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Animal Experimentation

Vivisection is the act or practice of performing experiments on living animals. "Over 70 million animals die in research laboratories each year," says Brian Berthiaume. Animals should not have to go through the torture and deaths they go through, especially since there are alternatives that can be used. "Animals used in research can range from kittens injected with LSD, to killing pig fetuses while they are still in the womb" (Have you ever tortured an animal? 1). There have been many studies done to try to find a cure for both cancer and AIDS, but nothing has proved to be affective. Therefore, scientists need to stop using animals as test subjects and find a different approach.

Animal experimentation is said to be necessary for the welfare and health of human beings. "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration require that all new chemical products be tested before they can be sold" (Have you ever tortured an animal? 1). Many of these tests are performed on animals, which require these innocent creatures to be forced to inhale products such as weed killers, oven cleaners, cosmetics, and paint. "We need to use animals to test drugs and other substances: the animal testing provides us with information about how the drug or substance will effect human beings" (The Absurdity of Vivisection... 1). It seems that the main reason for using animals in research is all of the medical benefits recieved from the experiments. Although many argue that there are alternatives to using animals in medical experiments, there are some people that argue that some research is best done through the use of animals.

There are a lot more reasons against using animal experimentation than there are for it. Not many people would argue for the pain brought down on all these innocent animals. "In animal testing, acidic chemicals are forced into dogs' eyes or smeared into the shaved heads of rabbits. Cats are burned to see if anti-infection vaccines will work to heal burns" (Have you ever tortured an animal? 1). Different types of cancer is given to rats, dogs are blinded to see if their sight can be restored, and monkeys are given AIDS. "Using animals as research subjects in medical investigations is widely condemned on two grounds: first, because it wrongly violates the rights of animals, and second, because it wrongly imposes on attentive creatures such as avoidable suffering" (Animal Testing and Experimentation 1). While having alternatives to making these creatures suffer with pain and death, some people are still not satisfied with using any other alternative to animal testing.

Although animal experimentation has been instrumental in some research, it is not worth the animals' suffrage. "Animal testing has not proved a single cure for the major diseases that affect our society today" (The Absurdity of Vivisection 1). Also, it is risky to compare the experimental results from animal research to the treatment of humans. "Some of the most common arguments against experimenting on animals are: it inflicts suffering and pain upon the animal which is cruel and immoral; animals are not the most valid subjects to be used for finding relief for human ailments; there are alternatives to using animals for research; animals have rights as they are not all that different from humans" (Animal Testing and Experimentation 1). There are many alternatives to animal testing that should be used more today. "Methods such as computer modeling and cell tissue culture have become very popular. Some of the most effective advance in human health has been produced through these methods" (Have you ever tortured an animal? 1).

There are great dangers in applying experimental results from animal testing to the treatment of human beings. An animal's brain works very differently from a human brain and to find a correlation between the two is almost impossible. It is said to be that most of the modern day's medical miracles would not have been possible without animal experimentation, even though alternatives to the use of animal testing are readily available.

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