Pros And Cons For Animal Testing

Animal Experimentation: Should We Seek Alternatives? Numerous animals have been used in research and experiments related to medical and cosmetics testing since the ancient times. Greek physicians like Aristotle, Praxagoras, and Herophilus have performed “vivisections” (Franco par. 2) since around 4th BCE. Encyclopedia Britannica defines vivisection as “operation on a living animal for experimental rather than healing purposes; more broadly, all experimentation on live animals” (1). Recently, animal rights activists and some anti-vivisection organizations have been actively opposing the use of animals in laboratory experiments, thus sparking controversial debates on whether animal experimentation should be continued. With the rise of the antivivisection

Animal testing has led to discoveries of many life-saving treatments. In the article Animal Testing in the History of Anesthesia… published on Journal of Anaesthesiology Clinical Pharmacology, author Rakhee Goyal writes that physician Carl Koller, in 1884, applied cocaine in his eyes after observing the effect of cocaine crystals in his dog, and later used it for “superficial ophthalmic surgery” (pp. 149). Moreover, diabetic research and the discovery of insulin was possible due to animal experimentation. Using animals aided researchers to understand basic anatomy and function of the pancreas which resulted into “de-pancreatisation experiments” (Nada and Paul par. 17). It was one of the backbones of modern insulin extraction techniques. Likewise, medical treatment for HIV, cancer, and antibiotics was also discovered by experimenting on animals first. Because of experimentation in animals, thousands of human lives are saved today so, it is necessary to continue testing in

Animals are also living beings, so they feel pain just like humans do. It makes no sense to sacrifice thousands of animals in laboratories in the name of medical advancement. Human beings deem to be the most intelligent primates thus, torturing other animals does not make humans the smartest. Testing toxic drugs on animals is unjustifiable for those who are sacrificed. According to the Annual Report on animal usage by United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service [USDA APHIS], a total of 820,812 animals were used in research and testing in the US in 2016 (USDA APHIS 1). The report also suggests that 71,370 animals were not administered with any pain reliever even though the experiments involved pain (USDA APHIS 2). Therefore, torturing animals for experiments should come to a halt. Pro-vivisection people argue that animal experimentation is a necessity because animals are the best test subjects because they have many similar characteristics to human beings. An article on “Animal Testing- Procon.org” says that chimpanzees and mice have over 95% similarity in genes as compared to human beings (1). The article also elaborates that because human beings and other mammals have similar organs, they experience similar illness and weakness. That is why experimenting on animals like chimpanzees and mice before testing drugs on humans could help understand