The Pros And Cons Of Animal Experimentation

Animal experimentation is used by most researchers in the United States, and products need to pass numerous tests on animals before they are approved by the FDA. This is why many animals are used in an experiment; Almost 12,000 animals are used in almost 50 tests for a single pesticide. Is this really necessary? Although testing on animals can protects humans from dangerous products, animal experimentation is not necessary because too many animals die, many tests animals pass fail on humans, and thousands of animals are being tortured. First, too many animals end up dying from being experimented on. One test that is commonly done uses a chemical called lethal dose 50; it kills 50% of animals involved in the test. The Animal Welfare Act, or AWA, is an organization that is suppose to protect animals being tested on, but they only cover 5% of tested animals! From a count in 2010, that is only 1,134,693 protected animals. That may seem like an abundant amount of lives saved, however, over 25 million animals were not protected. If society keeps letting animals drop dead for ourselves, they may go extinct.

When animals pass an experiment, tests still only has an 8% chance of being completely safe for humans. Thalidomide, a sleeping pill from the 1950s, was tested on animals before its commercial release. It caused over 10,00 babies to be born with severe deformities. Another example is Vioxx, which was a pill used for arthritis. Before it was quickly pulled from the market, the drug caused over 27,000 cases of heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths. These are just some examples that animal testings are a waste. We could be using the money that’s used on failed experimentations, to better our