Pros And Cons Of Animal Experimentation

Twenty-six million animals suffer an inconceivable amount of torture each year. While there are rules in place to alleviate some of this pain, they do not fully protect the animals being tested on. Animal experimentation has been practiced since 500 BC (ProCon.org). The laws do not prohibit pain necessary for the experiment. Animals anguish in pain year in and year out due to the unnecessary experiments executed on them. This is inhumane and cruel. The scientist performing these experiments are monsters and they need to be stopped. Animal Experimentation needs to be illegal in all states. Many laws have been put into place to minimize pain the animals endure, but they do not fully protect them. In fact, they don't protect all animals. The federal Animal Welfare Act, otherwise known as AWA, was put into effect in 1966 and amended in 1970, 1976, and 1985. “The AWA defines “animal” as any live or dead dog, cat, monkey (nonhuman primate mammal), guinea pig, hamster, rabbit, or such other warm blooded animal” (qtd in. ProCon.org). This law excludes the well being of many other animals such as birds, rats and mice bred for research, cold-blooded animals, and farm animals used for food and other purposes
“In this sense, therefore, despite our many differences, we and they are equal” (Haugen 28). Opponents of animal rights claim that humans are inherently superior to animals. This view is otherwise known as speciesism (Hurley 25). If this is the case then those same opponents are okay with racism and sexism. All three of these go hand in hand. Racism believing one’s race is superior to another’s and sexism believing one’s sex is superior to another’s. Speciesism has the same concept stating the one’s species, as in Homo sapiens, is superior to that of another’s, as in animals. As Haugen states, “To think otherwise is to be no less prejudice than racists or sexists”