Essay On The History Of Animal Testing

The modern implications of animal testing are huge, and the effects of such experimentation have been around for most of civilized history. The history behind this topic dates back to the 2nd and 4th centuries BCE. The first people ever recorded to have done animal testing were Aristotle and Erasistratus; amidst the time when experimentation on animals grew tremendously. According to dictionary.com, animal testing “is the use of non-human animals in experiments that seek to control the variables that affect the behavior or biological system under study.” By the 12th century people in Moorish Spain, who practiced dissections, made animal testing a learning experiment by testing surgical procedures first on animals then progressing to human patients once perfected. The definition of dissect is “to cut (a plant or dead animal) into separate parts in order to study it” according to the Merriam-Webster.

Beginning in the 1880’s, a researcher named Louis Pasteur tested on sheep by demonstrating the germ theory of medicine; he induced anthrax in sheep. From that point on, sheep opened a window for all animals to be tested on (Marina Orlach). Animal testings biggest breakthrough began in 1922 when animal testing authorized dogs to be tested with insulin for diabetes research. Previous to this experimentation, people who suffered from diabetes originally became ‘wasted’ away from the metabolic effects of uncontrolled high blood sugar. Current anesthetics and antibiotics were produced from animal testing as well. In addition, animal testing introduced life-saving treatments such as anticoagulants and kidney dialysis (Ian Murnaghan). Murnaghan states that as animal testing started to become more popular with society, the controversy and criticism surrounding it increased amongst many people. Scientists were being put to shame by the public because they were conducting tests on