facebook twitter

Replacing unethical animal testing

Posted on Mar 08, 2010 in Opinion

Share|

Imagine a man that has trouble making decisions for himself and cannot always communicate clearly with people who are more intelligent. Imagine that he cannot read or write, but he loves to take long walks outside on bright days.
Now, suppose a scientist has just developed a drug that, hypothetically, will cure the common cold. The scientist, worried that this new drug may cause violent side effects, decides he or she wants to test the new medication on that hypothetical man. The man, not quite able to understand what the scientist wants him to do, enthusiastically agrees to help.

This particular scenario, though fictitious, is very frightening. What may be more frightening is the fact that countless beings — not necessarily human beings, but beings nonetheless — experience similar scenarios every day.

Many species of animals have some of the same characteristics as that imaginary man, a realistically fictional human being. Though some may feel animal experimentation is imperative to the progression of scientific knowledge and technology, animal testing is inhumane; animals should not be used as subjects for initial tests of potentially harmful substances or procedures.

It is unethical to raise animals with the intent to use them just for human gain. Animals born and raised in laboratories are wasted lives and wasted souls. It’s horrible enough that, since man first emerged on planet Earth, humans have had to murder animals in order to attain nourishment. Humans have had to slaughter animals to make clothes and continue to do so, even though plant and synthetic materials are better for this purpose.

Now we are using helpless creatures to make sure certain things are safe for human consumption or human use. Not only do we use animals to make sure medicines are safe, we use animals to test cosmetics. That is the epitome of selfishness and vanity in our increasingly selfish and vain society. Just because laboratory animals cannot clearly communicate with humans does not mean they are not aware that their lives are taken for granted by selfish humans.

Animals have both emotional and physical feelings. Animals can express a range of emotions, including joy, fear and sorrow. A dog jumps and barks with excitement when its owner returns home from work. A horse bucks and whinnies at the sight of a rattlesnake.

Animals can also feel pain, both physical and emotional. When a cat has a thorn in its paw, it will take care to step lightly on that foot. If you pierce a worm’s body with a fishhook, the worm wiggles and reels in pain. Rats, the most commonly used animal in laboratory experimentation, certainly can feel pain. Rats can feel anxiety, as evidenced by their behavior in pet stores when people try to remove them from their cages.

Rats and other animals used in laboratory experiments may not be able to fully understand the tests administered to them, but they do realize that the experiments are not normal and may be putting them in danger. People deliberately exploit and mistreat animals solely for the benefit of humans.

Some people feel the only way to test new medicines or scientific procedures are by using animals as test subjects. This may be true in present times, but with our world’s growing technology, something could be developed to replace live animals in scientific testing.

This sort of technological advancement could take several years to perfect, but it is possible. In the meantime, human skin, tissue, blood and other donated or harvested samples could be used instead of live animals in certain laboratory experiments.

A common belief is that humans are superior and dominant over animals. What rights do animals have? They cannot communicate efficiently with humans, read, write or easily make informed decisions. The problem with this line of thinking is that there are humans in the world with these same characteristics.

However, because they are still classified as humans, it would be considered immoral to take advantage of these sorts of people. Why are humans comfortable with taking advantage of animals? Scientifically, people are animals too.

The human race is a selfish race. We do not have to exploit and harass animals, beings that have the ability to feel the same emotions and sensations as we do, for human gain. Technology is advancing at an unbelievably rapid rate. We have to ability to develop ways to test products and procedures without harming animals. It will take several years for animal testing to be completely eliminated, but it can be done. It should be done.