Animal testing has become all too common; from household products to cosmetics 50 to 100 million animals are killed each year in these experiments. These animals have been burnt, blinded, crushed, sliced, electrocuted, tortured, and even drugged for scientific research. What makes humans have the right to exploit innocent animals and often expose them to harm? It is morally wrong to put these animals through such pain. Instead of testing on animals scientists should find alternative ways to do their research. Animal testing is absurd and should stop. Animals are independent and do not exist to serve humans. What gives us humans the right to exploit them this way? Animals have rights as do you and I. Just like
humans they are not just in the world, but they are also aware of it. Those who oppose animal rights might say that animals cannot possible possess rights because they do not have any moral judgment. But, animals deserve to live their lives free from pain and exploitation. Jeremy Bentham, the founder of the utilitarian school of moral philosophy, once stated, “The question is not ‘Can they reason?’ or ‘Can they talk?’ but ‘Can they suffer?” Like Professor Charles R. Magel, an animal rights activist, once said, “Ask the experimenters why they experiment on animals, and the answer is: 'Because the animals are like us.' Ask the experimenters why it is morally OK to experiment on animals, and the answer is: 'Because the animals are not like us.' Animal experimentation rests on a logical contradiction." Animal testing is simply immoral. Countless animals are captured and caged to await their untimely death due to these scientific experiments. When they finally get called to the lab they are often exposed to drugs, chemicals, and other forms of torture. What animals are going through is very similar to what the Jews went through during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was genocide of six million Jews who were put into concentration camps. These people were burned, others dismembered, and tortured beyond recognition, sound familiar? Six billion chickens will die this year alone in a slaughter house.