Pros And Cons Of Animal Testing

Animal Testing: Should Animals be used in Research?

Animal testing is the use of living animals for scientific or commercial testing. According to my first source, an article found on animalresearch.thehastingscenter.org, called Animals Used in Research in the U.S., in 2010, there were about 26 million animals being used for research. Mice, rats, fish and birds are the most common animals used; they are about 96% of the 26 million animals used. Other animals used in research that year were Guinea Pigs (213,029), Rabbits (210,172), Hamsters (145,895), Nonhuman mammals (71,317), Dogs (64,930), Pigs (53,260), Other Farm Animals (38,008), Cats (21,578), Sheep (13,271), Marine Mammals (126), and all other covered species warm-blooded animals,
excluding birds, not otherwise listed (303,107). That is in total 26,134,693 animals (Animals Used in Research in the U.S. 2). My first source is a peer reviewed journal article called “Historical Perspective on the use of Animal Bioassays to Predict Carcinogenicity: Evolution in Design and Recognition of Utility” by L.A. Beyer, B.D. Beck, and T.A. Lewandowski. This was published in 2011. I chose this peer reviewed article to use in my research, because there are a great deal of facts, and information in this article. This article is very informative, and it has great facts in it. For example, there were reports of animal experiments designed to investigate the orientation of tumors by chemical agents as early as 1915 (Beyer, Beck, and Lewandowski. 322). In the next few decades, animal studies were also conducted to explore the health effects of cancer-causing agents. After the observations were published, it was clear that the animal experiments were not commonly used for assessing the potential health effects of chemicals, but rather for studying the disease itself. Safety evaluations were sometimes conducted, frequently with lethality as the outcome. The idea of using animal testing to screen for the potential to cause chronic effects such as cancer was not discussed. Testing for foods and drugs became a higher priority in 1937, because of the well-known poisoning episode. This event caused 105 deaths; many of these individuals were children. This event brought to light the need to verify the safety of chemicals in foods and drugs prior to being sold to the public. The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, which had previously diminished for several years in Congress, was quickly passed due to public pressure. Beginning in 1943, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists published a series of journal articles and reports discussing the use of long term tests for safety assessment of food and drugs. Because of the presence of potential toxicants in drugs, and especially in foods, could result in potentially wide spread exposures with effects that would be challenging to observe directly. FDA scientists relied on animal studies to evaluate new food and drug ingredients. This information is important and dependable in relation to my topic, because it gave me the history of the topic. It gave me information that I hadn’t known beforehand (Beyer, Beck, Lewandowski. 322). My second source is an article I found on ProCon.org, called “Animal Testing Pros and Cons.” This was published in 2011.
I chose this article to use in my research, because it is also very informative, and has great facts in it. For example, 95% of the animals used in experiments are not protested by the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA). This excludes birds, rats, and mice bred by research, and cold-blooded animals such as reptiles and most fish. A 2011 poll of nearly 1,000 Biochemical scientists conducted by the science journal Nature found that more than 90% “agreed that the use of animals in research is essential.” Chimpanzees share 99% of their DNA with humans, and mice are 98% genetically similar to humans. The United States and Gabon are the only two countries that allow experiments on chimpanzees. In 2010, Minnesota used more cats than any other states (2,703), New Jersey used the most dogs (6,077), and Massachusetts used the most primates (7,458) (Did You Know. 4). Some Pros of animal testing are that animal testing has contributed to many life-saving cures and treatments. The California Biomedical Research Association says that almost every medical breakthrough in the last 100 years has resulted directly from research using animals. Experiments where dogs had their pancreases removed was the cause of the discovery of insulin, which is critical to saving the lives of diabetics. The polio vaccine, tested on animals, reduced the global occurrence of the disease from
350,000 cases in 1988 to 223 cases in 2012. Animal testing has also contributed to major advances in understanding and treating conditions like breast cancer, brain injury, childhood leukemia, cystic fibrosis, malaria, multiple sclerosis, tuberculosis, and so many others. It was also instrumental in the development of pacemakers, cardiac valve substitutes, and anesthetics (PRO Animal Testing. 1).
Some Cons of animal testing are that animal testing is cruel and inhumane.
According to Humane Society International, animals used in experiments are commonly subjected to forced feeding, forced inhalation, food and water deprivation, extended periods of physical restraint, the infliction of burns and other wounds to study the healing process, the infliction of pain to study its effects and remedies, and "killing by carbon dioxide asphyxiation, neck-breaking, decapitation, or other means (CON Animal Testing. 1).” The Draize eye test is used by cosmetics companies to evaluate irritation caused by shampoos and other products. This involves rabbits being incapacitated in stocks with their eyelids held open by clips, sometimes for multiple days, so they cannot blink away the products being tested. The commonly used LD50 (lethal dose 50) test involves finding out which dose of a chemical will kill 50% of the animals being used in the experiment. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported in 2010 that 97,123 animals suffered pain during experiments while being given no anesthesia for relief, including 1,395 primates, 5,996 rabbits, 33,652 guinea pigs, and 48,015 hamsters (CON Animal Testing. 1). This information is important and dependable in relation to my topic, because it’s good to know both sides of this topic. It allowed me to see both sides of the
topic. Animal testing has been around for a long time, and there are many different views on this topic. There are also so many different aspects of animal testing, and there are so many different views on it. That is why animal testing is an extremely hard topic to talk about.