They have feelings too
They have feelings too
By: Anoushka Sarkar 4th period
We often hear about large media movements towards the idea on whether animal testing is ethical or unethical, and largely based off the history of mankind we have developed greatly towards the idea of individual rights. Although, we seem to hover over the idea of rights when placed upon an individual animal’s perspective. Is it illogical and insane for a non human species to be treated as ourselves? Or is it merely the moral thing to do? This is how the controversial ethics of animal testing comes into play.
Beginning with the benefits of animal testing will hopefully further help you further comprehend the idea on why humans have been animal testing for centuries and the historical benefits that we have obtained from animal testing as a whole. Several life saving vaccines/cures have been mass produced by trial and error of animal testing such as the discovery as insulin which was crucial towards understanding diabetic issues through the trials of dogs. The polio vaccine which was also tested on several different types of animals eradicated polio from 350,000 cases in 1988 to an astounding 27 cases in 2016! Physiological and psychological studies were also gravely impacted through the use of rats, chimpanzees, and several other types of organisms. Unfortunately, these benefits come with a tragic loss towards helping ourselves, which is in the way we hurt these animals in the processes of these testing.
Animal testing, which has eradicated many diseases, is not fully seen in the full picture behind the closed doors of labradories. Not simply for medical studies and advancement, but for beautifying cosmetics as well. Simple household items such as shampoos, cleansers, lotions and many more were heavily trailed through thousands of animals locked for months or merely years until their unforeseeable death. Unbelievably inhumane acts take place among animals in ways customers could never fathom. For example, force feeding, forced inhalation, burns and wounds from products and healing medications, physical restraint for days, prolonged hunger and thirst, carbon dioxide death, and trials in which they subject these large numbers of animals towards harmful chemicals which kill more than fifty percent of the ones tested. The commonly used lethal dose 50 test is imposed in which they sample hundreds of animals towards high dosages in order to sew at least a fifty percent death rate among the chemical product. This mortifying list goes on in ways in which the public is barely aware of the harm these animals are inflicted upon. Not just towards mice and rats as you might perceive but dozens of species including household pets as well. We often neglect the fact of this damage because it retrieves our own benefits and simply ignore the idea of their being other routes to take in order to obtain these results.
Animal testing, as it may often seem helpful, is in fact not a miracle towards the birth of deeveloping science. Animals are genetically similar but biologically different. Their systems, organs, tissues, and cells work in dramatically different ways than our own. Contrasting autonomies and different chemical make up allow for opposing tolerances that cannot represent a human population. Thus a trial of 500 rats tested for anesthesia cannot accurately represent human intolerances. For example, in the 1950s sleeping pill thalidomide, which heavily tested on animals before being released to the public, unfortunately correlated to the mass number of 10,000 cases surfaced with child deformities at birth from women using this pill. Similarly, animals trailed on the arthritis drug Vioxx which was proven tolerant towards the heart and lung organs was passed into local pharmacies, but eventually caused more than 27,000 cases of heart attacks from the use of Vioxx. These devastating effects are from the reasoning in which we biologically differ from animals that are being tested for human products. In what ways can we solve the inhumane abuse and death of these animals and prevent the drastic impacts from occurrences such as above? There are in fact multiple ways in which people have developed other testing methods that are indeed more accurate than animal testing. For instance, “in vitro”, which is studying the impacts of chemicals on human cells within a petri dish, creating much more accurate representations of our own bodies and their reactions to these products. A newly introduced method has been taken up by a few companies in which microchips which were grown with organs of humans in labs accurately respond to testing methods in ways our own bodies do as well. Personally as a dog owner, and many pet owners could most likely relate , our animals bring not only the warmth in our hearts but also the joy in our lives. Imagine if your own dog/cat was taken and tested within these laboratories, the mere idea in which your pet never comes home we could never fathom without a few tears in our eyes. That is the compassion we must show to all these animals brought into testing. Therefore, animal testing as a whole has brought many revolutionary impacts towards the modern day society, but as our society advances we should step aside from harmful testing methods when less cruel and more accurate demonstrations are an option as well.
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For some reason I'm on my brothers account, but this is Umar.