Is Animal Testing All That Bad?

Is Animal Testing All That Bad?

A lot of people think that animal testing is bad, and that animals have rights too, and blah blah blah. Well, the truth is that animal testing has helped the medical field tremendously since the 1950s.Here are the pros of animal testing. Between 1950 and 2004, deaths from stroke and heart disease in the U.S fell by 72% and 63%. Also, AIDS related deaths in the U.S have fallen a big 70% between 1995 and 2005 alone due to animal testing! My point is, that no matter what you think you hear, animal testing is a good thing. Take years of primate study, for example. Many people think that it has just been a waste of time and has been killing off a lot of animals due to HIV. The truth is that HIV is hard to deal with because it manages to fool the body’s immune system. However,animal research has helped us identify the virus and has ultimately allowed us to make therapies that have saved millions of lives. Now most of you are probably thinking, well, this is great and all, but what about the animals? That’s the next thing.

You may think that research is done on cats, dogs, guinea pigs, birds, and primates right? Actually, more than 80 out of every 100 animals used for research are rats, mice, and rodents, and that only 1 out of every 1,000 animals are either a cat or a dog. Also, the animals don’t suffer at all. In reality, most of the research that is done on animals is nothing more than taking a simple blood sample, changing diets, or giving a small injection. If a further procedure is necessary, then they will give the animals pain relief or anesthetics. Finally, animals are treated humanely as possible. Many of the animals that are used for big operations survive. There is rarely ever a casualty. Not only that, but the USDA has set government regulations governing the use and care of animals that are used for bio medical research. Even experts are saying that animal testing is safe and very important to medical research.

Delmas Luedke, the manager for Spiritual Care at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle and a member of an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee states that, “ Animals used for research purposes ought never to be treated with disregard, nor should they be used frivolously. We must continue to honor all life and continue to use our best judgments and scientific techniques in minimizing the suffering of those animals (and humans) that make it possible, through appropriate research, to combat the medical problems that confront us” He states that we should continue to keep testing on animals and to keep treating them safely and humanely. So, in conclusion, animal testing is vital to medical research and causes little to no damage at all to the animals themselves. Hopefully in the future, animal testing will help us to find more cures for most of the medical problems that plague us today.

Foundation for Biomedical Research. "Animal Experimentation Is Vital for Medical Research." Proud Achievements of Animal Research. Washington, DC: Foundation for Biomedical Research, 2008. Rpt. in Animal Experimentation. Ed. Cindy Mur. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2004. At Issue. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 8 Oct. 2012. http://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/how/myths-and-facts/ Luedke, Delmas. "Animal Experimentation Is Sufficiently Regulated." Animal Experimentation. Ed. Helen Cothran. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2002. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Ethics of Using Animals in Research." Seattle Post-Intelligencer20 Apr. 2000. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 11 Oct. 2012.