Introduction
Animal experimentation can be defined as the use of animals other than human beings in various forms of research such as cosmetics, medical research, toxicology as well as psychological research. Animal experiments have been used widely in the testing of various products’ safety and the development of new medicines all over the world. The animal experiment procedures are known to cause a lot of pain to these animals and also reduce the animal’s quality of life in many other different ways. People who advocate for animal rights argue that it is morally wrong to use animals in experiments and make them suffer. Even the animal experimenters agree that ethically, it is wrong to use animals in experiments and that those animals used should be handled in the most humane manner possible.
Scientists should therefore, resort to alternative testing approaches, which produce almost similar results when animals are used in the experiments. All over the world, animals including rats, mice, dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs and primates die while being used in the testing of new products, warfare experiments, and development of new drugs and study of human diseases. There are various animal welfare groups such as animal aid which have opposed all these forms of animal experiments on scientific and moral grounds. They argue that animals are not supposed to be used like laboratory tools. This is because they are sentimental creatures with the ability to feel pain, loneliness, fear, sadness and frustration. Furthermore, they argue that imprisoning animals is equally denying them freedom to express their natural instincts and inflicting physical pain deliberately because of science is unethical and unacceptable.
Animal experimenting
Approximately 20 million animals are used in animal experiment procedures, hence get killed annually. Of the 20 million, about three quarters of these animals are used in medical research experiments while the other quarter is used for other purposes. These animals are exposed to excruciating pain in experiments called vivisection. There have been reports that most of these animals are not given any pain killers to reduce the pain during experiments. For instance, when dogs were used in experimental studies of the identifying the causes and treatment of diabetes, researchers in Ontario, Canada operated on 10 dogs, all of which died before they successfully depancreatized a dog and kept it alive for only 70 days. This is clearly an inhuman approach towards animals given the large numbers in which they are killed just for a single research. Vivisection involves dissecting the animals and studying their internal anatomy. The researchers could be interested in only one single organ or many depending on the aim of the research. For instance, a researcher studying diabetes will be interested in the pancreas of the animal while one studying heart related drugs or diseases will focus on the heart in relation to the whole body. A study done by animal rights bodies revealed that 90 percent of the animals that are operated on during research end up dying or have their quality of life affected negatively. This is because the animals’ organs are usually interfered with and some are usually injected with harmful chemicals which end up killing the animal.
Other animal experiments do not involve vivisection. The animals are just subjected to experiments externally. Such experiments include testing drugs; this is where a drug has been discovered and is at the testing stage. The animals are administered with the drug then they are observed what effects the drug has on them. Just like in vivisection, many of these animals survive the post testing period. This is mainly because I most cases, the drugs being tested are being tested for the first time since their manufacture. This means the chemical combination of the drugs have not been used before, hence the animals are likely t be negatively affected in case the drug has any side effects. In other animal experiments done to test for toxicology, cosmetics and even warfare activities, animals face similar risks of suffering because such experiments are likely to have harmful effects on the animals’ quality of life and health.
The success of animal experiments
Animal experimenting has received backing and criticism in equal measure. All over the world, the debate has raged on for decades now without any sign of a lasting solution. The successes of animal experiments are there to be seen. First, animal experiments have led to the discoveries of many drugs and vaccines for human beings. Scientists have used animal experiments to develop new medical techniques and drugs that have helped save millions of human lives. This is something worth a success story. The discovery of insulin regulatory drugs is attributed to the experiments done on dogs years ago to identify the substance in the pancreas that causes sugar levels to rise or fall. This discovery alone helped save lives of millions of people by just preventing diabetes through sugar control measures.
Another success of animal experiments is that it has led to drug safety. After most drugs are discovered and manufactured, they have to be tested to ensure they are safe for human use. These tests are not usually done on human beings because their safety levels are not determined. Therefore, these drugs are administered to animals like dogs, primates, guinea pigs and mice to study the safety levels of the drugs. If the drugs are found to have no kind of effect on these animals, the drugs will then be fit for human use. Otherwise the drugs will have to be restudied and remade to ensure they are safe for human being use. It is based on these facts that scientists argue that illegalizing animal experiments would imply that there will be no more testing for new drugs or human beings will have to be used in all drug safety tests. This is because animal experiments are used to help determine whether a given drug is fit to be tested on human beings. The experiments help eliminate potentially ineffective or dangerous drugs from being tested on human beings. Prohibiting animal experiments will imply that human beings will be directly forced to take untested drugs which will be harmful.
Demerits of animal experiments
Despite the success achieved using animal experiments, animal rights organizations still argue that it is totally unfair to the animals. They argue that first, animal experiments only benefit human beings. The experiments are done to help establish cures for humans while the animals themselves have no cure and are misused. This is a logical argument considering the number of animals used in these research studies. The animal rights groups also argue that the animals used are always subjected to unfair suffering and painful experiences which lead to death and reduction in the quality of life of the animals. The aim of the scientists is to establish whether the drugs will be fit to be used for human beings. Animal rights on the other hands consider the animals as living things with conscience, feelings, and have ability to feel lonely, harassed and afraid. Animal rights activists therefore advice that animal rights should be upheld whenever animals are used in research experiments.
The animal rights activists add that it is inhuman to subject animals to any kind of procedure against their own will. This is because animals have a conscience and feelings like human beings hence they have their own rights. Therefore, it is morally wrong and unethical to use animals in research experiments when scientists can use alternative methods to do their research.
Why animal experiments should be regulated or stopped
There are several reasons that have been put forward for consideration on regulating or prohibiting animal experiments. Some of these reasons have even been taken to the congress in an attempt to pass laws that would help limit animal experiments to protect animal rights. First, animals, just like human beings have rights. These rights include the right to life, right to descent environment and freedom. Animals used in experiments are usually subjected to painful experiences, their freedom is taken away since they are restricted to some places and their health is usually put at risk. Therefore, the use of animals in any form of experiments or research is against their rights and therefore should be discouraged.
Another reason is that the research and experiments carried out are usually harmful to the animals in one way or the other. These experiments are known to be painful, especially in the case of vivisection where operations are involved. Research shows that most of these animals are never sterilized or given pain killers which put them through pain and the risk of contracting infections. There are also concerns that animal experiments are done carelessly without considering the number of animals being used. With statistics showing that over 20 million animals are used annually, it is necessary to regulate this numbers because it is unfair to the animals’ population continuity, threatening their existence.
Animal rights activists also argue that research can also be carried out without experiments being done on living things. With the technological advancements in the world, it is possible to develop drugs and test them even without using animals or human beings. This is because the levels of toxins, medicinal value and the effectiveness of drugs and cosmetics can simply be measured using the available chemical tests given the technology. Furthermore, if human beings were used in scientific testing, scientists would put in more effort to minimize on the number of tests hence reducing significantly cases of animal experiments. Animals should be treated well even when they are being used in experiments. They should be given freedom to feel they are in a good environment, be provided with food and during experiments they should be handled in the most humane manner possible. The activists also argue that regulating animal experiments would be a way of sending a positive message to the social world, which will promote animal rights and welfare in society.
Pros of animal experiments
Even with animal rights activists advocating for laws that would help regulate animal experiments, proponents of this practice have their own views and ideas. First, they argue that those animals used in the animal experiments are treated well. This is not proven in any way. Activists argue that it is just a way of scientists defending themselves from criticisms for the evil they are doing. These animals are usually bred specifically for experiments, especially mice and rats. Their treatment is always not the matter of concern to scientists, whose only aim is to use the animals for experiments.
These proponents say that if animals were not to be used in experiments, human beings would be forced to be used in those experiments hence risking their lives for nothing. It is true that the intrinsic value of an animal is not comparable to that of a human being; hence, scientists use animals first so that human lives are not subjected to the risk. Scientists also argue that using animals in experiments helps in the development of novel substances. If a system of not using animals in experiments was to be used, poor nations would not have the ability to carry out any research because most of these countries cannot afford the latest technology that allows experiments without use of animals.
Conclusion
It is imperative that animal experimenting has helped in the development and enhancement of human life. It is through animal experimenting that new drugs are tested, diseases studied, cosmetics developed and even war fares tested. Animals have made it possible for human beings to make their lives better and comfortable. However, there are ethical and moral values that should be considered when using animals in experiments. It is not possible to completely do away with animal experiments, however, it is necessary to regulate animal experiments and make it as humane as possible so that animals are not negatively affected as they are currently. This will be to the mutual benefit of both human beings and animals.
Works Cited
Baird, Robert M and Stuart E Rosenbaum. Animal experimentation: the moral issues. London: Prometheus Books, 1990.
BBC. Experimenting on animals. 2012. 31 May 2012
Fox, Michael Allen. The Case for Animal Experimentation: An Evolutionary and Ethical Perspective. California: University of California Press, 1986.
Lauerman, John F. Animal Research. january 1999. 31 May 2012
Monamy, Vaughan. Animal Experimentation: A Guide to the Issues. illustrated. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Wilson, John. Animal Experimentation. Reprint. New York: BiblioLife, 2009.
