“The exact number of animals used for research is unknown, but the estimate is somewhere in the tens to hundreds of millions,” found from “Biomedical Research” from Neavs.   We should not be using animals for testing, just to learn that the product that they harmed the animal with, doesn’t even affect humans. This information will consist of animal rights, tests, and the alternatives tests we should be using instead of animals.

Animal rights are rights believed to belong to animals.  It’s not fair to animals that we can just pick them up and use them for testing. How would you like it if a person were put in a lab and were harmed and isolated? They can’t give us their consent. Animals feel pain and we should not be harming them if the product ends up in a failure. There is a doctrine of animal rights, they doctrine says “No experiments on animals, no breeding for testing and no killing for food and medicine, no hard labour, no selective breeding, no hunting, no zoos,” stated by “Animals Rights” 2014. All animals ranging from just a little ant up to an elephant, have rights. They have the right to be respected, to be valued and to live a good life without harm.

The Draize Eye Test is a test performed on rabbits. This test has been around for about 72 years, it was first used in 1944. You’re probably wondering well, what is the Draize Eye Test? It is a test on rabbits in which they put toxins in their eyes and see if it irritates them. Maybe now you’re wondering, why do they use rabbits? They use rabbits because they don’t have tear ducts that can just flush the substance out of their eye. This causes rabbits more pain because they’re all ready tied up so they can’t move, found from “About Animal Testing”, hsi 2016.
Another test they perform is modifying animal’s DNA. This is mostly used on farm animals. This is not ethical treatment of animals. The procedure usually doesn’t work and animals end up dying. We could be using plants instead to make our medicines and supplies that are successful in helping cure human illnesses. By using plants, these therapies and medicines could be mass produced. What is the point of hurting the animal if the transplant isn’t successful?'

There is a lot more other than pain that animals go through when they are being tested on. These animals go through “isolation, deprivation, burning, shocking, poisoning, drowning, and being starved” when they’re being tested on. These are just a few of the many from hsi “About Animal Testing” 2016.. Animals are locked in small cages, barely enough room for them to fit and they are deprived of life’s necessities. They don’t get food, water, or love. Instead they get experiments like being burned, shocked, and and poisoning. And these animals do not get the benefit of pain relief. Flosint, an arthritis medicine that was tested on monkeys. In the lab, it tested safe, but as it was consumed by humans, death occurred. Animals are not close enough to our structure to be making medicines. Found from “Animals in Research and Testing” reasearch 2016.

“We have moved away from studying human disease in humans. We all drank the kool-aid on that one, me included. The problem is that animal testing hasn’t worked, and it’s time we stopped dancing around the problem. We need to refocus and adapt to new methodologies for use in humans to understand disease biology in humans.” By Dr. Elias Zerhouni, a medical researcher. Dr. Zerhouni is saying that something needs to change if we want to advance in the field. The change includes, not using animals for testing, because it doesn’t work. Dr Zerhouni has suggested that we start using “organs on chips.” Organs on chips is being worked on at at Wyss Harvard Institute. “Each individual organ on chip is composed of a clear flexible polymer about the size of a computer memory stick that contains hollow microfluidic channels lined by living human cells. Because the microdevices are translucent, they provide a window into the inner workings of a human organ.” The institute is building more chips with different organs like the heart and lungs. This could help advance our technology in helping find medicines instead of using animals. 

Another alternative we could be using is computer modeling. Computer modeling can predict how a human will react with the drug. The computers being used are very sophisticated so the results will be near accurate as found from “Alternatives to Animal Testing.”  Researchers will base all tests of what they already know, not something bizzare that hasn’t been invented yet. This can help improve medicines and vaccines without the use of animals.

The final alternative is donors and volunteers. This is completely up to the person if they want to be tested on or not. If someone agrees to volunteering, they would use microdosing.  Microdosing is a method in which low doses of drugs are used in which create a reaction without harming the human. This helps the rats, cats, and monkeys that are testing on and a result of brain damage. Volunteers would help bring more safety into the world, “Alternatives to Animal Testing.” 

Using these alternative can help bring more safety to the animals and less animal testing. We need to start considering and using these options instead of animals. All animals have rights, just as much as humans do. Animals do have the rights of respect, horrible tests need to stop being used, and we have to start using alternatives.