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Validity Of Animal Testing

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Although it may seem like animals are accurate to test on because humans and animals share so many similarities that is not true in all cases. There are many anatomic, metabolic, and cellular differences between humans and animals which can greatly affect the results of tests (procon.org, May 24, 2016). Humans have a much more complicated body than a fish or mouse so therefore you get two different test outcomes. For example, rats are the species most commonly used in animal tests and they have no gall bladder, they breathe through their nose, they are nocturnal, and their skin has different skin absorptive properties and drugs bind to rat plasma much less efficiently. All of these characteristic will alter drug results and can mislead scientists. …show more content…

If the test results are not giving us correct answers then why do we continue to put our money into the research? When it comes to testing animals, there are multiple costly thing that are needed, for example, money is needed for an institution, feeding and housing the animals for many months, and the most expensive need, the drugs being used in the experiments. (Klazema, June 13, 2014.) Also, the animals are becoming very expensive because most of them are specifically bred for certain tests. American author and clinical researcher Dr. Neal Barnard M.D. made a very good point when he said, “Not only are the studies themselves often lacking face value, but they also drain badly needed funds away from patient care needs.” With this statement he is simply saying that people are wasting their money when they test animals (Murnaghan, November 7, 2016). One way in which we can prevent all of this wasteful time, money, and animal lives, is to come up with an alternative for animal testing. These alternatives are much more reliable, resemble actual humans more accurately, and are less expensive, so we can stop wasting government money. With today’s technology, animals are not the perfect solution for finding cures for diseases or testing the safety of cosmetic products. Some scientists have interest in testing that does not use a whole animal. Possible alternatives could be animal organs, animal or human cells, or computer modeling. The future of testing is also looking to use less complex organisms like bacteria, flies, or even plants because they are lower in moral standings than animals (Liou, July 6,

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