However, it is prudent and vital to consider the implications of such experiments, particularly in terms of the betterment of human lives. Another example is thalidomide which passed animal tests but caused congenital disabilities in human beings. But Dr. Woodruff, who worked at the E.P.A. Since those reasons apply to many animals experimented upon, animal testing is also wrong. Also, they usually take less time and money to complete. Why? Scientific American: The Benets and Ethics of Animal Research, Understanding Animal Research: Nine Out of Ten Statistics Are Taken Out of Context. Sather Health is a student health website that aims to deliver trusted health information to students and their communities. Here are the top five reasons why it needs to stop: 1. recently said it would move away from requiring the testing of potentially harmful chemicals on animals. If it is done in an improper manner, animal testing may do more harm than good. Animal testing. Finally, some say that this reasoning is all beside the point: if your child was dying and animal testing would save him or her, wouldnt you want the testing done? Taking a look at our history can help us to understand what will happen in the future and this is also true in the area of medicine. Please note that all the information I provide on this website is to my best knowledge. 1350 Words6 Pages. It has already led to the discovery of insulin and hepatitis C; vaccines against polio and hepatitis B; and procedures such as open heart surgeries, coronary bypass surgery, and heart transplantation. Especially in countries where animal testing may contradict with religious aspects, those kinds of tests may even be prohibited by law. Yes, animals suffer and are even killed in the pursuit of knowledge. Another reason why animal testing needs to be done is that the animals being tested, have similar organs such as the brain, lungs, heart, liver, etc. More than 90% of basic research, most of which involves animals, fails to lead to treatments for humans. Therefore, animal research can also take away the need to test vaccines on humans in early research stages and can protect us humans from serious potential complications. PRO Animal testing contributes to life-saving cures and treatments. Due to strict regulations, animal testing may also not be a viable option in some countries all over the world. The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) protects a small section of animals, such as dogs and cats. The animals themselves gain from it. Many go insane, rocking back and forth, pacing endlessly inside cages, and doing repetitive motions such as back-flipping. Many countries are banning animal tests forcing companies to turn to alternatives. While experiments on animals have been conducted during the course of some important discoveries, this doesnt mean that they were vital to the discovery of human-health treatments or that the same discoveries wouldnt have been made anyway without using animals. Right now, millions of mice, rats, rabbits, monkeys, cats, dogs, fish, and other animals used in tests are locked inside cages in laboratories across the country. In turn, this may protect the lives of millions or even billions of animals. Animal testing taken here to mean the use of animals in research for the purpose of furthering human concerns such as drug efficacy and the safety of products such as cosmetics is an endeavor fraught with controversy and difficult ethical arguments. Why? Another downside of animal testing is that it may be used in an excessive manner. Therefore, in order to protect millions of human lives in the future, we might have to sacrifice some animal lives. aims to reduce the amount of studies that involve mammal testing by 30 percent by 2025. If you are looking for more ways to live an eco-conscious lifestyles, then check out our complete guide here. Thanks to scientific innovation, alternatives to animal testing exist today. Theres been a lot of positive action among other federal agencies, but we want to see all government agencies take this step.. Although testing on animals are the best alternative to actual humans, there is still an important margin of error, and some people still believe animal testing to be unreliable. These animals are used in lab tests as they allow scientists to predict how human beings might react to certain drugs or vaccines. In addition, it should be banned because, it is inaccurate, unreliable, and its benefits to human beings have not yet been fully confirmed by the current research. This research also included plenty of animal testing and therefore, animal experimentation may have played a major role to increase our overall life expectancy as a global society and may also continue to do so in the future. So how about we dive deep into animal testing pros and cons and see which side of the debate we want to be on. Animal Testing Pros and Cons. Every year in the U.S., tens of millions animals suffer and die in chemical, drug, food, and product tests. However, in order to find vaccines that may protect us against bacteria of various sorts, plenty of research has to be carried out. Cruelty-free products are becoming very popular. Animal testing may save millions of human lives, but at the expense of the lives of animals. Some animals may die over the course of the experiment or be killed after their use, and others may lose their limbs, eyesight, hearing, muscle coordination, and so on. Many of the most important medical advances are attributable to human studies. This is why such animals get affected by the same diseases and health conditions as us. These tests should reduce the number of animal tests required for screening new drugs. For instance, chimpanzees share 99% of DNA with humans, while mice share 98%. These and other non-animal methods are humane, and they arent hindered by species differences that make applying animal test results to humans difficult or impossible. This is probably one of the most significant benefits of animal testing. A lot of research projects cause physical and psychological harm to animals. To illustrate it better, animal testing facts show that for every chicken used in research, 340 more are used as food. Statistics from the California Biomedical Research Association show that almost every medical breakthrough in the past 100 years results from animal experiments. Scientists must jump through many legal hurdles to experiment on humans, including getting consent forms. Such long-term studies contribute highly to cancer research. Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, refers to procedures performed on living, non-human animals mainly used for researching and testing the effectiveness of medical procedures and products such as cosmetics, drugs, household cleaners, and food additives. For these reasons, scientists can confidently apply the results of a panoply of medical experiments on animals to human beings and be more confident when it's time to experiment on humans directly in clinical trials. One of the main advantages for animal testing is advancements in medical research 2. There's no doubt about it - animal testing is an inhumane practice. Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist at Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, said she was very concerned by the announcement. E-Readers Increasing Reading Comprehension, Deterring Dyslexia, The (Non)Mystery Behind Female Ejaculation, Late-Night Work: How to Maximize Utility Without Sacrificing Health, Harm Reduction: Reducing Alcohol Consumption in the Dorms. Hence, this also implies that the majority of animals have to die without even providing a benefit for us humans, which may be considered to be quite sad or even disgusting. Heart attacks in dogs feel awful; bone cancers in mice are painful; pigs being burned, to test burn treatments, is agonizing. The state of the world will always be changing and in order to adapt to those changes, it is crucial that also our research continues to improve over time. Here are a few arguments against animal testing that support the thought of banning this activity. Text STOP to end, HELP for more info. Says It Will Drastically Reduce Animal Testing. How do companies ensure you dont suffer side effects when spraying it in your room? It would be wrong to test a drug of unknown effect on humans, which is why we test on animals first. Check out a list of our latest victories. Thus, from an ethical perspective, animal testing can be considered to be rather questionable and there are also many activists who claim that we should completely abandon animal research on a global scale due to that. We are really excited as this has been something weve wanted for quite some time, said Kitty Block, the president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, an animal protection organization. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'environmental_conscience_com-leader-3','ezslot_11',193,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-environmental_conscience_com-leader-3-0'); This may give us an edge and we may find suitable treatment faster. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/learning/is-animal-testing-ever-justified.html. But scientists argue animal testing has been a crucial component in many medical breakthroughs, and as long as it's done ethically, animal testing should not be outlawed. Sometimes the animals are deprived of food and water. Photo by Louis Reed on Unsplash. PETAs searchable Global Beauty Without Bunnies list makes it easy to find cruelty-free companies that have committed to never testing their cosmetics or household cleaning products on animalshere or abroad. Some people also claim that animal testing will not be justifiable since there are certain regulations in place that aim to protect the rights of animals on a global scale. It was definitely something that changed the way we think and something that has a huge impact these days. Animals living with the induced conditions is unpleasant also. Advances in breast cancer, brain trauma, leukemia, cystic fibrosis, malaria, multiple sclerosis and tuberculosis are directly attributable to animal experimentation, and without testing on chimpanzees, there would be no hepatitis B vaccine. About 100 million animals take part in research every year. Recently we were able to see an impressive lecture from Manchester University about the pros and cons of animal testing and also animal rights. These Food and Drink Companies Refuse to Test on Animals. In fact, we should always evaluate whether animal testing should be used from an ethical perspective on an individual basis. 8.9: Abortion and Animal Rights- Does Either Topic Lead to the Other? Learn more about animal testing alternatives. With the advent of modern molecular biology and its analytical methods, scientists can now quantify the precise extent to which humans resemble other animals, genetically speaking. Many animals, especially primates, share about 90% of their genetic make-ups with humans, so experimenting on such animals can give scientists a good idea about possible reactions in the human body. Exact numbers arent available, because mice, rats, birds, and cold-blooded animalswho make up more than 99% of animals used in experimentsare not protected under the federal Animal Welfare Act and their numbers dont even have to be reported. Animals have physiological and biological similarities to human Some animals share a surprisingly high amount of DNA with human beings. 89% of scientists surveyed by the Pew Research Center were in favor of animal testing for scientific research. Most research projects are unregulated by the government. It has now become easier for scientists to examine the complete lifecycle quickly. It prevents animals from unnecessary suffering. PETA International Science Consortium Ltd. end the practice of testing ingredients on animals, Fun Facts About Animal Mothers and How You Can Help Them, 250,000 Baby Ferrets Potentially Infected with Distemper at Marshall Farms, Campaign Updates: OHSU Mutilates Pigs in OB/GYN Medical Training. While we might not be able to guarantee informed consent, we can give the animal the opportunity to choose . It's unethical. With the existence of such options, shouldnt we abandon animal testing for good? U.S. only. Without Consent: A Century of Animal Experiments. Banning animal testing would save lives. Testing on animals is unethical. Therefore, animal research isnt only beneficial to us humans. 2023 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Media, All Rights Reserved. Animal testing should be banned in every single country due to this is abuse towards a living thing. When it comes to the testing of certain drugs or vaccines, there is simply a lack of suitable alternatives. One of the leading arguments against animal testing is that it is simply a waste of scientific energy and resources, because the results of tests done on other species often cannot be reliably extrapolated to humans. PETA Leads the Charge: Inside the Global Effort to Take Down Exotic Skins, The Perilous Ripple Effects That Lead Ammo Has on Animals, Humans, and the Planet. Almost all of us grew up eating meat, wearing leather, and going to circuses and zoos. And more than 95% of new drugs that test safe and effective in animals go on to fail in human clinical trials. Opponents of animal research often also claim that we as humans should not play god. Its now easy to see why animal testing is wrong: it violates basic principles of ethical research: it is maleficent, or harmful to the research subjects; it is not beneficial to them; it is forced on them since they dont consent; and it is unjust in that animals are burdened with problems not their own. This page titled 8.10: Animal Testing Should Be Banned is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Nathan Nobis (Open Philosophy Press) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request. Take a trip through time using PETAs interactive timeline, Without Consent, to learn about almost 200 stories of twisted animal experiments from the past century. There is no adequate alternative to testing on a living, whole-body system. And according to cell biologist Robin Lovell-Badge of the MRC National Institute for Medical Research in London, 94 percent of drugs that passed tests in animals failed in people. Some people may argue that animal testing is cruel and inhumane, but it is actually a very humane process. PETAs vivid demonstrations and undercover investigations alert the public to wasteful, cruel, and useless experiments on animals, often ones occurring right under their noses. Whether it is called animal testing, experimentation or research, it should be defined as all testing methods on animals including, medical exploration, cosmetics, toxicology trialing, and psychological examination involving animal subjects. In fact, researchers often do not care about this aspect at all and it may be rather questionable if we as humans should have the right to treat animals in such a poor manner. Quite often, before those vaccines will be approved for medical applications on the general public, plenty of trials have to be carried out in order to assure the safety of those vaccines. Thus, many people conclude that the cons of animal testing outweigh the pros of this questionable research practice. This is due to the nature of those tests since quite often, the true effects of certain medicines are not yet clear and animals may have to pay the price for this lack of knowledge. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. No. Many scientists estimate that in a few years, newborns may even have a life expectancy of over 100 years. U.S. law allows for animals to be burned, shocked, poisoned, isolated, starved, drowned, addicted to drugs, and brain-damaged. Theres no other living creature with the nearest human-like anatomic form than animals. It is a major component in aiding medicine since the time of early Greek physicians. Best Budget Supplement for Joint Pain . In UK, the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 defined regulated procedures as animal experiments that could potentially cause "pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm". Explains that animal testing involves testing pharmaceutical drugs on animals in order to see the effectiveness and side effects of the drug. Thus, it is crucial that this kind of research is carried out with great care in order to avoid those unpleasant surprises. We never considered the impact of these actions on the animals involved. One famous medical discovery is insulin which was discovered through an experiment in which dogs had their pancreas removed. Some diseases and health problems involve processes . Although animal tests can provide us with a rough estimation regarding how certain medicines will affect human physiology, they might not be suitable to provide us with sufficient knowledge regarding the long-term effects of those drugs. Animal testing is expensive, as one must pay for food, housing, and maintenance, as well as the initial cost of breeding/buying the animal. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public. What are your thoughts on animal testing? Simply put, animals dont have the same rights or cognitive abilities as we do. This is especially true for people who live in the poor part of our planet since they often do not have access to proper medical treatment or simply cannot afford it. Animal research has provided vaccines and cures for rabies, infectious hepatitis virus, anthrax, feline leukemia, and canine parvovirus. Hence, similar to the practice of genetic engineering, animal testing may also not be justifiable since we as humans may never have been meant to play god or to have god-like powers. There are already sufficient safety data and many non-animal methods available to make animal testing obsolete for these products. In many cases, animal testing may not even deliver any useful results at all. One of the main advantages for animal testing is advancements in medical research. Thus, in those countries, animal testing may not serve as a valid research method and researchers have to find other testing methods instead. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'environmental_conscience_com-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_5',146,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-environmental_conscience_com-large-leaderboard-2-0');Many of our health problems can also be mitigated by using vaccines. Meanwhile, improving the well-being of laboratory animals, such as providing an "enriched environment" for rats rather than keeping them isolated in traditional lab cages, can do much to ease the suffering of animals used in research. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'environmental_conscience_com-leader-1','ezslot_9',149,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-environmental_conscience_com-leader-1-0');Over the past decades, animal testing has been a quite important tool to save many millions of human lives. Companies test products on animals because consumers demand a safe product. For the longest time, no adequate alternative could match the complex systems found within humans and animals. The agency said it would also invest $4.25 million in projects at four universities and a medical center that are developing alternate ways of testing chemicals that do not involve animals. Manage Settings Even in our current state of the world, there are so many bacteria and viruses around and we know quite little about the majority of them yet. Says It Will Drastically Reduce Animal Testing, Mihir Zaveri, Mariel Padilla and Jaclyn Peiser write about the decision: The E.P.A. Epidemiological studies have led to some of the most important breakthroughs, including the discovery of the relationship between cholesterol and heart disease and between smoking and cancer, the development of X-rays, and the isolation of the AIDS virus. Legal. Thanks to animal research, we have had significant advances in treatment for conditions such as cystic fibrosis, polio, multiple sclerosis, breast cancer, childhood leukemia, and more. With the advent of modern molecular biology and its analytical methods, scientists can now quantify the precise extent to which humans resemble other animals, genetically speaking. Yet around the world, millions of animals continue to be used in experiments and then killed. For instance, if your dog or your cat gets sick, you may have to see a veterinarian in order to cure that disease. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'environmental_conscience_com-mobile-leaderboard-1','ezslot_14',196,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-environmental_conscience_com-mobile-leaderboard-1-0'); However, those kinds of treatments may pose significant dangers to the test persons since the effects of many new drugs are not exactly known in early testing stages. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'environmental_conscience_com-leader-2','ezslot_10',190,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-environmental_conscience_com-leader-2-0');The findings that we can get from animal testing are not only useful for humans, they can also help to treat other animals. One significant problem of animal research is that there are many ethical concerns related to it. Testing potentially includes the jabbing of needles, storage into cramped spaces, and lack of quality/quantity in nutrition. In my opinion, animal testing should not be banned because using animals for experiments is cheaper and there is no way to simulate human pregnancy.