Animal Testing

[LVisforCelineLovers]

I'm taking an argumentative writing class over the summer and this weekend I'm supposed to conduct my first draft of my first paper. My topic is "Animal Testing" and the question is, Should animals be used for testing? It's a really complex subject because they're tested for various things; medical, cosmetic. Some of the arguments are: Are animals really that similar to humans? What is the extent that should be allowed for animal testing? How accurate are the tests? Is it inhumane?

 

My view is mixed. I understand that they use medical testing on animals as an alternative for human testing but the more I read online, the more alternatives I see rather than the use of animals. What are your thoughts? I'd appreciate ANY help that anyone can offer.

[celine_rules]

i don't think it's inhumane, but i'm not sure how accurate the tests are. animals have actually been sent into space for tests! it might be fun for them. Edited July 9, 2005 at 05:00 PM by celine_rules

[piglot82]

I used this topic for several of research/arguments papers and speaches. I feel very strongly about this, I believe that animal testing is increadibly inhumane. The types of tests that are done to these animals are horrifying and there are so many alternatives that researchers can use. After I found about what they do to animals I did more research to find out what companies use animals for testing and I try to make sure that I don't use products made by those companies.

[Koolan]

This is a controversial topic, mine is mixed. On one side, I think it's ok to use them for tests. Humans could benefit from the research done. I don't know how accurate those tests are. For those of who are against it, are you a vegetarian? Many other things come from animals such as clothing, beauty products, etc. Hmmm. so if you're against it, would you also avoid eating meat? On the other hand, I could see how it could be inhumane.

[Belle Céline]

This is a controversial topic, mine is mixed. On one side, I think it's ok to use them for tests. Humans could benefit from the research done. I don't know how accurate those tests are. For those of who are against it, are you a vegetarian?  Many other things come from animals such as clothing, beauty products, etc. Hmmm. so if you're against it, would you also avoid eating meat?  On the other hand, I could see how it could be inhumane. 

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I agree with the benefits of it but about it being inhumane....if they are not hurting the animals whats the harm?I dont mean to sound as if I am for it but as long as they arent killing them or anything.....

[VanMerlin]

There are enough alternatives out there that animals aren't required for testing. And even when they've conducted a test, they always say, "we're not sure yet if the same effects will be seen in humans." Well then, what the hell was the test for...just to cause animals pain? What the hell? If you were to watch a video of the aftermath of these tests on animals, you would know it were in inhumane, no question. Heck, if people want to test on animals, why don't they use their children, their neighbours, homeless people, or themselves? What's the difference? Are we actually saying that animals have no rights and are lesser beings than ourselves and we have every right to abuse them?

 

When you see a rabbit cry, when you see a dog with half of it's body burned to the bone, when you see a mouse that has been painfully blinded, when you see cats that are intentionally scalded by chemicals...for what? So women can have nice skin and shiny hair? So fat people can take a drug that makes them thin instead of getting off their buts and eating correctly? So we can put superficial bandaids on problems that our latter generations have caused because of their indulgences and abuse of the planet? It's insane. The medical community is looking in the wrong place for answers. It's our policies, attitudes, and lifestyles that should be tested. How many diseases of our planet could be cured just by changing our indulgent ways?

 

And yes, I am against animal testing, I am a vegetarian, I don't wear or use anything made from animal products, because I have a strong belief that animals are no less sacred than humans and deserve the same reverence.

Edited July 11, 2005 at 02:24 PM by VanMerlin

[piglot82]

This is a controversial topic, mine is mixed. On one side, I think it's ok to use them for tests. Humans could benefit from the research done. I don't know how accurate those tests are. For those of who are against it, are you a vegetarian?  Many other things come from animals such as clothing, beauty products, etc. Hmmm. so if you're against it, would you also avoid eating meat?  On the other hand, I could see how it could be inhumane. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree with the benefits of it but about it being inhumane....if they are not hurting the animals whats the harm?I dont mean to sound as if I am for it but as long as they arent killing them or anything.....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The thing is that these tests ARE hurting the animals. During some of these tests the animals' eyes are actually pinned open and chemicals are dropped in their eyes and there are other tests where the animal is shaved and acid is dropped on the animals skin. Now if that isn't torturing an animal I don't know what is.

 

There are enough alternatives out there that animals aren't required for testing. And even when they've conducted a test, they always say, "we're not sure yet if the same effects will be seen in humans." Well then, what the hell was the test for...just to cause animals pain? What the hell? If you were to watch a video of the aftermath of these tests on animals, you would know it were in inhumane, no question. Heck, if people want to test on animals, why don't they use their children, their neighbours, homeless people, or themselves? What's the difference? Are we actually saying that animals have no rights and are lesser beings than ourselves and we have every right to abuse them?

 

When you see a rabbit cry, when you see a dog with half of it's body burned to the bone, when you see a mouse that has been painfully blinded, when you see cats that are intentionally scalded by chemicals...for what? So women can have nice skin and shiny hair? So fat people can take a drug that makes them thin instead of getting off their buts and eating correctly? So we can put superficial bandaids on problems that our latter generations have caused because of their indulgences and abuse of the planet? It's insane. The medical community is looking in the wrong place for answers. It's our policies, attitudes, and lifestyles that should be tested. How many diseases of our planet could be cured just by changing our indulgent ways?

 

And yes, I am against animal testing, I am a vegetarian, I don't wear or use anything made from animal products, because I have a strong belief that animals are no less sacred than humans and deserve the same reverence.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Perfectly said. I once heard someone say when you ask the experimenters why they experiment on animals, their answer is "Because the animals are like us." but when you ask the experimenters why it is morally OK to experiment on animals, their answer is "Because the animals are not like us." Animal experimentation rests on a logical contradiction.

 

"Vivisection is the blackest of all the black crimes that a man is at present committing against God and his fair creation. " - Mohandas Gandhi

And my favorite: "To my mind the life of the lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of the lamb for the sake of the human body. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man." - Mohandas Gandhi

[Bellamy]

at least it's better than human test.

[piglot82]

at least it's better than human test. 

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Depends on the human

[VanMerlin]

at least it's better than human test. 

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Tell that to the animals...

[Bellamy]

at least it's better than human test. 

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Tell that to the animals...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If I could................

[Cheerfuljane]

Today, many animals are being used for testing for the advancement of cosmetics, and other experimental developments. Many animals of different species are being mistreated in a way that people would not approve of for one another.

 

The testing is supposedly to help humankind, but the tests are being performed on animals, not humans. Also, many tests have resulted in harmful side effects for the animals, then when the product is used by a human, a different side effect takes place. It is unethical, unprincipled, and just plain cruel to use living animals for any further testing of the effectiveness of cosmetic products.

 

In the name of "efficiency," rats, birds, dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs and others have chemicals placed on their skin, have shampoo pumped into their stomach until they die and are kept in cages so small that their muscles waste away, while dumping poisonous fertilizer into the cage to "measure toxicity levels." Every year, hundreds of thousands of animals are condemned to birth and death in a lab, never seeing their natural habitat. One thing is clear: being a laboratory animal means a life of torture and pain.

 

Jeremy Bentham wrote in the 18th century, "The question is not, can they reason? nor, can they talk?, but, can they suffer?" We have an obligation to stop thinking of animal testing as "noble" and start thinking of it as a last resort.

 

In the past, animals had derivative use: there were no alternatives, and humans needed to treat them not as animals, but as food, shelter and clothing. Today, there are few situations in which testing is a matter of life-or-death for humans - and even in most of those situations, viable alternatives exist, making most testing of animals unnecessary.

 

Scientists are now able to grow human tissue samples in a laboratory from a skin scraping and perform tests on these. Not only does this protect animals, but testing on human cells eliminates the need for experiments to control the differences between humans and animals. Also, computer models can now be used very accurately to determine toxicity of most substances to both animals and humans. Finally, we are now able to simply test on the blood of animals. Most of the blood-testing is done using horseshoe crabs, from which a sample is extracted and the crab is released back to the environment unharmed, save for a needle poke.

 

It is critical to understand that there is a difference between testing cosmetics on animals and testing new cancer treatments on them. Animals are used in many different situations, and few of them are as "noble" as last week's editorial would have you believe. However, some medical experimentation is not bad. Sacrificing Fido to cure Grandma's Alzheimer's would be a good idea to most of us. And, yes, if testing has a possibility of making the lives of cancer or AIDS patients easier, it would be justified given a lack of viable alternatives.

 

But the root of our choices cannot be that animals exist for us to use for any reason, whatever the cost. It is that very mindset that strips animals of all intrinsic value and is at the root of the growing endangered species list and the destruction of our environment as a whole.