Sophomore year

Animal Testing: The Truth

Make-up. Vaccines. Medical techniques. All of these things need to be tested, but what do scientists use to test these “prototypes”? Animals. Animal experimentation should be brought into the light and be revealed for the torture it is.  Animal testing is unnecessary and expensive, and unethical.  What many people might not know is that animal testing is unnecessary and pricey.

            Did you know most medications tested on animals don’t even make it to the public? Animals are being abused and killed in labs everywhere and all their work was for nothing. Some people vouch for testing saying it is necessary and it helps make medical advances. If I were the scientist in charge of all this, I would stop to think about what I am doing and what is really going on during my experiments and maybe switch to a better way of creating and testing products. Yes, there are other ways to test besides using animals. Recent studies have shown that animal testing can be dangerously misleading to the public. However, some companies, for example tobacco companies, have used their misleading information to make their products look good. People now know what the result of that was. Also, most experiments conducted are on animals that are furthest from humans, such as rats, mice, and other rodents and animal testing contributes very little to the world of science. Not only is animal experimentation unnecessary, it is expensive too. With all the costs that add up for food, housing, and equipment, animal testing become very pricey. The largest point, though, that I would like to bring to mind is how unethical animal experimentation is.

            In the dictionary, being ethical is defined as being honest, honorable, and virtuous. So if someone were unethical they would be immoral and dishonorable. This is exactly the definition of animal testing. An act that is done with out moral or honor. Again, people protest saying that the testing helps find cures to diseases and create vaccines. However, up to 115 million animals are slain in the US each year for this good. Animals have to endure being blinded, mutated, poisoned, and have people breaking their body parts, all for the sake of medicine and science. Some studies have found that some of the testing that is conducted is for college studies and to fuel human curiosity. In labs, animals are separated from their groups and families and are put under tremendous stress from not being in their natural environment. Is this proof enough for you, the future decision makers? 

President Kennedy once said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what can you do for your country.” This made me wonder. We are asking so much of these innocent creatures and giving them nothing in return. So I challenge all of you to think. What can you do for the animals? I’ll tell you how, don’t use products tested on animals such as certain make-ups and other things. Support groups trying to stop the monster people called “science”. Isn’t science supposed to keep things alive, not batter and wipe out helpless animals? Isn’t medicine supposed to cure and comfort the sick and hurt, and not hurt in return? Is testing on animals really justifiable? I think not.

So, considering all that has been revealed to you, what is your view? Are you ready to take action? Now that you’ve been showed the facts that animal testing is expensive and avoidable and how it calls for a lack in ethics, are you ready to ask the most important question for these helpless lives? Are you ready to ask what you can do for the animals, because you can make a difference?  So make your choice; do you agree with the immoral ways of testing or will you join the fight to stop the death and destruction?