Since 500 BCE, numerous animals have been used as tools for the benefit of human society. Today, an estimated 17–100 million animals are confined in laboratories every year, born for the sole purpose of serving as a test item.
Is animal experimentation the best way of ensuring the safety of commercial products and medical treatments for humans?
Although the federal Animal Welfare Act (enforced by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)) is believed to have strict regulations which would prevent the mistreatment of animals, only 5 percent of animals in our nation are protected by it. This means the other 95 percent, including birds, rats, and mice bred for research, can be irrationally tortured.
One example of the exploitation of animals in 2010 is the 97,123 animals who had to withstand pain while being tested without anesthesia. Animals have no Bill of Rights to protect themselves, so it is not a crime to inflict pain on them if they are unprotected by the government; this encourages scientists to continue their experiments.
Animal testing has risen up to 73 percent in the past 15 years, according to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which means more animals are suffering. For instance, many mice have been killed right after birth if they had undesirable features that they inherited from their parents—who had those characteristics because they were experimented on.
It has been proven that animals can experience emotions, and more importantly, pain. They are living with thoughts just like ours. Although they don’t share our way of living, we have no right to control their lifestyle. It is unjustifiable to perform a harmful exercise or experiment on humans—so why is the suffering of animals widely accepted?
Animals share oxygen with the human race, and were placed on this Earth for a reason. To drown them in such a hostile environment violates their living rights and destroys their healthy mentality. In addition, there are many unnecessary experiments conducted that do not benefit people medically, which wastes money that could be used for other research. It is expensive, and unreliable; only 6 percent of drugs that have passed on animals have been successful on humans.
If animal experimentation is inefficient and inhumane, why are we doing it? Are the lives of other species less important than ours? Our knowledge of medicine and the human anatomy has advanced progressively over the centuries, with just a little help from our lab creatures, but only a few serve to impact our lives now. Is animal experimentation really necessary for us to continue our civilization?