Imagine watching scientists insert various needles into you while you are sitting there, wide awake, in excruciating pain, knowing very well that there is nothing you can possibly do to remove yourself from this situation. Well guess what? That is exactly what animals such as mice, rats, hamsters and monkeys frequently go through. Therefore, I strongly believe that animal testing should be banned. This is due to the fact that animal testing is extremely cruel and unethical, that animals are unreliable to test on because animals are very different to humans and because there are several other alternatives to animal testing.
I strongly believe that animal testing should be banned due how extremely cruel and unethical it is. These experiments cause not only physical harm to the animals, but also psychological harm and long-term damage to them. Research shows these animals may experience physical harm such as getting burned, starved, drowned, electrocuted and poisoned. While, psychological harm they may experience is developing various fears and becoming permanently distressed. This is supported by an experiment that took place in 1958, which is known as Harlow’s Monkey Experiment. The experiment consisted of a scientist named Harry Harlow, who wanted to see why the bond between mothers and their babies is so strong. He conducted this experiment using various baby monkeys and placing them in a nursery with two ‘surrogates’. One surrogate was made out of heavy wire mesh while the other was made out of wood and was covered in a cloth. The surrogate made out of wood covered in a cloth was the baby monkey’s preferred surrogate as it provided it with comfort. However, this experiment was extremely unethical as Harlow separated the baby monkey from its mother within six hours of being born causing the baby monkey to feel permanently distressed. Therefore, it is crucial that there is an immediate ban to animal testing due to how cruel and unethical it is.
In my opinion, all Federal Governments need to ban animal testing due to how unreliable it is. This is because there are significant differences between animals and humans and therefore, it is unreliable to assume that if a certain medication works effectively on an animal, that it will automatically work effectively on a human. According to Dr. Richard Klausner, former director of the US National Cancer Institute, “The history of cancer research has been the history of curing cancer in the mouse. We have cured mice of cancer for decades and it simply did not work in human beings.” Due to this, further research was conducted to determine why mice could be cured from cancer and why humans could not. It was discovered “[using] 100 mouse cell types, that only 50% of the DNA responsible for regulating genes in mice, could be matched with human DNA.” While, concerning the use of testing on monkeys, it was discovered that monkeys and humans have a very different brain structure and function. Additionally, the data collected from monkeys used in neuroscience research, is evidently deceptive and has little relevance to humans. This therefore supports the fact that all Federal Governments need to ban animal testing due to how unreliable it is.
I personally believe it is crucial that there is an immediate ban to animal testing, as there are many other alternatives available, rather than using animals as a test subject. Therefore, these alternative methods can replace the need for animals. An example of an alternative method is the use of vitro testing. Vitro testing consists of a scientist studying cells in a petri dish, which will produce more accurate and relevant results in comparison to animal testing, as human cells are used for this certain method. Another alternative method that can replace animal testing, is the use of artificial human skin. Scientists can use products such as ThinCert and EpiDerm, which are made from the sheets of human skin cells, to produce more accurate results, rather than inserting poisonous chemicals into animal skin. Therefore, I strongly believe that animal testing should be banned as there are many other alternative methods available, rather than using animals as test subjects.
Conclusion
Considering these points made, it is evident, that I strongly believe there should be an immediate ban to animal testing. This is because, animal testing is extremely unethical and cruel as it causes not only physical harm, but also psychological trauma to the animals. I also believe animal testing should be banned due to how unreliable it is to assume that if a certain medication works effectively on an animal, that it will automatically work effectively on a human. Lastly is the fact that there are many other alternatives available, instead of using animals as a test subject. Therefore, more awareness of what we buy, will keep more of these animals alive.