Animal Testing Issues - Essay Example

Animal Testing An Introduction Inflicting pain upon others has become source of deriving pleasure for many people, animals have their own feelings and they too feel the pain as the human beings do but this has been constantly ignored by the human beings and especially the scientists who conduct numerous researches on poor and helpless animals. There is an evident lack of concern in the society towards one another let alone the case of animals, one man’s suffering is another man’s pleasure and this becomes even more barbaric in the case of animals. The human beings have taken it for granted that animals don’t have a life and they can be used any which way but this perception is very wrong and must be changes before it’s too late. We fail to realize that the pain inflicted on animals will return a full circle back to haunt us and no matter how big discovery we make by inflicting pain on the animals, it will only be futile. The issue of animals being used for research has dominated the thoughts of many people, some feel animals can be used for experimentation while others strongly condemn this, this paper will throw light upon whether animal experimentation is good or bad, every aspect of this saga will be discussed in this paper and a conclusion at the end will be arrived at which will sum up the discussion. All human beings are capable of logical thinking and deciding whether their actions are right or not? Off late there have been numerous issues when the logical thinking of the human beings has come under the scanner. Ethical issues are issues that question whether the treatment given to animals is humane or not? Ethics are extremely important when it comes to the treatment of animals or for that matter anything else. There have been numerous researches conducted on animals and the animal rights activists have protested a lot against the same. The question is whether we are treating the animals the way they deserve to be treated? Different people will have different says on this but it is largely concluded that we are using the animals for various purposes other than what they are supposed to be used for. This paper will explore the issue of experimentation on animals and a conclusion will be arrived at in the concluding part of the paper. Use of Animal Fur Using animals for different purposes has become more of a trend these days, celebrities often wear animal fur coats, jackets etc and they succeed in catching the attention of the people. All species on this planet has certain basic rights and every other specie must respect those rights, human beings have completely forgotten the fact that animals have certain basic rights which must not be violated. Human beings speak of human rights and expect the fellow human beings to follow the same but this is a distant reality and it will only come true if the human beings start respecting the other species. Animals are being exploited day in and day out, fur has become the latest fashion statement and the use of fur must be strictly forbidden. “Every piece of fur is the result of horrific cruelty. Animals trapped for their fur can suffer for hours or days in body-gripping traps, chewing through their own feet in a desperate attempt to escape. More than four million wild animals are trapped and killed each year in the United States by commercial and recreational trappers alone. “(The Cruelty of Fur Trim) “Each year, in China, millions of dogs and cats are cruelly killed by bludgeoning, hanging and slow strangulation with wire nooses and their fur turned into trim and trinkets. Chinese fur is often deliberately mislabeled so that it will be bought by unsuspecting customers around the globe.” (China’s Gold Medal for Cruelty). There must be strict restrictions on the same. The animal rights activists must ensure that no country violates the animal rights; animals also feel the same pain as human beings do, this should be understood by the human beings. There must be strict rules and the violators must be strictly prosecuted to stop this inhumane treatment of animals. The nest part of the paper will focus upon the research done on animals and issues related with the same. Research on animals different from using them for food Research on animals is extremely different from using them for food, the only similarity between the two is that both these things are highly unethical and should not be carried out. Animals should be treated the way human beings treat each other. The question is do we conduct experiments on each other? Do we kill each other for the sale of food? The obvious answer is no we don’t do it because we consider it unethical but the same does not apply when it comes to treating animals. Double standards are certainly evident here, we treat animals with far less care than we treat the other fellow human beings, this goes to show that we don’t consider the animals important. An important thing is given attention and treated with so much more care than the animals are treated these days. Cloning is fast picking up when it comes to the preservation of the endangered animals. “Cloning members of an endangered species, for example, is generally regarded as a positive application of the technology, whereas attempting to clone an extinct woolly mammoth from preserved tissue elicits more negative responses, including that this interferes with nature.” (The Cloning Ban). It is really good to clone an endangered species because the same ensures that the endangered species live on for a considerable amount of time, on the contrary the process of cloning has also been condemned for interfering with the nature. Every coin is two sided and research and experimentation is also two sided. It has its own negatives and positives but on the whole if this case is considered; it is found that experimentation on animals is never good because it is against the ethics and the term ethics has been brought into use by the human beings and it is the human beings that have started violating these ethics. “The Canadian Council on Animal Care Guidelines for the Care and Use of Experimental Animals offer standards to be used by Investigators, Animal Care Staff and Animal Care Committees to judge the level of pain and stress and the degree of invasiveness experienced by an animal during the course of scientific experimentation, testing or teaching.” (Ethical Considerations). Animals are put under intense pain during the various experiments conducted on them this is highly unethical and to conclude it is very fair to say that experiments should never be conducted on animals neither the animals should be used for meat and for other unethical reasons. Inflicting Pain on the Animals Animal testing involves inflicting pain on poor animals and most of the animals die because of the same and this is highly unethical. This has been going on for quite some time now and this should not be continued any longer. Inflicting pain on ants is considered unethical in so many religions and animal experimentation involves inflicting a lot of pain on the animals, this is very difficult to stop but it must be stopped. Experimentation reduces the quality of life of animals and this is another highly unethical issue. Who has given us the authority to make someone else’s life a living hell? This question must be asked to all those people who indulge in this unethical practice. “If it is morally wrong to cause animals to suffer then experimenting on animals produces serious moral problems. Animal experimenters are very aware of this ethical problem and acknowledge that experiments should be made as humane as possible.” (Religion and Ethics) There can be several other ways that can be invented to reduce the suffering of animals. Animal testing must be banned and some other alternate method should be used. When scientists can use the animals for testing, they are more than capable of finding alternate methods. This will transform the life of all the animals for better and this will also minimize their suffering. There are several issues that should be addressed like their habitats, their conservation etc; instead of taking care of these issues we have started killing them for our own benefit. This practice should be brought to an immediate end and the people who still continue this should be prosecuted. The government must interfere in this issue and make strict laws that will conserve the quality of life that the animals live. There is another problem that is affecting the lives of several animals, the scientists never share the information with other scientists after conducting research on animals, this is done in order to get credit for their experiment, if they start sharing their research findings with other scientists, they will actually end up killing much less animals then they actually do. Once a research is conducted, the result must be shared with all the scientists across the globe in order to minimize the damage done to the lives of several animals. Conclusion The paper has given enough evidences that suggest that animal experimentation is unethical and we must not indulge in anything that is not ethical. Animal experimentation inflicts pain on animals and this is just not right, it is high time to put an end to all this. Animal experimentation must be banned in order restore law and order in the society. This should come to an immediate end before this problems becomes a problem of much greater magnitude. The governments of several countries must initiate an action and put an end to this long standing problem. Strict laws must be made in order to ensure that animal experimentation is no longer carried out. Once this happens, the world would surely become a much ethical place to live in. References China’s gold medal for cruelty. In Animal Rights Articles. Retrieved on 18 November 2009 from: http://www.all-creatures.org/articles/ar-chinasgold.html Ethical Considerations, 22 February. In Moral, Legal and Ethical Issues. Retrieved on 18 November 2009 from: http://animalcare.mcgill.ca/ethics-e.htm Religion and Ethics. In BBC World. Retrieved on 18 November 2009 from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/animals/using/experiments_1.shtml The Cloning Ban. In Cloning Ethical Issues. Retrieved on Retrieved on18 November 2009 from: http://www.answers.com/topic/cloning-ethical-issues The Cruelty of Fur Trim. In Fur Trim Kills More Animals. Retrieved on 18 November 2009 from: http://www.bornfreeusa.org/articles.php?more=1&p=371 Read More