Animal and the Rights of Animals - Research Paper Example

Animal research and the rights of animals al affiliation) Introduction Person for the ethical treatment of animals (PeTA) is an organization concerned with animal rights and is based in Virginia in the United States of America. The organization advocates for the rights of the animals throughout the world. Their slogan asserts that animals do not belong to the people to be won, eaten, experiment on, abused or used for entertainment. One of the main focuses of the organization is to prevent use of the animals in conducting scientific experiments (Varner, 2010). Many scientific experiments are conducted on animals before being directed to the human being. Among the tests done on animals are the pharmaceutical testing which involves testing the mode of action of new drugs on animals before it is utilized by human being. The paper seeks to oppose the use of animals in scientific experiments. Animal just like human beings have rights. By understanding the rights of animals, scientists all over the world will consider other alternative research methods. Animal research is against animal rights Organizations have come up with an intention of protecting the rights of animals all over the world yet animals have continued being utilized in thousands of experiments without considering their safety. Some organizations such as the PETA international science consortium (PISC) have been set up with an intention of stopping the continued conduction of experiments on animals. The organization has funded and promoted the research types that utilized non animal methods. The organization has in the long run championed the non animal research methods and declined duplicate testing. The organization has ensured harmonization and global implementation of non animal methods of research. Though scientists have made us believe that sicknesses and diseases will reduce human being population if they end up giving up on using animals in animal researchers, they should also focus on the rights of the animals used and the safety. Many animals have died in experiments and it is time to stop such an archaic habit and seek for alternatives, such as the non animals experiments. Continuous use of animals has reduced their numbers and some are even becoming extinct. Recent research has also indicated that animal’s body does not resemble the human body and should be continuously utilized in the experiments. Studies have indicated that animal experimenters have wasted human and animal lives with an intention of providing solutions to diseases and illnesses done through research. Animals have contracted diseases in the process and succumbed in the process. Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Research methodologies that are not based on animals have emerged and are replacing the animal. The approach will promote the health of human beings and animals (March, 2012). Animal researches are irrelevant According to Nicoll & Russell (2009), most researchers that are done on animals have not been relevant to health of human beings, and are mostly undertaken out of curiosity yet they do not meaningfully contribute to advances in medicines. Most of such researches do not hold promises aimed at curbing diseases. The misconception which supports animals to be used in experiments is due to exaggeration by the experimenters, the media, lobby groups and universities on the potential of animal experiments which is not the case. Such misconceptions are also associated with the role of animal based experiments on medical advances that were done in the past years. During those years experimenters only focused on animals unlike the current years where non animal methods have shown better results. Pharmaceutical trials on animals Testing of new drugs is done on human beings despite being experimented on animals. Even though the animals have always been the first victims when it comes to drug trials, human beings have also been used on the trials. Human trials have sometimes been risky since animal testing has been found to be unreliable. The food and drug administration (FDA) has recognized that over 92% of the trials done on animals and considered effective and safe have failed in human trials. The remaining percentages that have been considered safe to both the animals and the humans have been re evaluated because of the side effects that were not observed in the animals. It is therefore important for the animal experimenters to respect the rights of animals and take make use of other alternatives that are non animals. Animals utilized in laboratory studies are usually health but of a different species from that of the human being. The experimenters often induce a disease condition in the animal and the animal is later kept in an environment that is distressful and unnatural. Inducing a disease to an animal is against the rights of the animal and amounts to mistreatment since it can cause death. Applying the results found in the animal in treatment of a human being is dubious due to difference in between the two. The reactions to drugs changes from one species to the other and the outcome of a certain species should not be thought to be experienced in the other. Penicillin is inactive in rabbits but kills guinea pigs (Nicoll & Russell, 2009). Aspirin for example, cause birth defects in cats, mice, monkeys and dogs but kills cats. Morphine stimulates cats, goats and horses despite being a depressant in human beings. The experimenters are aware that interfering with the environment of such animals affects them psychologically and thereby jeopardizing data validity. It is therefore essential to avoid using animals as experimental tools in the laboratory and seek for alternatives. Alternative research methods Alternative methods of research have been identified to be cheaper, relevant and faster to humans than those irrelevant and cruel animal tests. Tissue based and human cell research methods allow experimenters to test the effectiveness and safety of vaccines, new drugs and chemical compound. The result found is usually relevant since the cells used are of the same species. Hurel biochip for instance utilizes the cells from the human body to identify drug effects on various organs in the body (Singer, 2011). Non animal methods such as human tissue based method have been utilized by Harvard researchers to test chemical effects and other issues such as asthma, cancer and allergy. The result found have been effective than the use of animals to experiment the same. It is time for experimenters to cease from using animals in their research stations. Research conducted on humans rather than animals provides insights on the physiology of the human body and its reaction to drugs. With new technology and alternatives methods of experiments, researchers no longer need animals as research tools in the laboratory. Animal research in cancer treatment The history of cancer research in the United States of America was associated with curing of cancer in mice. Despite the many successful trials on the mice, many American people have succumbed to cancer since the findings targeting cancer treatment in the mice was irrelevant in the treatment of cancer in humans. Chemicals that caused cancer in the mice were also identified to be different from the ones causing cancer in the rats. If such differences existed among the animals that were closely related, then big difference could emerge in human beings and rats in treatment of cancer (Gibson, 2010). The failed trials in human forced the national cancer institute to utilize the human cancer cells obtained through biopsy to test for anti cancer drugs. Millions of mice had been used in cancer experiments yet no solution was obtained. Such animals were placed in unnatural environment and induced with chemicals in their body that led to many of them being killed. Mice being animals have rights that should be made a concern among the experimenters. The world health organization asserts that cancer is preventable and has advocated for other alternatives such as health education to be used in combating the vice. Instead of cancer researchers focusing on use of animals in trials of cancer drugs they should make use of alternatives such as health education based on prevention of smoking and avoiding high fat foods, foods with artificial colors and additives that are harmful to the health of the people. Government support on animal research Countries are spending a lot of money toward supporting animal experimentation. United states of America for example utilize Billions of dollars to fund animal research can be channeled toward educating the people on health life styles rather than misusing and killing of animal, yet less has been achieved so far pertaining to the same (Gibson, 2010). Rate of stroke and heart diseases has declined in the recent past due to lifestyle change and not due to medical experiments. Cancer cases are on the rise despite using animals in the trial. More death can be prevented through education on the risk factors to cancer and how they will be avoided rather than conducting animal tests that gives minimal results. Animal research and the law The United States animal welfare act permit some animals to be shocked, poisoned, starved, brain damaged and isolated in the laboratories. The law does not bur any experiment done on the animal however how trivial or painful it may be. Painkillers are not even offered to the animals during such experiments yet; animal too feels pain just like human beings. The law has not changed even with presence of new alternatives towards use of animals. The act excludes animals such as birds, mice, rats and other cold blooded animals. Most of the animals used in the laboratory are not protected by the federal laws since they are not included in the law. Due to lack of protection, experimenters do not provide such animals with pain relief and in the process they animals are mistreated. The animals are not only exposed to painful laboratory procedures such as skull surgeries and spinal surgeries, but are encounter a lot of suffering during transportation, capture, handling and confining them in a stressful environments t5hat are also unnatural (Gannon, 2010). Animal in the research laboratories experience deprivation, stress, isolation, trauma and depression (Kemmerer, 2011). The fact is apparent basing on their specialized need pertaining to their species. Many animal especially primates such as baboons stay together in troops grooming each other, playing and creating nests. However such animals are caged individually in the laboratories. Such isolations impact negatively on their psychological well being. Medical studies have indicated that rats stored in laboratory cages experience abnormal repetitive behaviors, impaired brain development and anxious behavioral behaviors. Such behaviors ought to be stopped and non animal methods utilized in the procedures. Animals as the only option in the experiment Human epidemiological and clinical experiments, human cell and tissue based methods, computational models and use of cadavers is considered more precise, more reliable, more humane and less expensive than animal based experiments (Kemmerer, 2011). Micro brains developed by scientists can be used to study the human brains rather than using the rat in studying tumors. Vaccines can now be studied on human tissues than on animals as previously done. Animal experiments are persisting because of experimenters ‘archaic traditions and not personal biases. Most of the medical students in the United States are no longer dissecting animals or performing experiments on them. With current innovations, students are trained by interactive computer programs, clinical experiences and safe human based methods. One can become a surgeon without necessarily harming animals in the current world. Conclusion The presence of animals in the world is not meant for human use. Experimenters should value the lives of animals as per ethics. Most animals are used in the laboratory due to their inability to reason which should not be the case. The use of more animals in research laboratory with claims of providing solutions to human health problems is questionable. Animals just like human beings have senses (Sackett, 2010). Harming of animals in the laboratory just because they are weaker and unable to complain is bad. The act is not only unethical but also cruel. During our development periods and young ages, most of us grew up wearing leather, eating meat, going to the zoos and visiting circus. We were never aware of the results of such actions to the animals. It is now time to be aware that animals too have rights that should be protected at all cost by all the human beings. References Gannon, F. (2010). Animal rights, human wrongs? Introduction to the Talking Point on the use of animals in scientific research. EMBO Reports, 519-520. Gibson, W. (2010). The Animal Rights War on Biomedical Research: A Call to Arms. Journal of Dental Research, 1703-1704. Kemmerer, L. (2011). Empty Cages: Facing the Challenge of Animal Rights, and: Animal Rights, Human Wrongs: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy (review). Human Rights Quarterly, 271-277. March, B. (2012). Bioethical Problems: Animal Welfare, Animal Rights. BioScience, 615-615. Nicoll, C., & Russell, S. (2009). Animal rights, animal research, and human obligations. Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, 271-277. Sackett, G. (2010). Animal rights, human rights, scientific rights: Whos right? PsycCRITIQUES. Singer, P. (2011). Book Review:Animals in Research. New Perspectives in Animal Experimentation. David Sperlinger; Animal Rights and Human Morality. Bernard E. Rollin; Animal Suffereing. The Science of Animal Welfare. Marian Stamp Dawkins. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 481-481. Varner, G. (2010). Book Review: The Politics of Animal Rights. Organization & Environment, 527-531. Read More