The Controversy Of Animal Experimentation

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Animal Experimentation
In this modern society, animals are still being subjected to cruel, intense, and downright chilling forms of torture that scientists classify as "experimentation." The issue of animal testing has been subject to ongoing controversy with good points on both sides. Although either side of the topic has reasoning, there are more substantial reasons against animal experimentation. The testing of animals is an absurd and horrible way to treat any living being. Most of the animals being tested upon are not protected by law, while there are alternative experiments that do not involve animal cruelty, nor expensive research. To start off, the experimentation of animals is a cruel form of punishment for any living creature. Studies conducted by The Humane Society International found that while an animal is being tested, it is often subjected to "...food and water deprivation, prolonged periods of physical restraint, the infliction of burns and other wounds,... [and] the infliction of pain" (procon.org). The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that in 2010 during these cruel trials, "... 97,123 animals suffered pain during experiments while being given no anesthesia for relief". Many pregnant animals are often killed in order to run tests on their fetuses. Experimentation of this harshness should not be legal for any organism to have to endure. Many people believe that animals are protected by law, so animals can not be subjected to any testing that they would not be able to endure. The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) addresses the standard care that animals receive at research facilities, but it excludes roughly the 95% of the animals that are mainly tested upon. Animals that are not covered by the AWA do not need to be subjected to more humane tests, even ifmore humane tests are available to them. The intense torture that these experimental animals have to endure are most probably in vain.
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The Humane Society stated that "[v]ery often the symptoms and responses to potential treatments seen in other species are dissimilar to those of human patients "(HSI). The Food and Drug Administration reported that “…92 out of every 100 drugs that pass animal tests, will fail in humans”. Medicine, such as aspirin and insulin, although proven to help humans, have failed the animal tests conducted on them. In other words, medicines and other experimental drugs may be harmful or even deadly towards the animal, yet completely effective for humans. This overwhelming evidence shows that experimenting drugs on animals is indeed undefined for the people taking the drug. Why should we still allow animals to undergo intensely harsh torture if the testing conducted and the results prove unreliable? Although many people do believe so, the experimentation of animals is actually not the only way to test medicines and drugs. Scientists can use human tissue and cell-based research methods, cadavers, or even patient simulators and computer models to experiment these drugs and their effects. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) agree that animal testing should be replaced by the other methods, and state that these other methods of testing are "...more reliable, more precise, less expensive, and more humane than animal experiments." Apart from being cruel, inhumane, and unnecessary, animal testing is also extremely pricey. Not only do scientists experiment medicines and drugs on the animals,

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