Animal Testing
Introduction
Animal testing is a term that refers to testing and performing procedures on animals, for the
advancement of biology, medicine and science. All the procedures that are performed on these
animals are harmful, even the ones that are classified as mild. Animals are usually killed at the
end of this experiment, but some are re-used in future experiments. Experiments include Forced
chemical exposure, testing toxic chemicals on them, force feeding them or forcing them to
inhale chemicals. Also injecting into their skin, abdomen, and muscle. Exposing them to drugs,
chemicals and infectious disease, genetic manipulation, tail clipping- ear notching, periods of
physical restraint, depriving them of food and water, surgical procedures, inflicting wounds and
burns on them, creatin new diseases and killing the animals by using carbon dioxide, and
breaking their neck etc.
Types of animals
Many different species were used, including mice, fish, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamster, farm
animals, birds, cats, dogs, pigs and monkeys. Around 115 million animals around the world are
used in lab experiments every year. But not all countries even count or publish the data and
statistics for animal testing, so who can be sure. In just the U.S up to 90% of animals used in labs
are not in the official statistics. One of the common experiments, is trying to create human
diseases in animals. Animal tests are usually restrictive in how much can be tested, as we
cannot be sure they will act the same way in a human’s body. Trying to mirror human disease or
toxicity by creating them in animals are limited, as many things can mess with the results.
Sometimes the potential treatments are not the same in human patients and consequently, nine
out of ten possible medicines that seem safe and useful in animal experiments are not successful
when it comes to human beings.
Alternatives
However, there are other ways we could test medicines and cosmetics without testing on animals. A
little while back, in 1752, human dissection was legalized in England, which allowed them to dissect
the bodies of executed murderers. The Anatomy Act of 1832 gave surgeons and students permission
to access bodies, unclaimed 48 hours after death, from workhouses, hospitals and prisons. It also
made it legal for a person to donate their body to their next of kin for medical study. Although human
experimentation gets a little darker than you would expect, in fields of science and medicine, donating
your body to a hospital or a medical school is till and option, and still help doctors learn. Because there
is so much, we don’t know about the human body, cutting open humans does teach us a lot.
History is full of horrible and morally incorrect practices, and animal cruelty is one of them. Just
because we have been testing on animals for years, doesn’t mean that there is no other way, it
doesn’t mean that it is correct. A lot of old traditions have been renewed with technology and more
modern methods, just like how the first airplane has become and advanced jet. Animal testing is not
the only way to go, and the facts speak for themselves. Scientific reviews have shown that animal
research correlates poorly to actual human beings. The data shows that studies on animals fail to
predict human outcomes in 50 out of 99.7 cases.
Conclusion
Everyone can help prevent suffering and deaths of animals under experimentation by only
buying from brands that have cruelty free products, donating only to charities that don’t
experiment on animals and signing petitions to stop animal cruelty. Everyone can make a
difference, whether it’s a big one, like donating your body to science, or a small change
like funding a non-cruelty organisation or simply signing a petition to stop animal abuse.
Bibliography
Photo(s):
Tangar E.T (2017) A dog, white with black and brown being tested one, there are several scars
in its stomach and the fur there has been shaved away. The dog is either unconscious or
under anaesthesia. [photograph], Scoop Whoop, accessed 3 June 2024.
https://wp.scoopwhoop.com/wp-content/uploads/
2017/07/595b67c1fb778555e39dacc6_495a97ad-f802-4267-8200-db4409e74945.jpg
Article(s):
PETA (Unknown9) Animal testing facts and Alternatives, PETA, accessed 3 June
2024. https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/animal-testing-101/
Humane Society International (Unknown) About Animal Testing, HIS, accessed 3 June
2024. https://www.hsi.org/news-resources/about/
Biol ACB (22 September 2015) Human cadaveric dissection:, National Library of Medicine,
accessed 3 June
2024. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4582158/#:~:text=During%20this
%20period%2C%20due%20to,research%20and%20education%20%5B60%5D.
