This term makes reference to procedures or any scientific experiment executed on animals. Animals are used for research into human health and diseases, and assessing the effectiveness of new medicine. They are used for other research into the industry of buying and selling. Part of this industry contains products such as cosmetics, household cleaners, food additives, and pharmaceuticals (About Animal Testing, 1).
Any procedure that occurs has the ability to harm, distress, or cause lasting pain to an animal. Some say it also violates animal rights. Tom Regan, a philosophy professor at North Carolina State University, states:
Animals have a basic moral right to respectful treatment. . . .This inherent value is not respected when animals are reduced to being mere tools in a scientific experiment (Save, 1).
Regan is expressing that animals are not given the treatment and rights they deserve when they are used for science and research. Many of the animals used are killed at the end of the procedure, while others are reused for other experiments. The animals that are most commonly used in these laboratories are mice, fish, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, farm animals, birds, cats, dogs, mini-pigs, and monkeys. A high amount of 115 million animals are estimated to be used in laboratories each year (About Animal Testing). This number has caused some to look for new …show more content…
One of those laws is the Animal Welfare Act which was signed into law in 1966. It is the only Federal law in the United States that regulates the treatment of animals in research, exhibition, transport, and by dealers. Other laws, policies, and guidelines may include more species specifications for animal care and use, but all make reference to the Animal Welfare Act as the minimum allowed standard (Animal Welfare, 1). Another group of laws are the Animal Protection Laws of the United States of America and Canada. These laws hold a detailed survey of the general animal protection for all of the state's, districts, and territories of the United States of America and Canada. It also contains full-text versions of each jurisdiction's laws (Animal Protection, 1). These laws, although helpful, are believed by some people to not be effective enough to stop animal