used for these cruel tests. Animal testing first started in the 1800’s for creating vaccines for children. The animals they tested on were monkeys, mice, and guinea pigs. Charles Darwin’s ideas that humans are closely linked to primates created a theory that it was an adequate way to make sure that the vaccines worked and were safe. Today in the US, Animal testing costs over $136 billion dollars to perform. There are almost 400 known alternatives for animal testing; however, society chooses to test on innocent animals. There are many arguments for and against animal testing. It is necessary for medical purposes, however it is a cruel process. There are different types of tests done by scientists; they include, eye irritancy, lethal doses, inhalant tests, and skin tests. Eye irritancy tests are done on rabbits. The tested product is dripped into their eyes. Scientists drip things like shampoo, mouthwash, whiteout, and disinfectant into the animal’s eyes. Most often the rabbit will suffer such ailments as ulceration, bleeding, and even blindness. When the rabbits are done with the eye test, they are often put through other tests as well. Lethal dose tests are when scientists pump products such as cleansers, pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals into a test animal's stomach. This is done to find out how much of the product it will take to kill the animal. Immediate death comes from stomach ruptures or from chemical overdose. An inhalation test is when an animal is forced to breathe in huge amounts of products such as air freshener, deodorant, and hair spray until they die from poisoning. Skin irritancy tests are for products such as, nail polish remover, furniture wax, hair removers, and drain cleansers. These products are smeared onto the test animal's shaved skin. The animal will usually suffer from blistering and bleeding, that is very painful. Some of the chemicals eat right through the animal's sensitive skin and kills the animal within hours. Stephanie Chew from PETA says in her documentary, “Deaths through research are absolutely unnecessary and are morally no different from murder.” Animals feel the same amount of pain humans feel. However, unlike human, these animals cannot choose to give or refuse consent to be experimented on. In the United States, the Animal Welfare Act does not protect mice, rats and birds. But according to the Medical Research Modernization Committee, these animals make up more than 90 percent of all laboratory animals. While the physical condition of laboratory animals has always been a cause of debate, concerns about the emotional well being of laboratory animals is growing as studies find more and more animal species capable of showing emotions similar to those of humans. Testing on animals helps scientists to test the safety of medicine without harming humans. Testing has helped scientists to understand the human race and how certain drugs affect the body. Without the process of animals testing, we would not be able to obtain this knowledge without harming people. There are many similarities between humans and various species of animals. For example, much of what we know about the immune system has come from studies with mice, and what we know about the heart and lungs of humans has come from studies with dogs. New drugs, devices,

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