In the field of medical research, there has been a rising discussion on the experimentation methods using animals. Many major discoveries have changed the medical field including antibiotics, insulin, vaccines for polio and cervical cancer; but there has been controversy on how these discoveries have been made. Many people believe that it is essential to use animals to research different drugs or chemicals to find the cause or cure to a disease, to make sure that the drug or cure is safe to use before it is tested on humans, and many people do not want to risk their lives testing an unknown drug or cure that they do not know is safe or harmless to humans. Other people, including PETA, believe that using animals for testing subjects goes against our code of ethics and is a morally wrong thing to do to the animals like torture and suffering. Animals should not be used for experimentation because the number of animals used for all of the experimentation is massive, and the budget to take care of all of the animals is expensive; even though it may seem the best option to use when it comes to finding a cause for disease or is a way not to risk human lives, the number of animals being used is decreasing, and there are alternatives being used.
Many of the animals that are used for testing range from mice, rats, and birds to sheep, dogs, primates, and cats. The majority, around eighty five to ninety percent, of the animals used for the experimentation are mainly made up of rats and mice. These animals are also purposely-bred specifically for research. According to the Humane Society, there are an estimated more than 25 million animals that are used in research, testing, and education. Another statistic shows that each year in the United States, an estimated 70 million animals are maimed, blinded, scalded, force-fed chemicals, genetically manipulated, and otherwise hurt and killed in the name of science, by private institutions, household product and cosmetics companies, government agencies, educational institutions, and scientific centers (ATF). After the tests have been run and the experiments are over, the majority of the animals used in experiments are euthanized or killed during or after the experiment. In some cases, many of the animals that are not euthanized die from as a result of the experiment for which they were used (HS). It is usually a rare case to see if an animal gets adopted or placed in a shelter after the animal is used in an experiment (HS). Many of the animals used for certain experiments go through amounts of extreme pain and discomfort. In many cases, the things done to the animals are not fair to them and are inhumane. As said in an article, “Animals are routinely cut open, poisoned and put into cages for weeks, month, or even year” (Ocean Lu Blog). Animals don’t deserve to have all of these things done to them. Animals also have no say in what gets done to them. Sometimes animals get things that don’t belong in their bodies put into them just to see how they react. They don’t have a say in whether or not they can have these things put into them. As said in the same article, “Some animals are even given diseases to see whether a new drug will work or whether it has side effects” (Ocean Lu Blog). Animal testing is wrong because animals have no say, it is not fair to them, and many say that the animals don’t have a “choice”, and to provide for the care and other needs of the animals is very expensive.
Animal testing generally costs an enormous amount of money, as the animals must be fed, housed, cared for and treated with drugs or a similar experimental substance. On top of that, animal testing may occur more than once and over the course of months, which means that additional costs are incurred. The price of animals themselves must also be factored into the equation. From 1993 to 2003, there was an increase of primate grants issued by the National Institutes of Health from 930 to 1483 (SAEN). The same