Allison Beswick
Ms.Avallone
AP Language and composition
Period 2A

Animal Rights and Experimentation

I. Introduction:

A. Professor Charles R. Magel once stated "Ask the experimenters why they Experiment on animals, and the answer Is: 'Because the animals are like us.' Ask the experimenters why it is morally OK to experiment on animals, and the answer is: 'Because the animals are not like us.' Animal experimentation rests on logical contradiction."
1. An estimated 26 million animals are used every year in the united
States for scientific and commercial testing.
2. Animals are used to develop medical treatments, and to determine the Safety of products destined for human use B. Experimentation on animals is cruel and inhumane.
1. Alternative methods are now available to reduce or even replace the use of animal testing. Also, Animals are so different from humans that research on animals often yields irrelevant results.

2. Some may say that the use of animals in both the scientific and
Medical fields are completely necessary for the research and creation of products. I, however, believe that it is speciesm to experiment on animals while we refrain from experimenting on humans. Also, if there are proven alternative methods, why are they not being put to use?

II. Convince your audience that this is a problem and your position or solution is the right one

A. In most cases, researchers attempt to minimize the pain and suffering experienced by animals during testing, but distress is inherent to animal-based research. Animals are held in isolated cages, forced to endure disease and injury, and typically euthanized at the end of each study.
B. Those who support animal experimentation say that it is justifiable because it benefits humans and it expands our research and understanding of the medical and scientific worlds. But, is that always true?
1. 94% of drugs that pass animal tests fail in human clinical trials. For example, 85 HIV vaccines failed in humans after working well in non-human primates.
2. Also, a 2013 study published in the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America found that nearly 150 clinical trials of treatments to reduce inflammation in critically ill patients have ALL failed, despite being successful in animal tests.

C. Diseases that are artificially created in a laboratory are never identical to those that occur naturally in human beings. And because animal species differ from one another in many ways, it is even more unlikely that animal experimentations will yield results that will be successfully interpreted and applied to humans.
1. So why are these experiments still being conducted? Why are innocent animals still being forced to endure the torment that is induced on them in laboratories? Before their deaths, some are forced to inhale toxic fumes, others are immobilized in restraining devices, and others have their skin burned off or their spinal cords crushed.
2. As of 2010, every one of nearly 200 preventive and therapeutic vaccine trials has failed to demonstrate benefit to humans.
3. According to former National Cancer Institute Director, Dr. Richard Klausner, “We have cured mice of cancer for decades, and it simply didn’t work in humans”

D. Those who support animal experimentation argue that regulations such as the Animal Welfare act protect laboratory animals from painful and inhumane procedures.
1. But, the most commonly used species in laboratory experiments, such as mice, rats, birds, and reptiles are exempted from even the minimal protections of the AWA.
2. Laboratories that use only these species are not even required by law to provide animals with pain relief or