The pros and cons of animal testing

Did you know that rats, mice and rabbits are burned, crippled, poisoned and abused every year for cosmetic research. Scientists use at least 26 million animals per year. Also no experiment is illegal, no matter how cruel or painful it is for the animal and worst of all they don’t have a say about what happens to them. I’m not only going to talk about cosmetic testing on animals I am also going to talk about the pros and cons of all animal testing because their is a whole lot more than cosmetic research. Much to people's dismay, animal based research has helped with many medical advances within our daily lives.

Not all animal research is bad as I said before. In fact a lot of people that are against cosmetic testing on animals are for animal research for cures and vaccines for diseases. Cures and treatments for disease and disabilities have come from animal testing. For example, a major pro with animal testing is that aid researchers are finding drugs and treatments to help prevent and cure the HIV virus. Many vaccines and medical treatments have become possible through animal testing, including treatments for Cancer, Aids, insulin and antibiotics. Another important aspect to note is that animal testing helps insure the safety of drugs. Because we can't just use any random drug without knowing the effects. With animal testing scientists can really dig deep down and find the true effects of the drug prior to human trial. We can even use animals to grow human body parts to replace damaged or missing human parts. This is called xenotransplantation. These all seem great and all but there are also the cons.

Now for the cons, most of the animals that scientists use for these experiments are either killed right after their use, others are injured and will still live the remainder of their lives in captivity. Some of these animals used will also die in vain because some tests will never see approval or public consumption. Another con about animal testing is that it is very costly. Animal testing generally costs a lot of money, as you have to feed, house, care for the animal and treat it with drugs or any other experimental substance. You also have to buy the animal but there are companies that breed animals specifically for testing and can be bought through them. There is also an argument that animal testing isn't always reliable as humans and animals aren't exactly the same. Most drugs that are tested on animals will have quite a different reaction with humans. The main criticism is that the tests can be unreliable because the animals are in an unnatural environment and will become stressed therefore they won't react to the drugs in the same way.

While there are many pros and cons to animal testing, the most ethical choice in my opinion is both. It is difficult for me to give a good answer to which side I'm on. Animal testing has helped mankind through so much, however some of the testing practices could be classified as torture. While not going as far to outlaw animal testing more research and thought should go into how it is carried out.