Timothy Lunaa
14 April 2014
English 1301
Dr. Lopez
Animal Testing
“Every day in countries around the world, animals are fighting for their lives, these are mutilated and confined to tiny cages so that we can kill them in outdated product tests for cosmetics, personal-care products, and household-cleaning products. These animals are burned, blinded, poisoned, electrocuted, strangled, and tested on all in the name of “science”’ stated by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (1). Animals are abused and mistreated on a daily basis. They are poked and prodded during tests to find out information to find out if products will be harmful to us humans. Animals should not have to go through tests that harm and hurt them, the way they are treated is inhumane. Although animals have some similarities to human’s does not mean they will have the same reactions. The test performed on these animals are not very accurate of what will happen when humans take that tested products. There are alternatives that we can use to put an end to animal testing.
Animal testing has been going since the 1920, many large corporation, but not all have banned the use of animal testing. “Some corporations still force substances into animals’ stomachs and drip chemicals into rabbits’ eyes. These tests are not required by law, and they often produce inaccurate or misleading results—even if a product has blinded an animal, it can still be marketed to you.”(PETA 1) I also states in the book “Thanking the Monkey” written by Karen Dawn When running cosmetic tests on these animals “animals are shaved and doused with products to see how much it takes to make their skin burn and blister” (Dawn 240). Think about all the products that we consumers buy and use that have been tested on animals. All of those animals have been forced to eat things that are not consumable and could be riddled with many toxic materials that are very harmful to them. The abuse that animals suffer at human hands is heartbreaking, sickening, and infuriating. It’s even more so when we realize that the everyday choices we make, such as what we eat for lunch and the kind of shampoo we buy may, be directly supporting some of this abuse. As hard as it is to think about, we can’t stop animals’ suffering if we simply look the other way and pretend it isn’t happening. Together, we can make a difference if we start buying products that don’t test on animals slowly and surely animal testing will diminish. Vegetarianism is on the rise because people have become concerned about the conditions of the wellbeing of animals from chickens and ducks being force feed to foxes and mink being furred. The main thing that people are concerned about is the animals that are the tests run on them from small animals, such as mice are kept in clear or white plastic boxes, larger animals, like dogs, cats, and primates live in wire cages. These animals are strangled and beat into submission so that these test can be performed on them. Laws were passed designed to ensure that cages are warm, clean and large enough for the animals to turn around, stand, and lie down.
The reason why corporations, and scientists still till this day use animal testing to try to find out if a drug or cosmetics are going to work on humans. Studies have also shown that animals have similarities to humans in many ways such as intelligence. In the article “Animal Intelligence” written by Marcia Clemmitt states that “Australian scientists reported one of the most remarkable feats of animal intelligence to date” (Clemmitt 2). They caught on an underwater video tape of an octopus collecting coconut shells and using them to hide underneath when it was in the wide open on the bottom of the ocean floor so it wouldn’t be spotted by a predator. Over the years “tool use” (Clemmitt Animal Intelligence 2) was believed to only be used by humans, but it has been recently proven that many animals such as “[…] mammals, like dolphins and elephants,