The Pros and Cons of Animal Testing (Explained)

Animal testing is always one of the major controversial topics in the world. For the research development of medicines, the animal body is universally used.

The term animal testing is commonly known as animal experimenting or animal research seeking the nature of the variants that affect the biological system of the animal body or human being. 

The process is practiced in universities, medical schools, research laboratories, pharmaceutical companies, genetic science, defense establishments, and business plants that give animal-testing-related services to the whole world.

The research includes testing harmful disease treatments, breeding more productive animals, defense research, toxicology, and cosmetics testing.

Benefits of Animal TestingDrawbacks of Animal Testing
Testing on animals has been important in certain life-saving treatments and cures.Discipline is barbaric and cruel.
Provides the necessary living physically; the entire body structure is the test subject.Animals are a weak research subject
Unavailability of appropriate alternatives to explore a whole-living body
Progress in animal testing does not lead to human Medication
For situations where ethical considerations prohibit the use of human subjects, animals must be usedThe majority of animals used in research are not secured by the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) 
Animals also themselves avail benefit from animal tests results
A considerable amount of animal life gets wasted
Shorter lifecycleTo include animals in medical breakthroughs is not necessary

Advantages Of Animal Testing

A US-based organization California Biomedical Research Association, reports that over the past 100 years, nearly every medical breakthrough has resulted directly from animal research.

Although sometimes it is useful for studying cell cultures in a petri dish, it does not provide an opportunity to observe interlinked biological processes throughout the respiratory system, digestive system, and immune response.

is testing on animals vital for life-saving treatments cures

Provides the necessary living physically, the entire body structure is the test subject:

Animals are ideal testing subjects since they are, in certain aspects, close to humans. Except for animals, No other living thing in the universe has had the closest physical and anatomical structure to humans.

The physiological, metabolic, and cellular variations between animals and humans make the animal inferior test subject to humans.

Meanwhile, the human organism is incredibly complicated, as cell cultures in a petri dish could not provide adequate results of the test or prove that even a cure or drug is successful.

Unavailability of appropriate alternative to explore a whole-living body:

Animals are the best alternative for this practice. It is impossible to study problems such as blindness and high blood pressure in tissue cultures of humans.

Computer models can only ever be reliable if, in the first place, appropriate, accurate animal research information has been used to develop models. Even the most powerful supercomputers cannot reliably replicate the functioning of complex organs such as the brain.

For the situations where ethical considerations prohibit the use of human subjects, animals must be used:

When examining medicines for apparent toxicity, it’s not necessary to bring the lives of human patients in vulnerable positions.

Before the methods are tested on animals, it would also be ethically wrong to carry out invasive experimental procedures on humans, and some experiments include genetic engineering.

Animals also themselves avail benefit from animal test results: 

Millions of animals are blessed by the testing on the animal. The vaccinations were tested on animals.

As a result, rabies, distemper, feline leukemia, infectious hepatitis virus, tetanus, anthrax, and canine parvovirus remained thousands of miles away without killing millions of animals.

do animals benefits from these tests

Shorter lifecycle:

Thanks to their shorter life cycles, animals are far better research subjects than humans.

Of reference, laboratory research mice survive for almost two to three years. Therefore, scientists could understand the effects of treatments, therapies, genetic manipulation, or genetic engineering over a lifetime rather than over multiple generations, which would have been impractical for human subjects.

Drawbacks Of Animal Testing

Discipline is barbaric and cruel:

They are forced to consume, held in solitary confinement, deprived of food, sleep, and water, physically restrained for extended periods, inflicted with injuries, burns, cuts, wounds, pain, and trauma to test process results and therapies for rehabilitation, and sometimes even killed by asphyxiation or neck-breaking.

is the discipline barbaric and cruel

Animals are weak research subject:

In many cases, even animals are not substituted for human beings. For instance, a rat is 60 times lighter than a human subject, so it is not the appropriate substitute.

are animals weak research subjects

Progress in animal testing does not lead to human Medication:

Success in animal testing does not mean the actual cure medication for human beings. Testing slipping pills in the likewise pregnant mice is not successful for pregnant women.

The majority of animals used in research are not secured by the Animal Welfare Act (AWA):

As of 2010, the AWA protected only more than 1 million animals, keeping aside the 25 million unprotected from maltreatment and violence. The AWA provides this data through years of research. 

A considerate amount of animal life gets wasted:

According to studies, many animal lives are wasted under animal testing. Failed attempts at experiments lead to animals dying a very painful death. 

To include animals in medical breakthroughs is not necessary: 

Critics of animal testing contend that no major medical advancements say that it has a vital role in the development of medical science. Rather human cells are a much better option.

Better alternatives to animal testing do exist:

Many researchers say cell cultures in a petri dish or in vitro (in glass) testing can be a better option than animal testing. 

Animal testing is something that presents questions both moral and ethical. Many scientists claim that introducing something into the human market is impossible without testing it on animals.

However, this claim is gradually becoming redundant with our leaps in the scientific world. Animals have a right to live free from pain without being abused by humans. 

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