Animal Testing

 Animal testing. Does it sound familiar? I guess we all have come across products such as cosmetics and medications with the label “tested safe on animals” at least once in our lifetime. Being exposed to these kinds of products, we cannot be helped but have this conception that animal testing is unavoidable for our safety. The question is, is it true? 

Each year, millions and millions of animals are sacrificed in testings. The estimation is 115 million but with tons of testings gone unpublished, the number may be far more huge than that. New products continue to emerge from various industries which have resulted in soaring demand for laboratory testings. Each of the testings has several stages and this requires a big amount of animals. According to the article published by the Humane Society International, called “ The End of Animal Testing”, registration of one pesticide alone called for more than 50 experiments and the use of 12 000 animals. As we can imagine, some of the types of animals that might involve in testings are mice and rats but, alas, little did we know that rodents are exempted from The Animal Welfare Act which leaves them vulnerable to all types of abuse. The same goes for reptiles and amphibians and several other species. The facilities also do not have the liability to report on how many they use. Plus, even animals that are protected under this law can still be abused. Heart-wrenching isn’t it? So, to tell the truth, animal testings do more harm than good and, here are the reasons why. 

  

Firstly, animal testings have little contribution to human health. In these testings, animals are forced to eat or inhale substances or simply rubbed on their skin or eyes. After some time, the effects on their cells, tissues, and organs are being observed. However, although humans and some animals share the same organs and organ systems, we don’t share the same size of skeleton and brain abilities making it difficult to translate the information effectively on human beings which only leads to more testings. Furthermore, based on an article published by the Journal of The Royal Society of Medicine, it has been concluded that the claim “ every major medical advance is attributable to experiments on animals” is not supported by any evidence. As quoted by the former Director of National Cancer Institute, Dr, Richard Klausner, he said that “We have cured mice of cancer for decades, and it simply didn’t work in humans”. This is due to animal diseases that are non-identical to humans. On top of that, products that are tested safe on animals are not necessarily safe on humans. This is because some drugs that harm humans do not harm animals and some that harm animals do not harm humans. Besides, most animal testings are not even related to human health. For example, tests are done to test improvised products that have been added new chemicals. This is unnecessary as there are already thousands of safe ingredients for companies to use. 

 Secondly, the costs of these testings outweigh the benefits. Animal testings are unequivocally time-consuming and expensive. The testing of a single chemical only can take up to years and cost a hundred thousand and even millions of dollars. What if we test 20 chemicals? The amount of money needed is insanely a lot. Thus, it is impossible to adequately assess the effects of more than 100 000 chemicals available in the market today, not to mention the various combinations of these chemicals via animal testing. This is crystal clear proof that animal testings are not efficient at all. On top of that, there are still a plethora of failed animal studies that are rarely published. Based on the statistics produced by PETA which is the largest animal rights organization in the world, The National Institutes of Health wastes 12 billion each year as more than 90% of the experiments fail to lead to treatments for humans. Obviously, not worth our money and time and also all the pains and sufferings caused to the animals involved. 

 Thirdly, animal testing is synonymous with intense animal cruelty. As animals lack superior intelligence, many think that they are inferior to us and that we can benefit them even by using barbaric acts in the name of our good. This can be seen as there is poor law regulation on how animal testing should be done. The animals are treated like disposable laboratory equipment. They are kept when needed and disposed of after being used. Before the testing, these animals are kept confined and lonely in cages away from their natural habitat. They are tormented physically by having holes drilled into their skulls or burnt skin and also mentally as they are psychologically traumatized. As animals don’t have some of the human’s diseases, these signs of sickness are purposely induced into animals to mimic them. Again, they have to experience the sufferings for a long time until they can’t survive it anymore and eventually die.

 In conclusion, there are already a lot of other alternatives to animal testings. The same tests can be done for cheaper via stem cells and synthetic organs. Other alternatives include organ-on-chip technology and sophisticated computer simulations. Nearly 40 countries have already banned animal testings including the whole European Union. Awareness should be raised among society on the issues of animal testing and the misconception that these tests are useful should be corrected. We have to stop animal testings from now so that our younger generation would not have to know what is animal testing. One person making move would not change anything but if there are a lot of us supporting the campaign, we might make a difference.