Should Animals be used for experiments?

One of the most debated topics of our times is whether we should use animals for ex-periments or not. The interesting point that always comes up is what else is there instead of our dear friends. Without our lab creatures; our medicines, cosmetics and food would not be tested and might not be safe for our use and consumption.

The process of using animals to test safety of food and medicines was practiced for many centuries. People watched domestic animals and studied their eating habits to identify food and herbs that was safe for human consumption. This practice has been well docu-mented in Indian and Chinese medicine. Powerful and Wealthy individuals in ancient times used domestic animals to test whether their food was poisoned or not.

Animals were also sacrificed for meat and as a source of dietary supplement, a practice that exists to this day. Even now pig valves are used as a substitute for faulty human valves in heart surgeries. This process however will be discontinued as stem cell research progresses and human valves can be grown with human stems cells in the laboratory.

There are many uses for these lab animals. These creatures are genetically reengineered to display problems of human diseases like diabetes, cancer, heart disease and different types of weakness. They are also injected with different chemicals to observe their reac-tions. Animal studies are generally focused on observing chemical toxicology.

I feel that these creatures should be used as long as there is no torture inflicted upon them. They are our only help to cure human health problems as they have similar genetic structure. If tested on humans, the products could be fatal or cause great damage. The fact that other forms of testing are much more expensive and not easy; this is the only alterna-tive for pre-clinical trials.

Many companies breed animals with different symptoms to sell to pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies allowing them to test whether their products are toxic or