Animal Testing Is Wrong

7 min readMay 7, 2018

Millions of families have been torn apart at the hands of viral diseases. In 2012, cancer alone took the lives of 8 million people, but what’s even scarier is that over 14 million people have been newly diagnosed with cancer (Cancer Statistics). With this in mind, scientists have resorted to animal testing, the act of experimenting on animals to look for potential cures for humans and oftentimes harming and eventually killing the animal. This cruel act of animal injustice has been going on for millenniums with no intent on ending anytime soon (Hajar). The findings of animal testings may be beneficial, but is the mass murder of millions of animals really worth it? Animal testing is not the best method to inquire results due to the genetic differences between animal species compared to humans, is cruel and uses unethical procedures and there are better alternatives that could be used in place of animal testings.

It is commonly known that chocolate is toxic to dogs but not to humans. This is because humans can more easily digest a certain chemical found in chocolate than dogs can. The concept of human bodies reacting differently to certain chemicals compared to other species holds true to many chemicals. Aspirin is commonly used to treat helps with headaches and fevers and is usually considered safe; however, when tested on certain animals, it was considered dangerous to them (Animal Testing). If scientists had conducted animal experiments using Aspirin prior to human use, then it would no longer exist as a medicine for human use today. Many other drugs that human use, such as penicillin, are dangerous to animals but are regularly used by humans.

The same can be said for humans as well. Many drugs considered safe in animals carries a high risk factor in humans. A prescription drug called Vioxx was previously tested on mice and was shown to strengthen their hearts. It was then released to the market after its success in mice; however, after its release, more than 27,000 heart attacks were reported (Animal Testing). This lab experiment on mice to create Vioxx has resulted in thousands of dangerous side effects and the potential of a repeat is likely. Even though the lab results displayed such beneficial symptoms, the differences that human bodies had were deadly due to the differences in our genetics. Knowing this, humans may have already discarded potential drugs that could have helped the human race. For the sake of discovering medicine to help the human population and end the threat of a deadly drug being released, animal testing should be discontinued because the results are largely inaccurate due to such vast differences on the human body’s compatibility with certain chemicals.

Humans and animals may have physical and genetic differences, but they all experience pain similarly. Regardless of the species, lives are a gift and using them as tools of an experiment should not be tolerated. The estimated number of deaths scientists believe cancer will take in 2018 is roughly 600,000 (Cancer Statistics). This number is little compared to the lives animal testing takes. Over 100 million animals are killed each year in the US alone ranging from dogs to primates to pigs, no animals are spared (Collins). Assuming that these statistics remain constant, it will take over a decade and a half before the toll of cancer comes near the toll of animal testing in the US, much less the world. These inhumane acts include the burning of body parts, crushing their bones, starving them, and much more. Sometimes, “tiny mice [grew] tumors as large as their own bodies” (Cruelty to Animals).

These animals acquire no form of painkillers and are immediately tossed back into their cages after being experimented on. They are oftentimes isolated and left to suffer with new scars on their bodies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSzh9_bmo4Q&feature=youtu.be

Some are even left to die slowly and painfully before being tossed out “like nothing more than disposable laboratory equipment” (Collins).

These acts are not only cruel, but are wicked and monstrous. No animal should suffer through so much pain with no reward other than an end to their misery. However, there is hope to end their suffering. There are solutions that scientists are now beginning to use and take advantage of. These solutions are now becoming more prevalent than ever but have yet to take over animal testings.

There are many alternatives to animal testing that are not only more humane, but more accurate. Volunteers donate both healthy and infected human tissue to be tested on rather than animals.

A laboratory in Sweden conducted an experiment to see the effect of a LD50. Rabbits were forced to take this toxin and were all eventually killed if they had survived. This test proved to only to 61% accurate in terms of how lethal it was to humans. The same group of scientists decided to conduct the same experiment but used an alternative method. Instead of using rabbits, they tested LD50 on donated human tissues. The results they received were significantly more accurate, reaching up to 85% accuracy (In Testing). This testing, when compared to a similar animal experiment, was much more accurate. Additionally, humans already have the technology to use alternative methods to animal testing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9r7oRY3BSs&feature=youtu.be

Technology has the capabilities to create a human model with an accurate display how a viral disease would affect it.

Vitro International developed artificial skin to determine the corrosiveness of chemicals. This method takes anywhere between “3 minutes to four hours, unlike animal testing that often takes two to four weeks” (In Testing). These alternatives are not only more accurate, but the results can be seen quicker than in animal testing. This allows scientists to test more substances in a shorter amount of time.

The existence of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) gives people reason to believe that animal testing is humane. The AWA sets standards that scientists conducting experiments must follow such as giving the subjects a proper meal. It is also required to have their laboratories inspected by veterinarians to ensure that animals are not being abused. However, the AWA only enacts these standards on certain animals. This excludes roughly 95% of the animals used in experiments (Animal Testing). This is by no means humane nor does it prevent animal abuse. Unless the AWA can expand on its list of animals it protects, then animal testing must be put to an end.

The concept of animal testing sounds great, but the harsh reality of it is that millions upon millions of animals are dying each year in attempt to find a cure to diseases. While it is true that humans have discovered many things from experimenting on animals, the suffering and trauma that animals go through is simply not worth it. This is something that has to end. The findings animal testing provides are by far one of the most inaccurate ways to determine the effects of certain substances have on humans, the remorseless routines that occurs on animals is simply unacceptable, and humans have developed the technology to end this practice and experiment on actual donated human tissues and use computer models to figure out the reactions substances have on humans.