Essay On Animal Experimentation In The Modern Day

Animal Experimentation, necessity of life or relic of the past? Animal Experimentation has been recorded as far back as 322 BC by Ancient Greek physicians. The Greeks would use the animals both living and dead in order to learn through experimentation and study. One form of experimentation that was conducted was surgery methods to increase the survival chance for human patients. This did not only continue but it became a huge step for science as people learned more on human anatomy than ever previously known. However in recent years it has come under heavy criticism for being inhuman and cruel. Now the question people including scientist ask themselves is it worth it?

Animal experimentation in the modern day is a very broad field from lotion, to hair products to testing medical drugs. Since animal experimentation has been around since before the common era it is safe to say that animal testing has been almost everywhere, in most industrial fields they test their product on animals first so they won't release a faulty product and seem less credible or lose part of their customer base. Animal testing has helped shape several different industries such as pharmaceuticals, food industries, drugs, even Hope's of growing new organs. In pharmaceuticals animal experimentation takes form through hair products such as shampoos, dyes, lotions and sunscreen. Through food they found new ways to raise animals so they produce more meat at a quicker pace allowing than to be a steady source of nutrition. Drug experimentation is at an all-time high as scientists test multiple drugs in Hope's to combat once incurable diseases. With growing new organs it can be shown through a mouse that was used to grow an ear, this brought hope for other organs more vital ones may be made through other animals or even humans. Although not everyone sees animal experimentation in a positive light.

Some groups fine animal experimentation, both repulsive and unnecessary. Most of them don't have any effect on the use of animal experimentation. Group such as Peta, the national anti-vivisection society, and cruelty free international are all huge groups who oppose the use of animal experimentation. They speak out against animal experimentation, and in society it is seem as almost a norm to be against animal experimentation since they see it directly correlating with animal cruelty. This has led some companies to sell products that haven't been tested on animals but they are both more expensive and less in demand than the larger companies who do use animal experimentation. The truth is the common man doesn't care about weather something is animal tested or not, they simply feel bad about it when they think about it but continue to ignore it after. As one would say ignorance is bliss so is the fact that the bar of soap on your counter was from a batch that was thrown in the eyes of an animal in order to test if it would cause blindness. People don't think about it since it's easier not to, and if they do care than they don’t talk they act.

One group that has been very vocal about their opposition to animal testing is the British-based group “animal justice project” who often speak up against such experiments. They provide many insightful points such as “More than 100,000 humans are killed yearly by prescription drugs that passed animal testing. Animal research is not the final phase, 90 percent of drugs that pass the animal tests fail in human trials. So if we have to test on humans to be accurate, can we not skip out the middle monkey?” This does raise a good point that if we focused more on human based testing the results would be not only more effective, but it also raises a fair point as to why animal testing is needed at all. Were most alternatives fall short is that it would severely impair scientific research however mass human testing seems as if it would likely be so much better and accurate making one wonder why it hasn’t been done.

Mass human testing likely hasn’t become a thing due to the lack of people willing to be put through such tests. Not only that but many points can be brought up against using human testing as well. One would imagine the idea of being pumped full of potentially harmful or lethal chemicals a good deterrent. Another fact is that the amount of people who die from animal tested drugs are about the same as human tested drugs. This brings up the fact that if both are equally effective, why wouldn't we use animals in order to preserve and extend human life. At this point the argument from it's wrong turns into a simple matter of opinion taking away from the credibility of the movement. This means organizations will do whatever brings them more income and animal experimentation is much cheaper than human testing. Due to these facts it’s a given that mass human testing will not occur anytime soon, if at all unless the law gets involved. Even if they did this would cause the prices of many consumer goods to skyrocket and no longer be available to the majority of lower class citizens. With no clear, effective and affordable way to get rid of animal experimentation it is more than likely that animal experimentation will be around for longer than most of us will live, as it has also been around for much longer than we have.