The Cruelty of Animal Testing: A Call for Change

Is Animal Testing Wrong? Would you want to put your best four legged friend through torture to find out if something, such as lipstick, would okay for humans? I know, for sure, I would never want to put any animal through these horrible experiments. Most people think that animal testing is something we have to do in order to protect ourselves from new products. Which is not true, we would survive perfectly fine with the millions of products we have now. These beloved animals don’t deserve to put through such torture. Animal testing is costing many animals their lives and is costing many of us millions of dollars.

More than 100 million animals, ranging from mice to monkeys, are suffering and dying in cruel chemical, drug, food and cosmetic tests, biology lessons, medical training exercises, and curiosity-driven medical experiments (“Animals Used for Experimentation”, n. d. ). All these animals can do is sit and wait for the pain, caused by the horrible procedures, to come their way. While the animals who were already tested on, are wishing the pain would just go away. Majority of the helpless creatures die because they lose minds caused by stress or fear.

Many of the other animals die with no purpose of their life, because many of the substances will never see approval for consumption of humans. Also many animals have to be put down because they become so nervous that they start to become aggressive and then they have no use. “Animals Used for Experimentation” (n. d. ) states that in order to test cosmetics, household cleaning items, and other consumer products, hundreds of thousands of animals are poisoned, blinded, and killed every year by cruel corporations. This is only the major disagreement with the torture done to animals.

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One huge way the animals are tortured is that most of the experiment animals are breed and raised just to be sent to laboratories. In fact a lot of these animals are bought really young to help reduce the stress of being in the cages in the labs. Therefore most of these animals have never got to know what grass feels or smells like. Most of the dogs have never played fetch with an owner. Most pregnant cats that are in animal shelters are bought by companies that test on animals. Therefore the kittens can be tested on by baby products or kept until they are a couple years old. “Animal Testing Facts” (n. . ) claims that every hour 2,000 cats and 3,500 dogs are born in labs all over the nation. Most importantly, none of these neglected animals have ever and will never know what it is like to be loved by a human or know what it is like to be rewarded by a human with a treat or a belly rub. The only things these animals think, about when a human comes by or to their cage, are that they have to duck down and hope they keep walking. They feel that when a human touches them, that means the pain is coming. Isn’t that the complete opposite purpose that these wonderful creatures are living with us?

We are supposed to be the protector of the animals who can’t speak or defend themselves. We are supposed to be their best friends. Some of the experiments done on the animals are unbelievable! Mice and rats are forced to inhale toxic fumes, dogs are force-fed pesticides, and rabbits have corrosive chemicals rubbed onto their skin and eyes (“Animals used for Experimentation”, n. d. ). Many animals become so freaked out that they start to kill each other. They also will attack themselves, such as: pulling out their own hair or feathers, eating their own skin, or starving themselves to death.

Some major companies that test on animals are: Gillette, they rub their products into rabbits’ eyes and then sit back and wait to see if they scream because the product is burning their eyes; Nair, they rub their products on the fur of many dogs and other furry animals; and Tide and Windex, also force feed and cover animals in their products. Those are just a few of the thousands of companies that test on animals. Many of the results found are unreliable because the animal could have easily died from one of the reasons I have already talked about.

The results could also be unreliable because human bodies and animal bodies can have a different reaction or one may not even have a reaction at all to a certain product. One major disturbing thing about the reactions of animals I that most rabbits and other animals will get huge holes in their sides because a product will eat away at their skin and organs. Many other sad reactions that happen to the animals are that they could get seizures, and some forget what they are suppose to do such as drink water or eat their food.

Even if animals have a bad reaction to certain products, some of these products will still go to market and be sold to the people. More than 100,000 people have been hospitalized and later died from toxic reactions to medications in 1994 that were not predicted by animal tests (“Animal Testing Facts, n. d. ). Most of families get tired of paying for expenses for their family pet or pets. Could you imagine having to pay for the food, housing, or care for the millions of animals? Or just paying for price of millions of animals? This is a lot of money that is wasted; animals are far from being cheap.

Price is another major setback of animal testing. The price for the experiment animals, alone, has caused a lot of the United States’ financial debt. According to “Animals Used in Experimentations” (n. d. ) the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Toxicology Program, and the Department of Agriculture are a couple of government agencies that subject animals to many painful and cruel experiments. Another interesting fact is that a big percent of the money that is wasted on animal testing comes from United State taxpayers.

It is estimated that around $12 billion, of taxpayers’ money, is put toward animal testing. One way to help with the cost is to test animals are small animals only, not animals that cost or ones that require more care. There are many ways to help get rid of animal testing. The most effective thing to do is to stop buying the products that are from companies, who test on animals. This way they won’t be making any money on their products and therefore they won’t have the money to spend on more animals or the care for the hundreds of animals they already have.

The main argue of why we need to have animal testing is that it helps researchers improve health issues and find new medicines. This is a good point but what is pointless about it is that a lot of the medicines are almost the same medicines that we have right now. Which would prove that we could live perfectly fine without different and/or new medicines. Another point that people, who are for animal testing, have is that they say it protects people from testing on other people, because these tests could hurt or kill the person who is being tested on.

This point is somewhat true but it does not help stop the people who are abused every day or the ones who are murdered. The last main argue for why we need animal testing is that it ensures the safety of the new products. The statement is barely even true, because most of the products that pass the animals could have a completely different reaction to a human. Like I said before, that animals are in an unfamiliar environment and they are so stressed that their bodies might not even have a reaction to a deadly substance.

I hope that next time you put on some make up or take some pills to help get rid of a little headache, you will think about the hundreds loving animals that had to suffer for months or the animals that were killed, in order for you to have these small luxuries. The next time you pay taxes I hope you ask yourself if you money goes to help researchers torture millions of animals. When you think about all of the money we waste and all of the lives we steal away from animals, you will agree with me that we need to find a better way to test new products.

Or we could hope that the scientists will be able to find a more humane way to test them on animals. References Animals used for experimentation. (n. d. ). Retrieved April 9, 2012, from http://www. peta. org/? issues/? animals-used-for-experimentation/? default2. aspx Animal testing facts. (n. d. ). Retrieved March 30, 2012, from http://www. animaltestingfacts. zoomshare. com/ Dixon, T. (2009, April 7). Animal experimentation. Retrieved March 29, 2012, from http://www. idebate. org/? debatabase/? topic_details. hp? topicID=7 Gerty. (2010, December 11). The pro’s and cons. Retrieved March 29, 2012, from http://levmm1. wordpress. com/? 2010/? 12/? 11/? the-pros-and-cons/ Murnaghan, I. (2011, July 1). Using animals for testing: pros versus cons. Retrieved March 27, 2012, from http://www. aboutanimaltesting. co. uk/? using-animals-testing-pros-versus-cons. html Shandilya, R. (2011, December 16). Animal testing pros. Retrieved March 30, 2012, from http://www. buzzle. com/? articles/? animal-testing-pros. html

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