Persuasive Essay For Animal Testing

Down a long and narrow hall, animal cages line either side of the walls. They are small cages that couldn’t possibly be spacious enough or comfortable for the terrified animals that are trapped inside. Across the room on a desk a bunny crouches, shaking, as drain cleaner is dropped into its eye as part of a Draize eye irritancy test. These animals are being burned, skinned and mutilated just for science. Animal experimentation is an issue that has plagued the nation for decades. Although it is questioned and fought against by organizations, the topic of animal experimentation needs to be brought to light in order to finally put an end to it. More people must be aware of the torturous tests animals are put through. There should be a monument

One of the earliest noted instances of animal testing was when Alcmaeon, a Greek philosopher, examined the inside of a dog’s eye to discover what causes blindness (Animal Experimentation 1). Animal testing or animal experimentation is the use of animals to conduct experiments on the effectiveness of a drug or check for irritation from cosmetics. The majority of animals used in testing are rats, mice, birds and fish (Animal Experimentation 1). Although it has been noted that testing does occur on dogs and cats. Concerns over the treatment of animals in animal testing began to rise when more scientists began conducting experiments with them as their test subjects. Animal rights advocates formed groups in England protesting against animal testing, and their calls were answered when the Cruelty to Animals Act was passed in 1876 (Animal Experimentation 3). Animal rights acts took awhile to form in the United States and it wasn’t until 1966 that the Animal Welfare Act was passed. The law regulated testing on all warm-blooded animals except rats, mice, and birds and set standards for the housing of animals used for testing (Animal Experimentation 4). Though this law could stand to be revised, it is still a