Use of Non-Human Animals in Research and the Psychological Effects of This on Animals - Essay Example

Although animal testing is commonly done for research and investigative propose and is funded collectively by society its ethical implications, scientific needs, and basis, and psychological effects of testing on animals are issues bothering various animal rights activists as well as the general public.

Prior approval from Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is mandatory before using animals for such purposes. An estimated 100-200 million non-human animals are used and decimated annually throughout the world in universities, medical colleges, research institutes, defense and public health establishments, commercial and pharmaceutical companies, etc. Non-human animal testing is conducted chiefly for basic research, applied research, and toxicology or safety testing. The proponents of animal testing argue that animals have a significant role in research that can benefit both animals and humans.

A major development in medicine and science has been possible through such research. Animals such as mice were used for the development of the drug penicillin(awarded with Nobel prize), dogs for organ transplantation as well as Pavlov's experimentation, mice and monkeys for the vaccine poliomyelitis, etc. The very edifice of morality and ethics is based on the principle that humans are unique and distinct from non-humans and so they can utilize animals for their benefit. It is also a moral duty to elevate the misery of both animals and humans by researching and developing medical science and science in general.

Since non-human animals are less developed they are not so sensitive to pain and suffering. Using humans for testing is unethical and impractical (isolation and controlled environment, especially with the potential of adverse effects. There can be no replacement of a living organism for research especially due to the similarities. Due to the short cycle of living in animals, it is possible to study the effect through generations. Non-human animals were used for testing as early as the 3rd and 4th century BC by the Greeks.

In the 2nd century in Rome physician named Galen dissected animals like pigs and goats. He was called as the father of vivisection. Edward Jenner infected cows with a pox to find a remedy for smallpox prevalent during that time, Louis Pasteur (1880) established the germ theory by injecting anthrax into sheep, Insulin was extracted from dogs (1992), Laika (1957) was the first dog to orbit the earth, armadillos were used to develop leprosy antibiotic (1970), Dolly, a sheep, was the first cloned animal (1996)Animal testing in USA comes under the Animal Welfare Act 1966.

The recent 1990 amendment states that animals used for research should be treated according to certain standard parameters of care and treatment, but the quality of scientific experiments must not be compensated. There are also acts for the humane treatment of animals that lie that the suffering and distress caused to the animal should be minimal. Opponents of using non-human animals for research propose to argue that various types of research are carried out not for their potential benefits to humanity or the animals but because of more aggressive funding, for Ph.D.'s, etc.

Hence the benefits of such research are minimal in comparison to the misery meted out to the animals. Animals have equal rights to life and to live it with dignity and cannot be subjected to abusive inhuman treatment. Disease is often induced in animals and this is not comparable to the disease in humans. Drugs may have distinct effects on humans and animals example Thalidomide. The results are often not credible due to the conditions of testing in a controlled environment. Experimentation and research are often done in conditions of profound isolation, pain, restraint, psychological distress, overcrowding and congestion, separation from mothers or groups, sleeplessness, surgery, hypersexuality anesthesia, etc.

All these can belie the results of various types of research. The psychological effects of these conditions, which are not natural for the animals, will interfere with the production of reliable research results. These conditions often increase the mortality, sensitivity, etc of the animals. PETA uncovered the abuse animals was subjected to in a British laboratory of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), where the puppies were punched in their face, rebuked, and shouted at, and sexual acts were stimulated while blood samples were taken.

Does the fact that animals are dissimilar to humans and incapable of protecting themselves from human atrocities, grant the right to humans to exploit and abuse them? More ever under the adverse and abnormal psychological conditions, there is little chance of carrying out credible investigations with authentic results.