Why Animal Testing is Wrong
*Intro* Every day, locked inside cold, desolate cages in laboratories across countries are millions of rats, mice, rabbits, cats, dogs and other animals receiving intentionally caused pain and ache with loneliness and fear. *Facts* More than 100 million animals every year suffer and die in cruel chemical, drug, food and cosmetic tests. To test cosmetics, household cleaners, and other consumer products, hundreds of thousands of animals are poisoned, blinded and killed every year. Mice and rats are forced to inhale toxic fumes, dogs are force-fed pesticides, and rabbits have harsh chemicals rubbed onto their skin and eyes.
*The effect on the animals* The stress and boredom causes some animals to develop phobic behaviours such as continually spinning in circles, scratching at their bodies, rocking back and forth and even pulling out their own hair and biting their own skin. They shake and tremble in fear whenever someone walks past their cages and their blood pressure increases drastically. After enduring lives of pain, loneliness and terror, almost all of them will be killed.
The lives of all those animals could have been spared. The world doesn’t need another eyeliner, soap, food ingredient or pesticide so badly that it should come to the expense of animals’ lives. *More efficient techniques than animal testing* Millions of animals also suffer and die for classroom biology experiments and dissection, even though modern alternatives have repeatedly been shown to teach students better, save teachers time, and save schools money. There are more efficient ways to test the drugs than using them on harmless animals.
There is more modern technology like human-patient simulators and computer modelling that are cheaper, faster and more accurate than animal tests. *If the testing was done outside of the labs* What if animal testing was done outside of the laboratories? If the testing was done outside of the laboratories, it would be considered a felony and would be reported and seen as animal abuse. So why should it matter if it is behind closed doors, or out in front of everyone? The animals are still suffering from the abuse they receive from these tests. If humans were treated the same way it would be seen as inhumane and would be stopped immediately, so why should animals be any different? *Why continue to test if results are inaccurate* When asked if they agreed that animal experiments can be misleading ‘because of bodily and physiological differences between animals and humans’, 88% of doctors agreed. So if testing animals is pointless because of the physiological and bodily differences, then why do people still continue to harm these animals and put them through a lifetime of pain? At least thirty-three animals die in laboratories each second worldwide; in the UK, one every four seconds.
*Reason why animal testing is done* One of the reasons that Animal testing is done is to dupe the public in such a way that if someone were to take a drug that has been tested on Animals and be subject to ill effect as a result, the manufacturer can then say: ‘Well, we tested it on animals and we didn’t find anything to indicate that problems like that may have occurred’. In this way, the Pharmaceutical manufacturer will be acquitted of any charges of malpractice. *Example of bad testing*
This cruelty animal experiment picture shows a kitten blinded in ‘sight reversal’ testing. The kittens eyes were bound shortly after birth and the bandages not removed until they were six months old. Thalidomide was produced in the 1950s by Chemie Gr’enthal in West Germany. It was released for use after passing many extensive animal tests as safe for Human use. It was mainly to be used as a sedative, but it was also found to help with morning sickness in pregnant women. Women all over the world began using Thalidomide to help them avoid restless sleep and to combat the morning sickness; the effects were devastating. As seen in this photo, Thalidomide caused horrific birth defects, tending to affect the limbs. This drug left thousands all over the world crippled with no way for any repairing surgery to be undertaken.
Shortly after the first wave of Thalidomide Children had been born, a group of Americans took up a Class Action lawsuit against Chemie Gr’enthal. In the early 1970s the case Chemie Gr’enthal were acquitted of all charges on the basis that ‘it is acknowledged that the results of Animal tests are not relevant to humans’. Why can these companies say one day that they test on Animals to ensure their drugs are safe for human use, and then another say that it’s not their fault because Animal tests aren’t accurate when the information is applied to humans’. *Difference in the testing of animals that does not affect humans* An estimated 83% of substances are metabolised by rats in a different way to humans.
Sex differences among laboratory animals can cause inconsistent results. This does not correspond with humans. Rats are only 37% effective in identifying what causes cancer to humans. Flipping a coin would be more accurate. Less than 2% of human illnesses are ever seen in animals. 95% of drugs passed by animal tests are immediately discarded as useless or dangerous to humans. 61% of birth defects are caused by drugs passed safe in animal tests, according to the same study. All of these differences between animals and humans are overlooked and disregarded when it comes to these tests. These tests they are conducting are pointless and are timewasting, animals are being harmed for no significant reason, and it should be stopped.
