Animal Testing and Rgihts - Research Paper Example

In fact, vivisection of small animals like frogs, rabbits and mice is not confined to sophisticated laboratories alone, but are also a part of school and college curriculum. Animals are also used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries to test drugs and cosmetics before market release. According to AWA reports, the U.S government estimated that the number of laboratory animals used in 2010 alone was about 1,136,567. “Precise figures for the number of rats, mice, birds and fish do not exist, but it is estimated that approximately 25 million of these animals are used every year” (animal Reports Animal Usage by Fiscal year, 1-2).

Vivisection is not just using of animals for scientific purposes alone; it also involves the inhumane treatment meted out to them. They are kept in cages in dark laboratories, fed poorly and stored for experimentation alone. The lab animals are subjected to toxic testing, allergen testing etc which involves cruel treatment for the sake of testing alone and justify them on the grounds that Human feeling s and animals feeling have a difference (Ryder). While many researchers and vivisection enthusiasts may argue that animal testing is beneficial to humans, I shall discus as to why this should be stopped and alternatives adopted.

Scientifically Unreliable Scientists and researchers who use animals for their research work often claim that the results procured and derived from these animal-test based experimentation is for the benefit of the human race. But in reality this is untrue and the results may be totally unreliable because the anatomy of humans and animals is drastically different and each species responds differently to a particular substance, this is the reason why thousands of drugs and cosmetics that pass the lab-animal test have often been withdrawn from the markets, solely because they were harmful to humans.

Chemical testing is highly unreliable and this can be understood with a small fact that arsenic which is highly carcinogenic in humans rarely causes cancer in lab animals like mouse and rats. There is no evidence to prove that mice, rabbits and humans would react all the same to a certain chemical. Experimentation on animals is impractical and reveals negligible information about the human body and its response (Mur, 29). Furthermore, it is well known that the sensation of fear alters the biochemical processes of a living body and lab animals are in state of constant fear which may affect the results too.

Hence, the results are not valid. ETHICALLY WRONG It is purely unethical to take advantage of speechless and helpless creatures and use them in the laboratories, inflicting intentional pain and fear among them in the name of human benefit. Science itself has proven that animals too like humans, are sentient. They can feel emotions like pain, fear, hunger, thirst etc, yet we deny animals their rights. Rifkin in his article reported about a study conducted in the Purdue University, U.S. where it was observed that’s pigs crave affection and attention and were depressed if denied so.

The study strengthened the fact that animals did resemble humans in some form. The theory of Evolution states that Homo sapiens are linked to all other living creatures through evolution, yet somehow humans have taken the liberty to judge other living things and determine their value in Nature. There is nothing to determine whether inherent value of humans is higher than that of other living