Should animals be used for cosmetic and medical testing?

Should animals be used for cosmetic and medical testing?

In our daily lives we use many products to help us go through the day. Although, we don’t always think about where these products come from and how they were produced. Most products sold in stores, effective or not, have been tested on animals. From medicine to shampoo and makeup, the lives of many animals have been taken away. It’s not acceptable for animals to be used for cosmetic or medical testing. It’s very cruel, it’s wasteful and it’s unreliable.

Many people are against animal cruelty but they don’t say anything when it comes to the cruelty done to animals in scientific labs. Animals are being cut open, shot with needles and covered in products. This is such terrible cruelty towards animals because they can feel too. Animals and humans share similar mechanisms of pain detection, have similar areas of the brain involved in processing pain and show similar pain behaviours. They feel it when they’re cut or shot with needles and it’s cruel to make animals go through that pain. Also, when we keep animals in cages for a long amount of time, it affects them mentally. It’s barbarous to keep them locked up and make them go crazy. For example, Tina Evangelista-Eppenstein, former animal shelter worker, saw many dogs go cage-crazy. Animals locked up for months start to act out in their cage. One black dog, in particular, comes to her mind. She would watch him as he bounced from one wall to the other in a circular motion all day. He bloodied himself in the process. She tried to walk him and he continually walked in circles around her and he couldn’t stop. Humans wouldn’t allow this to be done to each other. It’s considered as human abuse to test products on them without their approval. Yet, when it’s done to animals it’s okay. This is a cruel gesture to animals because they can’t speak to say no. They’re being forced to allow scientists do deadly things to them. However, cruelty isn’t the only reason animals shouldn’t be used for medical or cosmetic testing.

It takes a lot of money and animals to test cosmetics and medicine on animals. Animal testing is very wasteful. Firstly, large amount animals are being used for the testing of products. While most of these products don’t become effective on the first try, the lives of many animals have already been taken away. It’s has been estimated that 100 million animals are being used worldwide, which is about 274,000 per day or 3 every second. This estimate is only for vertebrates. Secondly, many animals over breed, like rats and mice. Some laboratories will maintain their own breeding colonies of different animals. However, animal breeding is unpredictable; therefore scientists kill the rest of animals from over breeds. Statistics obtained from a London Medical School in 1994 showed that over a long period of time 2.2 mice and rats were killed as excess for every one that was used in experiments. Lastly, the government and many companies invest a lot of money on animal testing projects. They have to buy the animals, the chemical products they will be using and a place for the animals to stay in. They pay around 1.4 billion dollars a year just to do research. There are people in the world dying of starvation and the money used for animal testing can be given to help these people. The death of animals and the amount of money spent isn’t worth experimenting on animals to give us medicine and cosmetics.

Even though there are many products that have been tested on animals are being sold in stores around the world, these products aren’t always efficient. The reason why is because animal testing is unreliable. First of all, animals don’t have the same bodies or structures of a human. Therefore it’s unreliable to test on an animal for human needs. Humans have different bone structures and different physical appearances while some animals have fur and/or wings. Second of all, some animals could be over used and have misleading results. For example, a scientist could’ve given a shot (test 1) to a mouse and another scientist could’ve given a different shot (test 2) to the same mouse and not acknowledge that the mouse has already been used. The product could’ve been success full on the animal because of test 2 but test 1 could be a deadly product for humans. Adverse drug reactions are responsible for 2.2 million hospitalizations and 106,000 deaths annually. Last of all, animal testing is unreliable because it kills many people from its negative effects. For example, there was a drug incident back in the 1960s when scientists had created thalidomide to help stop morning sickness for pregnant women. This product caused 10,000 birth defects and thousands of fatal deaths worldwide. This proves why animal testing is unreliable.

In conclusion, animals shouldn’t be used to test cosmetics and medicine. It’s cruel, it’s a big waste and it can’t be relied on. Animals should be treated the same as humans are treated because they have feelings too and they deserve to live life free. It’s important to realise that everything and everyone has a reason to live so everyone should live it.

Works Cited

1. Evangelista-Eppenstein, Tina. "A Closer Look At Animal Welfare Issues." Web log post. A Closer Look At Animal Welfare Issues. N.p., 20 May 2012. Web. 06 Mar. 2013. <http://blogcenter.readingeagle.com/a-closer-look-at-animal-welfare-issues/2012/05/20/what-constitutes-animal-cruelty/>. (Tina Evangelista-Eppenstien shares her experience on cage-crazy animals)

2. Greek, Dr Ray. "Money in Animal-Based Research." Web log post. OpposingViews.com. N.p., 29 Apr. 2010. Web. 06 Mar. 2013. <http://www.opposingviews.com/i/money-in-animal-based-research>. (The amount of money paid annually for research; 1.4 billion dollars)

3. "How Many Animals Are Used?" Web log post. UPDATED: How Many Animals Are Used? Ed. Vivisection Information Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2013. <http://www.vivisectioninformation.com/index.php?p=1_76_updated-how-many-animals-are-used>. (Estimation of how many animals are used for animal testing worldwide) (Statistics on how many animals were killed from over breeding)

4. Minniti, Kathryn. "Testing on Animals Is Unreliable and Unethical." Web log post. Northern Star Online. N.p., 6 Apr. 2011. Web. 07 Mar. 2013. <http://northernstar.info/opinion/columnists/article_bd3e9a82-60ae-11e0-938e-001a4bcf6878.html>. (Drugs that are responsible for an amount of people’s injuries and deaths) (Example of unreliable drug testing on animals; pregnancy problems)

5. Sneddon, Lynne U. "Can Animals Feel Pain?" Web log post. Can Animals Feel Pain? Wellcome Trust, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2013. <http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/pain/microsite/culture2.html>. (Animals feel the same pain as humans because of similar mechanisms of pain detection)

Cited: 1. Evangelista-Eppenstein, Tina. "A Closer Look At Animal Welfare Issues." Web log post. A Closer Look At Animal Welfare Issues. N.p., 20 May 2012. Web. 06 Mar. 2013. &lt;http://blogcenter.readingeagle.com/a-closer-look-at-animal-welfare-issues/2012/05/20/what-constitutes-animal-cruelty/&gt;. (Tina Evangelista-Eppenstien shares her experience on cage-crazy animals) 2. Greek, Dr Ray. "Money in Animal-Based Research." Web log post. OpposingViews.com. N.p., 29 Apr. 2010. Web. 06 Mar. 2013. &lt;http://www.opposingviews.com/i/money-in-animal-based-research&gt;. (The amount of money paid annually for research; 1.4 billion dollars) 3. "How Many Animals Are Used?" Web log post. UPDATED: How Many Animals Are Used? Ed. Vivisection Information Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2013. &lt;http://www.vivisectioninformation.com/index.php?p=1_76_updated-how-many-animals-are-used&gt;. (Estimation of how many animals are used for animal testing worldwide) (Statistics on how many animals were killed from over breeding) 4. Minniti, Kathryn. "Testing on Animals Is Unreliable and Unethical." Web log post. Northern Star Online. N.p., 6 Apr. 2011. Web. 07 Mar. 2013. &lt;http://northernstar.info/opinion/columnists/article_bd3e9a82-60ae-11e0-938e-001a4bcf6878.html&gt;. (Drugs that are responsible for an amount of people’s injuries and deaths) (Example of unreliable drug testing on animals; pregnancy problems) 5. Sneddon, Lynne U. "Can Animals Feel Pain?" Web log post. Can Animals Feel Pain? Wellcome Trust, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2013. &lt;http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/pain/microsite/culture2.html&gt;. (Animals feel the same pain as humans because of similar mechanisms of pain detection)