Animal Testing Satire

Friends don’t chain up friends!
Animal rights are rights that affect all of us on a daily basis whether we realize it or not. From protecting the animals themselves from inhumane testing and living situations to climate change, the rights of animals are highly debated and are very controversial. People who are passionate about animal rights are typically vegan meaning that they do not consume and typically avoid products made by or with animal products of all sorts. This lifestyle choice is becoming more popular thus making it much easier to abide by. On the other hand, there are many people who still live by the much more primitive means of hunting. Some of these people believe humans are the top of the food chain and that humans have natural
domination over the animal world. For some people, this means the unnecessary killing of animals for show or just for fun. These are the two extremes of people and their passion or lack-thereof for animal rights. Most people, myself included, fall into the vast spectrum of carnists and herbivorists. I, personally, am reluctantly still a carnist despite my urge to become herbivorous and vegetarian. I am working towards becoming a vegetarian, however, like all lifestyle changes; it is not the easiest change to make. It is a gradual change that I am trying to make in my life to better my life, animal’s lives, and the climate. Animal rights are rights that need to be protected by humans because the animals themselves are defenseless and need protection by and from humans.

ANIMAL TESTING
Recently more light has been shed on animal testing and the ethics behind it.
Many animals are subject to inhumane conditions and procedures in the “name of science”. Animals are used for testing in everything from that trendy matte red lipstick from Covergirl Cosmetics to medical lab testing used to correctly identify the antibody signaling an immune response in lab rats. Animal testing has a vast range of uses with little to no rules identifying the treatment the animal subject to testing is subjected to. Many different brands, especially cosmetic brands, have cruelty-free stickers on their products to let the customer know the product was produced without harm to animals. The United States of America has not limited the use of animal testing yet, however, the European Union has limited animal testing and banned the use of testing on animals on cosmetics and cosmetic ingredients (European
Commission).
Medical testing is crucial to the eradication of some diseases and advances in medical technology. Primates were used to create the polio vaccine and HIV treatments at the Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC) in the Netherlands (Vice). The BPRC is known for its ethical means of animal testing (this is an oxymoron of sorts...) on monkeys specifically Macaques. The BPRC breeds the monkeys in habitats similar to ones found in nature, however, if selected for experimentation, they are separated from the group and housed alone and in much smaller metal environments. According to Vice, “In order to meet US and EU regulations treatments must be successfully tested on two species of animals in order to move to clinical trials of humans.” The BPRC is working to create alternative means of testing by using cell samples and using those samples to see what would happen in animals and humans eventually avoiding the use of animals for testing. Many of these experiments put the animals in excruciating pain and sickness because they are often infected with the same diseases that kill humans.
My standpoint falls nearly directly in the center of the two more extreme viewpoints on animal testing. One side is completely for animal testing because it has lead to many medical discoveries that are irreplaceable within the medical community because of their importance. Every drug has been thoroughly tested on animals to make sure it is safe for human use and consumption. Also, an animal that is subjected to experimentation may affect other areas of the body that would not be possible to recognize using in vitro methods of lab testing. On the other side of the spectrum, some completely divorce themselves from the idea that animal testing is still necessary given the technological advances within the medical community. Also, 9 out of 10 times a clinical trial will fail that had passed animal testing making the animal experimentation rather useless given that the human body often functions very differently than an animals. Many of these experiments inflict pain on animals that are unable to consent to the pain and suffering whereas a human would have the option to opt-in to experimentation that could cause such. I believe it is better to test on animals first, only for medical research purposes, because I believe it would be better to do testing on animals then humans. It is the lesser of two evils. However, I completely disagree with unnecessary testing on animals for cosmetics and all non-medical purposes.
ANIMAL AGRICULTURE
Climate change and animal rights are seemingly unrelated, however, they actually go hand in hand because animal agriculture is actually the number one cause of climate change.
Farming specifically for the production of meat and animal byproducts uses the most water and creates the most waste than any other major cause of climate change. According to Keegan Kuhn, “The meat and dairy industry uses approximately one third of the Earths fresh water and accounts for 55% of the United States water use.” (“Cowspiracy”). Animal agriculture is the unseen and unheard killer of our planet because in order to stop this atrocity one must make the lifestyle to go vegan and avoid animal products altogether. Eleanor Blau, of Auckland, New Zealand, did a comprehensive study off all vegan and vegetarian people in New Zealand and she discovered that many were vegan for the rights and treatment of animals and for its effects on our planet. According to Blau, “Some participants boycotted all products (including pet food, diapers, razors, batteries, shampoos etc.) manufactured by companies known to engage in animal testing and agriculture, even if the product itself was not directly related to animal use. Such participants preferred to support local animal-friendly businesses or companies that opposed animal testing.” (Balu
38). Animals that are raised for agricultural purposes can be subjected to terrible conditions and lives. In fact, “free range” can mean the animal was caged its entire life but it was let to roam free for one day before being killed (“Cowspiracy”). This is misleading because many purchasing “free range” meat products are lead to believe the animal was raised ethically then slaughtered. Many of these factory farms are also keeping the animals in horrible conditions. Like many of the testing conditions, these animals are held in spaces so small that they cannot move freely, let alone turn around. It is also common for them to be feed antibiotics to help them grow faster or produce more meat while living in unsanitary conditions that are typically not habitable. Many chickens are kept producing such high levels of eggs that is unhealthy for their bodies and many cows are kept in filthy pens are depicted in “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret”. These animals are often taken to slaughterhouses after their bodies have decayed from over-production or they have reached the desired weight and muscle ratio. Once at the slaughterhouse, they are often inflicted with pain while conscious and often their necks are sliced open while still alive causing a painful death for that animal. The treatment of animals in these factory farms and slaughterhouses needs to be stopped for the welfare of the animals so they can live in ethical and humane conditions. Many people have seen the conditions these animals are subjected too, however, it is often too graphic thus they turn a blind-eye to these conditions right in our own communities.
Animal agriculture is catastrophic for our environment and is the largest cause of greenhouse gases on Earth. “Livestock are responsible for 65% of nitrous oxide emissions. This green house gas is 296 times for destructive than carbon dioxide.” according the Keegan Kahn from “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret”. Not only is the animal agriculture industry using more water and emitting more greenhouse gases than any other industries but they are also cutting down rainforests at approximately one to two acres per second to make more room for animal agriculture farming. Animal agriculture is literally ruining our earth before our eyes but little is being done to change it because they only ethical option is going vegan. It is not the easiest change to make but going vegan will save huge amounts of water and reduce ones carbon footprint in half. Many people are unaware of the effects of factory farming and animal culture on our Earth because the issue is not heavily pushed by environmental agencies because going vegan is a harder lifestyle choice than taking shorter showers and recycling. However, this issue needs to be pushed more heavily and vegan options should be made more readily available to help save our planet and for the welfare of the animals.
Animal rights are rights that need to be protected by humans because the animals themselves are defenseless and need protection by and from humans. Animals cannot be their own advocates so we have to be the advocates for them and make sure they are not subjected to inhumane conditions and treatments. We need to help regulate animal testing so it is only used when necessary and monitor the treatment of the animals being used as test subjects. Factory farming needs to be stopped and livestock should be raised freely and ethically. Ideally, factory farming would no longer be necessary if everybody went vegetarian or vegan, which would drastically change the lives of many animals and our planet.