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Animal Testing Essay

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Imagine being forced to move away from your home and from your

family with no say in the matter. You are moved to an unfamiliar environment

where you aren’t able to choose how you live your life. You don’t get to decide

when or what you will eat. You can’t choose what you will do with your time

and who you will spend it with. You are confined into a small area and you are

completely alone. These are the conditions that many animals are forced to live

under. Animal testing is defined as the use of non-human animals in research

and development projects (dictionary.com). All kinds of animals such as rabbits,

dogs, mice, and guinea pigs are used to test the safety of food additives,

industrial …show more content…

After many animal tests, the animals are euthanized. Again, they

are not able to give consent for this as would be required of a human. Other

animals have to endure the rest of their life in captivity or injured. When testing

levels of toxicity, these levels are established for an average full grown male who

weighs 70 kg. These results do not account for the levels of toxicity in women,

children or people who are more sensitive to drugs and toxins (http://www.

elements .nb.ca/theme/toxics/emily/emily.htm). Most of the animal tests

performed are not, in fact, for medical research. Animals are mainly used to test

cosmetics and household products. Testing these products is not required by law

in most countries, so it is the company’s choice to do so (http://cfhs.ca/

research/cosmetic_testing/). When testing animals, sometimes painkillers cannot

be used as they could interfere with the testing, so animals may have to undergo

a lot of pain. It is also hard to gauge the amount of pain an animal is feeling

when testing drugs and chemicals.

There are also some perceived advantages for animal testing. The testing

of animals has led to many medical breakthroughs. Different kinds of cancer

and HIV drugs, insulin, vaccines and antibiotics have

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