Should Animal Testing
Be Banned?
by Gauri Jere
For thousands of animals a year, death is inevitable through
the need for meat for food. But for others, it is sudden and unnecessary – like
animal testing to get you some new makeup of cream. The animal activists might
have questions for us – what do most humans feel about putting animals through
this? An actual fact is that before their deaths, over 40% of these animals
(mostly rodents, cats, dogs and fish)
are forced to inhale toxic fumes, are immobilized in restraint devices,
have holes drilled into their skulls, and most often have their skins burnt
off.
Moreover, over 100 million and more are killed each year only
in the USA, and over 15 million are killed in the UK solely for testing. On the
other hand, over 9 billion animals are killed every year for meat – what’s 15
million more? That is the idea and principle which is followed by people
worldwide when asked about animal testing. I believe that we should save as
many lives as possible, regardless of what number are being killed otherwise.
And besides, is killing creatures for things like makeup really necessary? And
should it really be continued?
Animal testing agreeably, has some positive points on its
side – they have somewhat of a similar anatomy to us, and can therefore prevent
testing on humans. Yet at the same time, over 30% of the testing of products
that are taken place never reach the public – meaning they are often scrapped
and forgotten. This means that out of 100 million of animals killed for
testing, 30 million that die for a “cause” are killed for something that is
never used again. So now not only are these animals often being killed for
“developments” which are sometimes not even shown to the world. You might sincerely believe that many of
these animals are useless pests in the household (like rats) but the truth of
the matter is that lives are lives, no matter what, and all of these animals do
not and should not need to die for us.
Secondly, animal testing is plain cruelty. Imagine living in
a locked cage all your life, not deciding to eat what you wish, do what you
wish, or even choose whether or not to leave the lights on or off inside the
room. Imagine being put through tests that cause burns and rashes to form on
your skin. Imagine wasting away in your
cage like a captive, even though you have committed no crime. That is the
experience of animal testing. So the
next time you buy a new product, check if they use animal testing to get you
the product. And check with yourself if you’re okay with using something that
has put an animal through unnecessary pain. As capable and self – dependable
creatures, can we humans not resort to other means like artificial skin instead
of animal testing to create a better future for ourselves? And can we try treating
these animals like actual living organisms? All in all, our behavior currently
suggests that humans seem to be incapable of noticing the cruelty animals are
put through, which is something that I hope to change.
Lastly, animals and humans do not even have the exact same
anatomy – meaning that even after conducting all these countless tests, these
products are still not 100% guaranteed to work on humans. That’s the reason as
to why on most cosmetics products for sensitive skin (like your face) they ask you
to test out some of it on your wrist before using it – this is not because of
the animals being incompetent – this exists because we humans have subjected
animals to torture and had no problem with it. In the end, we always test these
products on our tougher skin first, instead of sensitive skin directly. If we
plan on testing on ourselves anyways, then why do we create millions of dead
bodies every year over the products? The idea to me seems pretty
counterproductive.
A study conducted in 2011 asked three questions to a group of
1009 individuals, and the results were pretty enlightening. The first question
was if they considered testing on animals inhumane and unethical, and the
results stated that 72% of the people answered in the affirmative. The second question was along the lines of
whether the making of artificial products should be considered important, and
over 78% answered yes. Yet when the
final question of whether or not they would buy a product that uses animal
testing, only 31% of the people answered that they probably wouldn’t. This
shows that even though over 70% of the people agree with stopping testing on
animals, only 31% of them wanted to do something about it. I’ll leave that as
food for thought.
I would like to conclude by asking you some questions: do you honestly believe that killing over 1
million fish, and more than 9 million rodents and countless other animals for
testing is alright and morally okay with you? Especially since some of the time
you cannot even guarantee their loss of lives will prevent dangerous effects
that all the products might cause to humans? Obviously, it will take time to
convince people, but stopping animal testing is fairly simple – just stop using
products that promote it. Join the movement to save thousands of animals a year
by stopping animal testing.
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