Animal Testing

Right now, millions of mice, rats, rabbits, monkeys, cats, dogs, and other animals are locked inside cold, empty cages in laboratories across the world. They suffer in pain, ache with loneliness, and wish to roam free and use their minds. However, all they can do is sit and wait in fear of the next procedure that will be performed on them. More than 100 million animals every year suffer and die in cruel chemical, drug, food and cosmetic tests, biology lessons, and curiosity-driven experiments. “The basis of all animal rights should be the Golden Rule: we should treat them as we would wish them to treat us, were any other species in our dominant position.” –Christine Stevens Animal testing is the use of non-human animals in research, for purposes of determining the safety of substances such as food or drugs. Animal testing is cruel and inhumane. According to Humane Society International, animals used in experiments are subjected to force feeding, forced inhalation, food and water deprivation, the infliction of pain to study its effects, and “killing by carbon dioxide asphyxiation, neck-breaking, decapitation, or other means.” The Draize eye test, used by cosmetic companies to assess tenderness caused by shampoos and other products, involves rabbits being confined in stocks with their eyelids held open by clips, sometimes for multiple days, so they cannot blink away the products being tested. Who would want to live in such harsh conditions that these animals endure daily? Some may say that animal testing has contributed to life-saving cures and treatments. For example, experiments in which dogs had their pancreases removed led to the discovery of insulin, saving the lives of diabetics. However, animal testing is still very cruel and inhumane. An estimated 26 million animals are used every year in the United States in extremely harsh conditions. They are subjected to force feeding, the infliction of pain, and many other things. Animals suffer just like humans do,