One very controversial issue in today’s society is the use of animal testing. So what is animal testing?...The definition is: the experimentation carried out on animals so assess the safety and effectiveness of everything from medication to cosmetics. There are many arguments relating to this topic and, according to the internet, no one can overall conclude whether it is right or wrong. In my opinion, there is no need to experiment on animals if the intended purpose is for humans and doing so causes these animals to suffer.

The most common excuse that defenders of animal testing emphasize is that animals cannot be considered morally equal to humans. This idea suggests that humans are more important than animals because they do not have the cognitive abilities like that of humans.This has prevented animals from having the same basic rights as humans. After doing research on this specific claim, web.standford.edu revealed to me a truth in the matter, stating that “many humans themselves do not meet the criteria for belonging to the human moral community”. This would include infants and the morally handicapped. We would not run such experimental tests on these individuals, so it should not be okay to do it to animals. However, the fact that we should treat all humans equally as a part of the moral community, is also what prevents animals from these rights.

These animals undergo various cruel experiments that can cause suffering and even death. More than 100 million animals suffer and die in cruel chemical, drug, food, and cosmetic test as well as in biology lessons, medical training exercises, and curiosity-driven experiments. At more than 1000 labs across the country , monkeys are introduced to drugs, cats are deafened and have holes drilled in their skulls, sheep and pigs have their skin burned off, and rats have their spinal cords crushed. In my opinion, this amount of cruelty should not be excused only for a small possibility of benefitting humankind.

In conclusion, there are other alternatives to animals testing that do not require cruelty to living creatures. I feel that if there are other ways to go about testing and researching, then we should use them. Animal testing should be eliminated because animals are living creatures that seek to survive just as much as people do. If such test conditions are not good for humans, then they are not good for any living creatures.

Alternatives : Computer Modeling, Micro-dosing, In vitro testing, MRI scanning