Why We Should Legalize Animal Testing

“The time will come when men such as will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men (Evans 4).” In this quote, Leonardo da Vinci show that it has been centuries since his time and yet we still haven’t changed the harsh and cruel acts that people do to animals. It’s saddening how, man still hasn’t changed their ways and tried to adopt a better method to deal with such a controversial and attention seeking topic. We have given rights to many people since then and now would be a great time for us to give animals their rights too. Testing on animals for medical or cosmetic research should be illegal because it violates animal rights, it is a form of animal abuse, and it is not necessary for research. The use of animals
for testing is not only cruel, but violates their rights as beings. The United States Declaration of independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness (Evans 1).” Everyday people go about their daily lives not even giving a thought about how lucky they are to have such God given rights not noticing that other beings, animals, on this earth get their “unalienable” rights taken away daily. Although they are not human we all were put on the earth in similar ways so we should let animals have their right not to be tested on and killed maliciously by injections or other testing methods. If in the United States Declaration of Independence says we all have “unalienable rights endowed with by our creator” then these rights should be distributed to all, not just certain species or races. Some would think that if we gave animals rights, wouldn’t that mean that we would have to give all living organisms rights? The case of what gets rights and what doesn’t is a touchy subject but animals are known to have evident feelings while organisms like plants, bacteria, and fungi are known to not have feelings. If they don’t have feelings/emotions then they do not emotionally feel the pain and do not need the right to protect them like animals do.
Not only does testing on animals violate their rights, but it also can be considered a form of animal abuse.
Statistics show that in the United States, this year, tens of millions of animals are likely to be killed and ten billion more will be raised in factories so packed that they aren’t even able to turn around let alone move or walk (Wise 2). The legal definition of animal abuse is any act of violence or neglect that inflicts suffering or death on an animal (Animal Cruelty 1). Testing on animals does, more often than not, inflict pain/suffering on the animals. Tens of millions of animals are considered likely to be killed yet we still continue to test on the poor helpless souls for our own benefit. There are strict regulations on animal testing, but there is no way of knowing if every lab in the country in following government law or not. It is too risky to leave helpless lives in the hands of thousands of unwatched scientist and trust them not to break rules. There are too many labs to watch and make sure no scientist slips over the line of animal abuse or not animal abuse. If testing was just made illegal, then the government wouldn’t have to worry about if people are meeting the standards and if whatever mistake they happen to make was reasonable or not. It would just be considered abuse and people would continue on with other
cases.
Some say that experimentation on animals is necessary for human research, but in fact, more than half or the medications released to the public were taken off or relabeled due to dangerous side effects not found in the research when tested on animals (Greek 1).
This shows that even though animals are beings like us, they still don’t have the same anatomy, which alters their test results from that of the results a human subject would receive. What is the point of testing on animals if half of the time the results given won’t even be correct for use on humans. It is just a hit or miss way of finding information for humans that may or may not react the same way as an animal subject. Some examples of modern medical mistakes taken from animal testing are: the links between cancer and smoking, the links between cholesterol and heart disease, and the links between high blood pressure to strokes (Greek 1). The use of testing on animals does not make much sense due to the fact that the results of the test may say its ok and it is not and some say the result is bad, but later we find out it was fine. Instead of taking the chance and wasting the time and money to test on animals, just make animal testing illegal and use other means of testing to discover the results of the chemical, medicine, or cosmetic being tested. Don’t make the helpless creatures suffer, let alone it be for no reason. It is completely unreasonable and
unethical. With all the information and facts upfront it seems unclear as to why animals are still being used as subjects for testing in medical and/or cosmetic research. Not only are we wasting time and money, but we are also harming other lives in the process. Humans are doing harmful and depressing acts towards animals under the impression that since animals do not have the same anatomy as us, that we are totally different and should not be given the same rights. The use of testing on animals should be made illegal because it violates animal rights, it can be considered a form of animal abuse, and it has been shown to be unnecessary for medical and/or cosmetic research.