Animal Testing Essay Example for Free

Animal Testing Essay Interest in animal welfare goes back to the 1800’s (Assem Int). â€Å"Every year tens of thousands of animals suffer and die of laboratory test of cosmetics and household products despite the fact that the test results do not help prevent or treat purposeful misuse of the products (â€Å"Quotes† Int). Every year millions of animals are poisoned, blinded and killed during experiments to evaluate the toxicity of consumer products and their ingredients (â€Å"Testing† Int.). Animal Testing is cruel and inhumane (Teasdale Int). Scientists perform experiments on animals for two reasons: Toxicity and biological research (â€Å"Fact† Int). Sufficient existing data, as well as in vitro, test tube, alternatives make animal testing unnecessary (â€Å"Animal† Int). Non-animal research methods include clinical research; epidemiology and cellular methods are more affective, accurate and less time consuming (â€Å"Facts† Int). I believe that animal testing is wrong and if there are alternatives for research then there’s no explanation for why people should hurt of kill animals. To prove my thesis I will explain the History, Laws, Beliefs, Quotes, Statistics, Types and number of animals, Types of test, Results, Alternatives, and lastly my own opinion on the whole subject! The Law states that animal testing for cosmetics has been banned in a number of European Union Countries (Int). Europe is phasing out animal testing but the U.S has thus far failed to follow suit (â€Å"Cosmetics† Int). No Law requires animal testing of cosmetics or personal care and household products, so manufactures of these products have no excuse for inflicting suffering on animals (â€Å"Testing† Int). Laws regulating federal animal welfare act does not cover animals during tests no matter how long the test may go (Int). I believe that if the U.S has not yet banned animal testing that they probably never will. I also believe that if there is no laws stating that animals have to be used why use them in tests!!!! Buss 2 People have their own opinions on many different things. Some people believe that animal testing is unnecessary, poor scientific practice, poorly regulated, and costs over weigh alleged benefits (â€Å"Animal† Int). The tests they do on animals are not reliable in determining chemical effects on humans (â€Å"Testing† Int). In addition to being cruel and unreliable animal tests tend to be more expensive than alternative methods, making them both unkind and inefficient (Int). The suffering and death of these animals is entirely unnecessary in the making of products like shampoo, eye shadow, and toilet cleaner (Int). Some Quotes spoken by important people about animal testing include: Edwards Freemans quote stating â€Å"The awful wrongs and sufferings forced upon innocent, helpless, faithful animal race form the blackest chapter in the world† (â€Å"Quotes† Int). Another quote from George Eliot states â€Å"Animals are such agreeable friends they ask no questions they pass no criticism† (Int). Mahatma Gandki says, â€Å"The greatness of the nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated (Int). As Leonardo Da Vinci once said, â€Å"The time will come when men will look upon the murder of animals as they now look at the murder of men† (Int). â€Å"He who is cruel to animal becomes hard also in his dealings with men.† We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment to animals†, says Immanuel Kant (Int). Buss 3 Some statistics include that animal testing is wrong because 65% of the animal tests that have been passed on animals have killed hundreds of people and the animals die for no reason (Teasdale Int). For example, Nicotine is lethal to humans at 0.9 mg/kg but in dogs it is a staggering 9.2 mg/kg, in pigeons 75mg/kg and in rats 53mg/kg (â€Å"Cruelty† Int). Also of the 198 drugs that went to the market in the decade ending in 1985, 102 or 51% turned out to be more dangerous than pre market items (â€Å"Fact† Int). That has caused  ¼ of the 126 U.S medical schools including Yale, Georgetown, and others have dropped all animal laboratories from their curriculum. Allot of animal testing statistics come from the types of animals used and number used per year. There had been a sharp rise in the number of farm animals used more than doubling 32,200 in 1994 to 75,100 in 2004 (â€Å"Fact† Int). The number of rats used has fallen remarkably since the use of farm animals. Although the number of animals dropped steadily from the mid 1970’s there has been a small rise from 2001-2005 (Int). Each year in the U.S an estimated 20-70 million animals from cats, dogs, rats, mice and primates suffer and die (Int). It has been an estimated that as many as 100 million mice are used in laboratories each year (â€Å"Animal† Int). In the U.S testing on vertebrates is primarily regulated by the 1966 animal welfare act (Int). I feel getting the animal for the wild is a little better than getting them from a breeding facility because they aren’t usually nice and friendly. I also believe it is morally wrong to kill animals to figure out the toxicity of products when sometimes the products could kill humans. There are many questions about why they test on animals and what the names of the tests are. They test on animals to understand how humans and other animals function in the process called fundamental biological research (â€Å"Fact† Int). The toxicology tests whether substances used by humans such as drugs have the desired effect without at the same time poisoning them (Int). Many shampoos and other personal care products under go safety testing before they are made available to consumers (â€Å"Cosmetics† Int). Few useful cancer fighting therapies on animals resulted in cancer death rates to continue to climb (â€Å"Fact† Int). For example animal tests in the war on cancer have been a large failure. Some test that they do are LD50 or Lethal Dose Fifty, which refers to the lethal dose that is required to kill 50% of all animals in a test group of 40-200 (Int). Another test is the skin irritancy test. The last test they do is called the Draize Test. Those are the tests they inflict on poor animals. Buss 4 There are very shocking results that come with animal testing. Many animal tests produce results that are relevant to human health (â€Å"Fact† Int). Animals and humans differ in medically important ways, and often tests produce misleading results (Int). A product that made a test animal go blind could very well be sold to you (â€Å"Testing† Int). Animal experiments in stroke research led to false conclusion, waste of time, and research funds (Int). Animal tests are poor predictors of the efforts of other drugs as well (Int). In addition different species react differently to various substances, substances that fail to damage a rabbits and may be toxic to a human (â€Å"Cruelty† Int). Ironically these tests are rarely used in situations of actual human poisoning (Int). Even though manufactures use animals to test on there are other methods that can be used they are called alternatives. The non-animal test results have in fact proven themselves more accurate, and less expensive than those involving animal cruelty (Int). Many alternatives are classified under the three R’s: Reduction, Refinement, and replacement of animals with non animal methods (Int). In most cases non-animal methods take less time, cost only a fraction, and are not plagued with specie differences that make extrapolation difficult or impossible (â€Å"Cruelty† Int). The Avon cosmetic company has personally endorsed the Eytex system as an alternative to the powerful Draize test (â€Å"Cruelty† Int). Episkin and Epiderm have also been scientifically accepted around the world as a total replacement of animals (â€Å"Testing† Int). Instead of animal testing they could also use computer vital organs that serve as accurate models of the human body (Int). I bel ieve that if there is an alternative why not use it. I believe that if alternatives are less costly and more affective then manufactures shouldn’t choose animals as there test subjects. It is cruel and inhumane!!! Buss 5 In conclusion, I believe that animal testing is cruel, mean, and non-human like. Now I would like to point out some key facts and quotes from my paper. Scientists perform experiments for toxicology and biological research (â€Å"Facts† Int). Also that Europe is phasing out on animal testing and that the U.S has thus far failed to follow (â€Å"Cosmetics† Int). Another main point in my paper is laws regulating conditions for laboratory animals are minimal and poorly enforced (â€Å"Fact† Int). â€Å"The greatness of the nation and its moral progress can be judged b the way its animals are treated, Mahatma Gandki (Int). Every year 100 million mice are used in laboratory tests (â€Å"Animal† Int). Over 3 million animals have been tormented all in the name of research. If you really care about animals talk to your local stores and ask them if the supply necessity’s that have not undergone animal testing. Or just look for labels that say â€Å"No Animal Testing† or â€Å"Vegan† (â€Å"Cosmetics† Int). That is why I believe that animal testing is wrong and inhumane!!! What is your viewpoint on this subject! Works Cited â€Å"Animal Testing.† 2008. Animaltestingfacts. 28 March. 2008. http://www.animaltestingfacts.zoomshare.com â€Å"Animal Testing.† 2008. Answers.com.24 March.2008. http://www.answersanimaltesting.com â€Å"Animal Testing.† 2008. Api4animals.20 March. 2008. Http://www.Api4adnimals.com â€Å"Animal Testing.† CosmeticsPersonalcare.12 Oct. 2004. Grinningplanet.com.18 April.2008. www.grinningplanet,com/2004/10-12/cosmetics-animal-testing-article.htm â€Å"Assem, Louise. â€Å" Alternatives to animal testing. 14 Jan.2008. Infotrac.com. 28 March 2008.