Animal Testing

Animal Testing

A family in Pennsylvania lost their dog. One day, they saw a photo of the dog, Pepper, in a newspaper. A dealer was mentioned in the article. The family tracked down the dealer who had their dog. It took much time and effort to get information from the dealer, but eventually, he admitted that he had sold their pet to a research facility. The family quickly called the research facility so that they could bring Pepper home. Unfortunately, Pepper had died the day before while on the operating table (Using animals for research volume #2 pg. 93-94). Animal testing has been dated back to the late 1800's; more than 200 years ago that scientists started to test on animals (wikipedia.org). The first people to test on animals were Cohen and Loew in 1984 (wikipedia.org). Most companies who do test their products on animals do so to determine its side effects of and make sure there is no severe problem. Scientists test on all animals, from monkeys to rats, but primarily mammals (wikipedia.org). Animal testing is a dilemma because it harms animals, and has changed the world in many ways by killing animals and people protesting about animal rights.

Testing on animals is a big conflict throughout the world. Many animals do die on the operating table because scientists test on animals. Some scientists test for Biomedical research, which is done to study living organisms, cure diseases, produce vaccines, and produce antibodies (Patterson pg.20). Scientists tested on 1,101.958 mammals (not including rats and mice) in the US in 2004 (wikipedia.org). After animals are tested, they live in laboratories within shoe box-size enclosures, like small cages (barryyeoman.com). It harms the animals and some die when scientist tests on animals. For example, Pepper, the dog from the Pennsylvania family died because a scientist tested on their dog. Animals used in the classroom for dissection purposes are from the wild, purposely bred, taken from pounds and shelters, or stolen. They are recycled into other experiments or killed (Exploring animal rights and animal welfare using animals for research volume #2 pg.87)

Another risk associated with animal testing is that since animals are drastically different than humans, side affects on animal may not occur in animals or vice versa. For example, a monkey is tested with