The Pros And Cons Of The Animal Welfare Act

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Due to the extreme controversy over the topic the Animal Welfare Act was signed into law. This protects the animals and sets guidelines and laws at both the state and local level in order to regulate animal research. This law states that animals must give the animals: access to clean food and water, regular inspections by vets, proper enclosure size, and appropriate temperature. So the animals are not being exposed to improper conditions, or they shouldn’t be according to the law. Also in order to even use animals for research you must be approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee or the IACUC. It would be nice to believe that the animal in experiments don’t suffer unnecessary pain and mistreatment. However this is untrue. This is where the cons to animal testing come in. On the subject of guidelines set to protect the animals not all places follow these guidelines. The most controversial and perhaps inhumane documented treatment was the case that launched PETA. This case was the Silver Spring Monkeys. In this horrible case monkeys were put under such duress and treated so poorly that they started to self-mutilate themselves. Their cages were full of feces and urine. Not only this but the cages themselves were covered in rust. The experimenters would sever the spinal nerves of the monkeys causing them to lose the ability to use their limbs. After this the monkeys were shocked in an attempt to get the m to regain the use of their impaired limbs. They were also deprived of food and water in an attempt to further push them towards regaining the use of their impaired limbs. The cruelty that was discovered in this case lead to new additions to the Animal Welfare act because the monkeys were exposed to such atrocities. Animal testing is inhumane. The animals in the experiments experience extreme stress, pain, and isolation. All they know during their short life is pain and suffering. Then they are killed and opened up to see how the experiment effected them. They are only allowed to live for a short time and that is not fair. No animal should be used then tossed aside like trash. Not only this but almost all experiments involving animals are flawed and fail the human trials. Meaning that all the animals that suffered in pain and isolation only to die and be cut open died for nothing. No life should have to suffer that. It has been proven that animals suffer like humans do yet we don’t test on humans. Its speciesism to do this but not on humans. An example of experiment working on animals but not humans would be the Thalidomide case. This drug was considered the miracle drug because no matter how much you gave to the animal used in the experiment they never died. It was said to be an effective painkiller and was used to help aid in insomnia, coughs, colds, and headaches. It even claimed to help morning sickness so thousands of pregnant woman took this drug. However this “miracle drug” turned out to be a disaster. It was the cause of thousands of malformations and missing limbs on children who were exposed in the womb to the drug. It was tested on a variety of animals and because side effects only occurred occasionally it was tested safe for use and dispensed among the public. It obviously wasn’t what they had expected or wanted. This was a perfect example of why animal testing isn’t effective. Animals differ from humans so we cannot base our assumptions on the results gathered from …show more content…
This particular experimentation checks for eye irritation. It is performed by taking the rabbit’s eye and sewing it open while placing the substance in one eye and leaving the other as a control. This is observed after one hour in the beginning then at twenty-four hour intervals for fourteen days. During this time the rabbit experiences extreme fear and pain. Often the rabbit suffers from redness, bleeding, ulcers, and blindness. After the test is completed the animals are killed, cut open to see what resulted on the inside, and then thrown out. That is in no way

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