animal testing

Amanda Martinez
Argumentative Essay
Animal Testing
Medical research involving animals has dramatically improved the health of the human race. Without animal testing, cures for rabies and anthrax would not exist and people with diabetes would suffer or die from their disease. Despite these benefits, some people are against animals being used to test medical techniques and drugs. This essay will explain the advantages and explanations of animal testing.
Animal testing allows scientists to test and create new drugs. Animals such as monkeys or rabbits have similar physical systems to humans. This allows scientists to test the effects of certain drugs. If a drug produces unfortunate effects in animals, it is more than likely unsuitable for use. If animal testing wasn’t allowed, then in order to prove the efficiency of drugs and medicines human testing would have to take place. Also, many believe that humans have been using animals to satisfy their needs like eating meat or using the animals for various other necessary purposes than why not animal testing? Also, humans use animals for clothes too. Boots, coats, wool sweaters are all made from animal skin and fur, so why is animal testing a problem if it’s not necessarily one hundred percent deadly?
In addition, animal testing is cheap. There is a large supply of animals for medical research. Animals are easily bred and maintained safely in controlled labs. Rats and mice breed very quickly, meaning that the supply can be restocked quickly. The costs of testing on humans would be extremely high. More research can be done and at less expense than testing with humans, who may not only be in danger but would probably need to be highly compensated. Testing humans would be even more controversial than testing on animals because you would have to find a person who is willing to be tested on. If scientists did not use animals for animal testing, they would have to use humans for cosmetic, drug and chemical testing. In testing cosmetics, for example, if there are any harmful ingredients it well show the effects on the animal. Therefore, humans are at less risk for getting the possible side effects like rashes, burning, and swelling. An example of why animal testing is cheaper than testing on humans is that mice, rats and other lab animals are inexpensive (one mouse costs about $2) and easy to care for. Also, if you tried to test a cure for cancer it would be a lot harder to find a human test subject than testing on a mouse or monkey.
Furthermore, many people argue that animal testing is cruel. In some cases, this is true. However, it would be much crueler to test new drugs on people or children, or to let people die because there was not enough information about a certain drug that is in fact saving people’s lives. If animal testing is eliminated, that many of the medications and procedures that we currently use today wouldn't exist and the development of future treatments would be extremely limited. However, animals themselves benefit from the results of animal testing. If vaccines were not tested on animals, millions of animals would have died from rabies, distemper, leukemia, hepatitis virus, tetanus, anthrax, and more. Another example is the heartworm medication that was devised from research on animals has assisted many dogs. So animals too have benefited from their own testing. Additionally, legislation in most countries sets standards for animal treatment. Many countries have laws protecting the welfare of animals, and of these, many have specific laws governing the treatment of animals involved in scientific procedures. This legislation is in place to ensure that the cost of any scientific experiments, in terms of animal suffering, is balanced by the potential benefit of the research.
Given these points, animal testing is absolutely necessary. They test on animals because it would be ethically, morally, medically and legally indefensible to give a human being a substance which had never before been given to a living organism. Animal testing has been very beneficial to humans and especially those suffering from diseases and infections. The more research that can be done in the shorter amount of time means that new drugs to treat more diseases can be produced more rapidly, once again potentially saving lives.