According to the Humane International Society, “The term ‘animal testing’ refers to procedures performed on living animals for purposes of research into basic biology and diseases, assessing the effectiveness of new medical products, and testing human health and/or environmental safety of consumer and industry products such as cosmetics, household cleaners, food additives, pharmaceuticals and industrial/agro-chemicals.” (“About Animal Testing”). Animals are forced to live in harsh conditions, while undergoing painful procedures. However, it is not new, as animal testing dates back all the way to 384 BC when Aristotle was using them for experiments. As stated by the Humane Society International, the most common experimental test subjects are: …show more content…
Yes” he wrote, “Biologically, we are similar to species such as mice and rats, because we have practically the same set of genes. Their bodies respond to disease and treatments much as ours do. If a genetically modified ‘purple tomato’ can fight cancer in mice, as announced yesterday, it might work for humans, too.” (Blakemore). However, the key word here is might. There is a likely possibility that this treatment will not work for humans because “nine out of every 10 candidate medicines that appear safe and effective in animal studies fail when given to humans.” (“About Animal Testing”). Blakemore goes on to say that in order to cure diseases like Alzheimer's or schizophrenia, we must continue to test on animals. These studies can be very inaccurate as “signs of these diseases are artificially induced in animals in laboratories in an attempt to mimic the human disease. Yet, such experiments belittle the complexity of human conditions which are affected by wide-ranging variables such as genetics, socioeconomic factors, deeply-rooted psychological issues and different personal experiences.” (“Arguments about Animal Testing” ). Although we share 95% of our genes with mice, is that accurate enough to induce the artificial diseases into their