Essay Introduction
Teddy was never supposed to live. Teddy was always kept confined to himself, never getting interaction with others. Teddy’s single purpose in life was to endure testing that could end his life at any given moment. He was injected with unknown substances and chemicals in every part of his body. Many people may believe that Teddy is a human, but in reality, Teddy is a dog who was placed in the animal testing industry against his will, and he is accompanied by thousands of other dogs as well as other species of animals.
Argumentative Essay Examples on Animal Testing
Knowing the definition, prevalence, victims, types of tests certain animals are used for, and how the animals live is necessary to understand the problem of animal testing. By definition, “the term ‘animal testing’ refers to procedures performed on living animals for purposes of research into basic biology and diseases, assessing the effectiveness of new medicinal products, and testing the human health and/or environmental safety of consumer and industry products such as cosmetics, household cleaners, food additives, pharmaceuticals, and industrial/Argo-chemicals” (5 p.1). Every year, around a hundred million animals are used in experiments worldwide (1 p.1). Some animals used in animal testing include mice, rats, frogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds (3 p.1). Many of these animals that are used in experiments are bred purposely for experimental use (4 p.2). Animals usually are killed at the end of the experiment for scientific research, but some animals may be used for more research experiments (5 p.1). Rats, mice, fish, and amphibians, such as frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, and birds, are not classified as animals under animal experiment regulations (4 p.2). These animals do not have any oversight of their treatment or use in the laboratory by the Animal Welfare Act (4 p.2).
Animals used in experiments are used for basic research, pharmaceutical research and development, and regulatory toxicology, which is the branch of science concerned with the nature, effects, and detection of poisons (1 p.3). Animal experiments may include forcefully injecting detrimental materials into the bodies of the animals (4 p.2). Animals also endure prolonged periods of physical restraint for experiments and undergo the removal of tissues or organs for research purposes (5 p.2, 4 p.2). Animals in experiments undergo trauma-related experiences to cause depression or anxiety (4 p.2). Experiments may also require animals to inhale toxic substances (4 p.2). Sometimes animals are deprived of food and water during the experiments (5 p.2). When living in the laboratories, animals are forced to live in small, sterile, indoor cages where they can hardly move (4 p.3). The animals in the lab are often confined on their own without any socialization with other animals (4 p. 3). With all of the evidence provided, animal testing is a major worldwide problem that needs to be addressed.
Research Paper on Animal Testing
Several causes of animal testing are in the world today. Animals are used in research experiments when there is no other way to figure out the scientific problem without experimenting (6 p.1). Since researchers are unable to experiment on humans, the majority of experimental animals are used to investigate how human bodies function (6 p.1). Many parts of the animal and human biology work the same or very similar in vital functions such as breathing, digestion, movement, sight, hearing, and reproduction, as well as basic cell processes (6 p.1). Basic biological processes are mostly studied in single cells, tissue groups, or plants because they are the easiest to grow or examine (7 p.2). Animals are also essential to the fast-growing field of biotechnology, where they are used to evolve, test, and create new products such as monoclonal antibodies (7 p.1). From animal testing, researchers have learned how many diseases work, how our immune system reacts, why some people are affected more than others, and how the research world can fight back (6 p.2). If there happens to be an animal condition that is relatively close to a human condition, the animal is modeled close to the human condition (6 p.1). Mice are one of the few animals that happen to share the same diseases that affect humans, so they are the most common animal used for research experimentation (6 p.1). The fact that some mammals are less susceptible to certain human diseases might give humans a clue as to why some diseases occur (6 p.2). Treatments like open heart surgery and heart transplants were originally tested on animals (6 p.2). Tools such as scanners and implants (heart pacemakers or artificial hips) are safe and efficient because animals were used initially to ensure safety (6 p.2). Animals help experimenters to research and experiment with new kinds of therapy to help humans (6 p.2). “When a new drug or surgical technique is developed, society deems it unethical [sic] to use that drug or technique first in human beings because of the possibility that it would cause harm rather than good.” (7 p.1) Drugs are tested on animals to make sure that they are safe and effective (7 p.1). Animal tests provide the data needed on the effectiveness and safety of new medicines (6 p.2).
Causes and Justifications for Animal Testing
The use of animals in research has a number of side effects, including physical side effects, a lack of progress, drug or disease failure, and time management issues. The side effects and reactions to potential medicines seen in different sorts of species are not like what people might endure (5 p.2). Artificially inducing symptoms in mice, dogs, or monkeys that mimic human diseases or toxicities has significant scientific limitations that cannot be overcome (5 p.2). The clinical presentation and explanation of diseases vary by species, and researchers must be able to verify anatomical, physiological, and genetic differences that could affect the transferability of findings (1 p.5). Numerous studies have examined the consistency of data from humans and animals, concluding that human clinical research could not consistently replicate animal findings (1 p.4). Relevant epigenetic effects and human genetic variation may resemble animal data (1 p.5). A majority of animal experiments do not contribute to better human health, and the role that animal experimentation used in most medical advances is questionable (3 p.1).
Some disease areas have seen little to no progress despite years of animal research (5 p.3). Many times less than ten percent of potential new drugs that were tested on animals make it through human trials (8 p.4). Animal testing is expensive, which means companies lose a lot of money and time when the tests do not accurately predict how humans will respond (8 p.4). Researchers have demonstrated in recent reviews of treatments for a variety of clinical conditions that, among other things, animal studies have been unable to accurately predict human outcomes in the fields of neurology and some vascular diseases (1 p.4). Drug failure and research that sometimes fails because of irrelevant animal models slow medical progress, waste resources, and put volunteers’ health and safety at risk in clinical trials(5 p.2). More than a thousand potential drugs for strokes have been tested on animals, but only a few have been proven effective in patients (5 p.3). Evaluations of each chemical could take millions of dollars, many years needed to complete experiments, and thousands of animal lives (8 p.4). “For example, it takes about a decade and $3,000,000 to complete all of the animal studies required to register one single pesticide with the US Environmental Protection Agency” (8 p.4). Animal tests always cost a lot of time and money (8 p.4). With all the effects listed above, animal testing proves to be a major effect on the animal world.
Animal Testing Thesis Statement: Using Vitro Testing as an Alternative
Clearly, animal testing is a serious problem, yet there are many solutions to help to alleviate it. One solution to animal testing is Vitro testing. Vitro testing is known as the preparation of cells or tissue samples from humans or animals for use in laboratory study (14 p.1). Vitro testing is used in drug research, testing new chemicals and products on human skin, and toxicology testing (14 p.1). An assortment of cell-based tests and tissue models can be utilized to evaluate the well-being of medications, synthetic substances, and beauty care products (13 p.2). The ability to determine drug safety and efficiency through Vitro testing is limited, so animal testing is still used in that department (14 p.1). Because of Vitro testing’s focus on the cellular level, Vitro testing methods cannot replace whole-body testing (14 p.1). In order to replicate the structure and function of human organs and organ systems in Vitro testing, researchers have developed “organs-on-chips” made of human cells grown in excellent conditions (13 p.2). It has been found that the chips are able to more accurately replicate human physiology, diseases, and drug responses than harmful animal experiments, making them suitable for use in disease research, drug testing, and toxicity testing (13 p.2). These chips have already been made into products that other researchers can use instead of animals by businesses like AlveoliX and Emulate, Inc (13 p.2). “For example, MatTek Life Sciences’ EpiDerm Tissue Model is a three-dimensional, human-cell derived model that can be used to replace rabbits in painful, prolonged experiments that have traditionally been used to evaluate chemicals for their ability to corrode or irritate the skin.” The VITROCELL machines expose human cells to the chemical that is in the air on one side and feeds them with nutrients from a liquid that looks like blood on the other, just like when a chemical enters a human lung (13 p.3).
The current method of confining rats to small tubes and forcing them to inhale toxic substances for hours before death can be replaced by the VITROCELL machines and the EpiAlveolar (13 p.3). The cruel methods of bleeding horseshoe crabs or restraining rabbits, injecting them with drugs or extracts from medical devices, and taking their temperatures rectally to see if they get a fever have been replaced by nonanimal methods (13 p.3).
Ideas on Animal Testing: Variation in Disease Presentation and Transferability of Findings
Scientists have also created tests that utilize human platelets to identify foreign substances in drugs that cause a possibly hazardous fever reaction when they enter the body (13 p.3). Scientists at the Institute for Biochemistry, Biotechnology, and Bioinformatics at the Technische Universität Braunschweig in Germany created fully human-derived antibodies that are capable of blocking the harmful toxin that causes Diphtheria through research funded by PETA International Science Consortium Ltd (13 p.3). This approach has the potential to put an end to the practice of repeatedly injecting horses with the Diphtheria toxin and draining a significant amount of their blood to collect the antibodies their immune systems produce to combat the disease (13 p.3). Vitro testing has become a very reliable source for the future of animals in laboratories.
A second solution to animal testing is the Physicians Committee. The Physicians Committee is a Washington D.C. based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (10 p.2). The Physicians Committee has tirelessly advocated for more efficient scientific methods and alternatives to the use of animals in medical education and research since 1985 (10 p.2). The Physician’s Committee collaborated with the federal government for more than a decade to incorporate animal testing reduction and replacement reforms into the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (9 p.3). Chemical companies such as the Environmental Protection Agency are required by law to use more human-appropriate methods and replace and reduce animal testing (9 p.3). The mission of the Physicians Committee is to put a new emphasis on plant-based nutrition and scientific research that does not use animals in an ethical way to make the world a better place (10 p.2). Through plant-based diets and scientific research that is both ethical and effective, the Physicians Committee is dedicated to saving and improving the lives of humans and animals (10 p.2). In order to make sure that all batches of injectable drugs and vaccines, including those against COVID-19, are tested using methods that do not involve the use of animals, the Physicians Committee is collaborating closely with Congress and regulatory agencies (9 p.4).
Successful Examples of Replacing Animals in Testing
However, the Physicians Committee keeps on attempting to end animal use in areas of cutting-edge clinical preparation, including crisis medication preparation, high-level injury life support, battle injury preparation, and paramedic preparation (11 p.3). Additionally, the publication of plans by the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration to replace animal tests with nonanimal methods was heavily influenced by the Physicians Committee (9 p.3). Today, simulators and other human-relevant techniques make up the vast majority of medical education instead of animal testing (11 p.3).
In 2018, the Physicians Committee co-sponsored the Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act, which California signed into law. The law has made [sic] it unlawful for cosmetic manufacturers to sell any cosmetic in California if the final product or any component of the product was tested on animals after January 1st, 2020, with some expectations for regulatory experiments. The Physicians Committee continues to work for federal reform that will eliminate animal testing for cosmetics (9 p.3).
In order to create a better future for people and animals, the Physicians Committee team of doctors, dietitians, and scientists collaborates with policymakers, industries, the medical community, the media, and the general public to teach about cruelty in cosmetics (10 p.2). After the Physicians Committee’s more than three decades of detailed research, all surveyed United States and Canadian medical schools stopped using animals in 2016. Instead, they used human-like simulators and human-relevant techniques, which were cheaper to use and more efficient than animals (11 p.3). After three decades of detailed research, all of the surveyed United States and Canadian pediatrics residencies stopped teaching future pediatricians with cats, ferrets, and piglets in 2018 (11 p.3). The Physicians Committee has helped thousands of animals from being used in animal testing by finding other ways to test chemicals and other substances.
Conclusion
Knowing the definition, prevalence, victims, types of tests certain animals are used for, and how the animals live is necessary to understand the problem of animal testing. By definition, “the term ‘animal testing’ refers to procedures performed on living animals for purposes of research into basic biology and diseases, assessing the effectiveness of new medicinal products, and testing the human health and/or environmental safety of consumer and industry products such as cosmetics, household cleaners, food additives, pharmaceuticals, and industrialArgo-chemicals.” Additionally, the publication of plans by the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration to replace animal tests with nonanimal methods were heavily influenced by the Physicians Committee and were tested in Vitro testing.
