Arguments Against Animal Testing

Welfare, as defined by the Cambridge dictionary, can be seen in terms of “physical and mental health and happiness”, while priority, as defined by the Oxford dictionary, is "the fact or condition of being regarded or treated as more important than others”. The ethics of human welfare taking priority over animal welfare has long been debated. Although as a human, it is natural to prioritise human welfare over animal welfare, but in my opinion, it should not be supported. To justify my stand, I will be examining animal testing in labs, emotions of animals, and the use of animals in products.

To improve the health welfare of humans, animals have been used to test new drugs and chemicals in scientific research labs, therefore human welfare should

Moreover, it does not mean that just because an experiment is successful in an animal, it will succeed when applied to humans, since animals and humans are never the same. As Kathy Archibald, director of Safer Medicines Campaign, said, “Animal tests...less predicitve than tossing a coin.” The Food and Drug Administration reports that 92 out of every 100 drugs that pass animal tests fail in humans. In some cases, animal testing has been found to be unnecessary. An example is tobacco companies R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris International, which still continue to conduct experiments on animals even though it has already been for decades that smoking cigarettes causes diseases, and animal testing is not an effective way of testing for effects. Moreover, it is not required by law for animal tests to be conducted. Smoke is pumped directly into their nose for hours a day. The experiments causes the animals to experience painful side effects, such as skin peeling. It can be argued that it is better for the health welfare of animals to be compromised instead of humans, but it should not be at the expense of such experiments, as these animals are suffering such pain from health problems, which might not even have any beneficial effect for humans.If we are not willing to put a human through such pain, why should animals, who do not owe us anything, have to go through

Emotions are “a psychological phenomena that help in behavioural management and control” (Bekoff 6). According to research by Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), animals may share the same emotions as humans do everyday. They are able to respond to their environment and others, feel stress and anxiety in times of danger, which shows behavioural similarities in emotional expression like humans, even though it may not be possible to know how animals actually feel. Animals are able to express their emotions through their actions. It has served as a way of socialising and bonding with another, which also proves that animals have kinship. An example is the behaviour of young chimpanzees after the death of their mothers. They lose interest in events around them, have dull staring eyes and a hunched posture, all of which are similar behaviours to clinical depression in grieving human children. This shows that chimpanzees not only have a sense of kinship, they are able to grieve after the loss of a loved one. Elephants, too, have a strong sense of family, and are capable of grieving for lost loved ones in the group, and even shedding tears and suffering