The Use Of Scientific Research On Animals

Worldwide, there has always been a plethora of issues concerning whether animals should or should not be used for biomedical research. There are some advocating for the best and most-advanced medicine for the people; with disregard for the animal’s health. They believe people’s needs should be the first concern. However, others put the animal’s health first. If the animal is not in safe conditions, then it does not matter what medicine advances might be discovered. Biomedical research is defined as “The application of the natural sciences, especially the biological and physiological sciences, to clinical medicine” (“Biomedicine.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/biomedical.). Without biomedical research on animals, modern medicine would not exist. Animal testing has enabled the findings of treatments for cancer, antibiotics for infections, and preventatives for illnesses. For these reasons, animal testing should be used in the process of developing biomedical research.

Throughout the years the use of animals in medical research has been a hot debate around the world. Although animal testing may be cruel and inhumane, thousands of humans are saved thanks to the research that animals supply researchers with. Animals testing have taken over our knowledge of medicine and treatments to a whole different level. Animal testing also does this in a cheap and effective way. Without animals testing out knowledge wouldn’t be up to date, in other words animals’ testing is good.

Another question now comes to the surface is a continuity/discontinuity argument. What the continuity argument is, is that animals are closely related to humans, they still produce the same emotions. Using animals in psychological experiments poses a serious ethical dilemma in part. In response to the continuity argument would be the discontinuity argument. This argument states that humans are different to other species. What this means is that research on animals provides this limitation on findings in human behavior that are not generalizable. Scientist use their best efforts when conducting experiments to allow animals the safest and most beneficial actions. Scientist always put in the consideration that the animal may be harmed. The American Psychological Association in turn prevents any type of experiment/study that shows any possible distress or harm to the animal.

Initially, the overall notion of using animal models for human health problems was contrived in response to concerns about infectious diseases. The basic presumption was that if these animals were used empirically, became afflicted with an infection and were cured, there was a feasible theory of stopping the same disease in humans. Animals were originally thought, to be valid models of human health concerns. The animal’s disease however, must have the same biological components, symptoms, and responses to the treatments that are similar to human counterparts. Failure to meet one

The bad use of animal testing is cruel but also sometimes ineffective. “Animals do not get many of the human diseases that people do, such as major types of heart disease, many types of cancer, HIV, Parkinson’s disease, or schizophrenia. Instead, signs of these diseases are artificially induced in animals in laboratories in an attempt to mimic the

I had the privilege of interviewing Tracy Ziegelhofer, who for fifteen years has been a manager for Envigo, an international private company that works to advance pharmaceutical development, modern therapies, and test the toxicity and safety of substances through animal testing. She reassured me that the stereotype animal testing has been given could not be more false. Animals who are used for testing are specifically bred for this purpose; they are not taken out of their natural habitats (APSPhysiology). Additionally, of the 26 million animals tested each year (ProCon Team), mice and rats account for more than ninety percent, where large animals such as pigs, dogs, and primates make up the remainder (Ziegelhofer). After successfully testing cardiovascular devices for humans on a beagle, Ms. Ziegelhofer adopted the dog, informing me that many animals are “retired” after testing and are put up for adoption. Animals who exhibit pain are humanely euthanized following an experiment (Woods). She also described the quality of life for laboratory animals. “All the animals are very socialized,” she said, “They have plenty of toys to enjoy playing with, and of course they have beds for relaxing, and they always have food available to them,” she continued (Ziegelhofer). Regarding what laboratories can and cannot do, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have

Since Ancient Greece, humans have used animals as means of learning more about the world. The first known vivisection was done by a Greek philosopher, Alcmaeon, in 450 B. C. E (“Animal Testing” NP). Since then, animals have had invasives tests performed on them, been killed, and been experimented on in the name of science or for profit. Some experiments are in order to demonstrate already known facts to students, others are to further medical knowledge, and some are to test drugs and cosmetics (“Animal Testing” NP). Scientific testing on animals has led to many medical discoveries. Animals are used, and have been used for millennia, in order to make products, procedures, and life in general safer for humans - stemming from the belief that human lives are more important than animals’. In order to moralize animal experimentation, people tend to draw attention to the benefits of animal experimentation and draw attention away from the cruelties and injustice committed towards animals. To lessen the suffering and lack of fairness of animals, people should find and use alternatives to animal experimentation.

Interestingly animal research has created advancement in the understanding and treatment of conditions such as breast cancer, brain injury, childhood leukemia, cystic fibrosis, multiple sclerosis and many more. Additionally, other people feel that animals themselves benefit from the results of animal testing. Millions of animals have received vaccines for rabies, distemper, canine parvo virus and other diseases as a result of animal testing and research. The issue with this reasoning is that there is not any regard for the animals’ life when there is alternative means of testing. The value that we place on the lives of animals should be the same as what we place on human

Animals are getting brutally hurt everyday from scientists’ testing on them. Everyday creatures such as rabbits, cats, dogs, and rats are getting tested on all the time. Rabbits and bunnies are tormented by the notorious ”Drain Eye Durancy Test.” Would you like to have your eyes dried out just to see if a vaccine works? These animals are then killed when the testing is done. Kittens sometimes have to get tubes drilled in their head so scientists can experiment chemicals on their brain. At Michigan State University labs, experimenters cut into cats faces, crushing their optic nerves, removing their eyes, and then killing them after they remove their eyes, states the article,”Animals Used for Experimentation”. For any kind of experiment

Many groups who test on animals do not follow animal rights laws which results in fines. Colleges waste a lot if their money because they break animal right laws (By the Numbers: Animal Testing). One example, was Harvard Medical School being fined $24,000 for animal welfare violations (By the Numbers: Animal Testing). These colleges do not care if they lost money. They do not even try to protect the animals. Many colleges use illegal methods to test drugs which is not right. Each year animal testing wastes money that can be used in other ways. Animal testing in the United States spends about 12 billion dollars each year (By the Numbers: Animal Testing). The United States could use the 12 billion dollars in a more useful way. The U.S. can support seniors that are food insecure. The country could hire more teachers for America’s education. The government could give money for homeless veterans or give back money in federal income taxes. All of these options would help the country and its citizens. Animal testing should not use too much money in its experiments. Along with spending a lot of money, animal testing also harms a lot of

First of all, when we use animals on medical test, the animals will be in danger of extinction. What scientists are doing nowadays is killing the animals without thinking about the negative effect that they have done. Such as, destroying the role of the animal’s life. For example, the make up companies they test their cosmetics at the animal’s skins before send them to the stores it might make them sick of it will damage their

Animals have similar nervous systems as a human, and are still able to feel pain and hunger. Very few success have come from animal testing, and these little successes do not outweigh the cost of millions of animals lives. According to Santa Clara University, “ [a]nimals are starved, shocked, burned, and poisoned as scientists look for something that might just yield some human benefit.” These animals are also not properly given painkillers and anesthesia that could lessen the suffering that they endure. Not only are they not properly given medication, they are also poorly treated and the handlers of the animals are

Animals do not contract many of human diseases that people do, some of these include types of heart disease, cancer, HIV, Parkinson’s disease, and schizophrenia (Research Using Animals: An Overview). Since many of these diseases are deadly and can result in severe consequences, animals cannot be relied on to determine whether or not some drugs are effective enough to find a cure or a solution to resolve the issue. These experiments cannot be compared to the complexity of a human body, nonetheless, the conditions that human beings naturally have. Genetics (DNA), socio-economic factors, environmental surroundings, psychological issues, and natural instincts are some of the conditions that differentiate between an animal and a human that contribute to a variety of factors. Time, money, and animals’ lives are being wasted in order to satisfy human medical treatments. The support for animal testing violates their rights of freedom to behave like ordinary animals. Although many decades of studying the conditions of these diseases such as, cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and HIV are not determined as reliable or fully effective

“We have made a way from studying humans… we all drank Kool-Aid on that one included…The problem is that (animal testing) hasn’t worked, and it’s time we stopped dancing around the problem…We need to refocus and adapt ne methodologies for use in humans to understand diseases in biology in humans” (Dr.Elias Zerhouni). Animal testing is when animals are taking from their habitat and put in cages in a laboratory. They wait in the cages until scientist have to do scientific testing and commercial testing on them. These poor animals get tortured just so a company can take out a new hair spray. We should not use animals for scientific or commercial testing.

Many laboratory get a lot of money for equipment and other things to test on animals. From www.navs.org “In 2015, the NIH budget of almost $22 billion resulted in well over $10 billion in funding for projects that included animal experimentation.” All of that money that is going to waste on animal testing could go to something way more important, like more universal health care and make medicine cheaper so people don’t go broke just to get healthy again. We shouldn’t let our government pay that much on something like