The Pros And Cons Of Animal Testing

Animal testing is the experimentation of products or medicine on animals. It started in 384-322 BC, with Aristotle being one of the first people recorded to use animal testing (Marte Thomassen, 2006, p. 2). It is also believed that Doctor Galen 129-200 AD used living pigs for his numerous experiments (Marte Thomassen, 2006, p. 2). This paper focuses on the global, national and personal perspectives of animal experimentation, as well as the possible solutions. Many important historical figures used animal testing to prove on theory or another but, should it be illegal?

In 2002, 2.73 million animals were used in tests in the UK and in 2003 this number increased by 4.2% (Brown, 2004). There were many poorly designed projects reported recently

More than 100 million animals die each year in the US, due to drug testing, biology lessons and medical training (PETA, Experiments on Animals: Overview, 2014) A scientist explained how an experiment worked out and the results are horrifying: “Drug A killed all the rats, mice and dogs. Drug B killed all the dogs and rats. Drug C killed all the mice and rats. Drug D was taken by all the animals up to huge doses with no ill effect” (Carey, 2002).Animal testing is painful and animals have their own rights to freedom and their own rights to live (Regan, 2004, p. 10)They are used for a wide range of tests that can include: testing new substances, causing mental deficiency, inserting electrodes into the brain, burning skin and blinding, together with other painful and obtrusive processes. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) researched and reported in 2010 that 97,123 animals were not given anesthesia for relief and so suffered massive amounts of pain (USDA, 2011). This is one of the reasons animal testing should be illegal as no creature should be doomed, with cruelty, to suffering and possibly

Therefore, many cosmetic brands were accused by the EU that they tested their products on animals before entering the market. The brand-manager of Elmiplant, Andreea Cremenescu, sustained that the Elmiplant and Bioten products were never tested on animals and in addition to that, they checked that none of the raw materials they used were tested on animals either. She also specified that “all products are tested in their laboratories with special equipment so they prove that the product is compatible with the human skin and their efficiency in humans, according to skin type or age targeted by that product” (Dragan, 2013). This shows that the brand-manager does not trust the idea of animal testing as it’s not always very accurate. They prefer testing the products with special equipment and resources much more similar to the human than the animals. This suggests that Ms Cremenescu and her team are against animal testing and sustain the idea that if the results are not reliable, and the product does more harm to the people than good, animal testing should be