Ethical Issues With Animal Testing

Mahatma Gandhi (1915) once said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”. Since the mid 19th century, animal testing has been prevalent throughout the world. Up to this date, about 115 million animals have been put to death each year for the use of animal testing which is thought to be used in the fields of medical research, drugs and cosmetic testing (International, n.d.). According to the Cruelty Free International Organization (2016), animal testing is not diminishing and in many parts of the world is increasing and is still at the same level as it was in the 1980s. Statistics show that an animal dies in a laboratory every 3 seconds, which makes animals suffer in torment and experience distress and misery more and more every year (Fieser, 2008). Therefore,

Animals are often being tortured and killed by their handlers if they don’t abide by the rules, such as staying still throughout the whole experiment. Moreover, animals in laboratories are experiencing force-feeding, forced inhalation, food and water deprivation, and even physical restraint. Some handlers rip out the animal’s vocal chords if it tends to cause too much noise. For as simple as cosmetic testing, the draize eye test, used by cosmetic companies to evaluate the aggravation brought by shampoos or makeup products, includes rabbits and bunnies being impaired with their eyelids being opened for multiple days. In the end of every experiment, most animals that are being tortured die, due to lack of proper aid and assistance. In some cases, their handlers choose to kill them to not prolong its suffering (Hartung, 2010). Although the government of the Philippines has an Animal Welfare Act for people to act in accordance with rules on how they should treat such animals, some still don’t comply with the rules and they treat animals with much